Blue bellies

 So I got my plastic perry ACW, I love these guys, this is from the very first plastic perry box, the box that kinda started the whole hard plastic hisotric thing, It was a good choice, quite simple uniform, some ability to use it for both sides(tho it's not 100% kosher) Really you could do an entire division for both sides with just sevral of this box. Only needing to add metal guns(now plastic guns are out)

You do notice it was perrys first dip into plastics, the some of the figures are kinda "odd" on their sides were things are "streched" How ever, they will hold up great. It apears the figures just lends it self to good painting, generaly the best ACW figures I've seen painted have been these, either as union or more often rebs. I think it has to do with the folds on the jackets and trousers that just makes it easy to get the most out of your paint job. I feel theise look great, I feel I got a good dark blue and good light blue for the union. The jackets are Foundry Union blue triad and a extra highlight of festerblue from coat d arms.

The trousers are all coat de arms, shade hiduous blue, mid is light blue, and just a tiny bit of lighlight of bravarian blue.

The figures look good, but are kinda a cop out, making one box useable for both sides, means some are shell jackets other sack coats. If you want a full unit in either one, you need like 4 boxes I think, That would give you 2 union sack coated, and 2 reb shell jackets.

Also halfish of the box is fireing line, so if you want 30+ regiments you have to always buy 2 boxes. That should give you 36 marching, and I think 30-32 fireing, that is if you use some of the officer models as standard barers. So yes, you notice it's the first plastic set from the perries, but they are still some of the best figures to paint if you want them to look good.

 I love the colors I got, Great 3D effect.

I want all my ACW units to be 30+, simply because I feel if they are smaller they do not get the "long thin line" effect, 28mm figures are fat, and so hard to get the feel that it is infact a thin 2 deep line, it's easier to get that feel in 15mm. At 24  figures it's ok, but really you need 30+ for it too look "right"

Bluecoats

 So I got some blue moon ACW, they are very good, I had started on some BH ACW, but they are no were near as good at these.

 Lots of little details, like som have coffey cups on thier napsacks, diffrent styles of bears and facial hair. I like the colors I've used here, 3 colors on the trousers, 3 colors on the coat.

 3 colors on the musket to,

 This is gonna be a 27 strong unit.

Union 28mm

So started on my union, I had only one box of perry figures, so I devided it into two units, both of 18 figure.

I'm quite happy with them, but it's hard to get the dark blue to look as good as the lighter grey and brown of the rebs, but atleast the light blue trousers turned out well.

And for those that read the last post yesterday, I have indeed started one of my possible new projects.

ACW still comming along

So finished another Union regiment, I'm now up to 4 of those, and 3 rebs.

I've now set half the money I need for the hauge figures.

I've also spent some pocket change on a couple of more pendraken units.

Lines of union infantry.

More ACW

So I'm back to 10mm ACW, finished a reb regiment I had half done for like 3 weeks.
I also did a reb battery, but I suck at painting guns, so I hid it behind some cotton smoke.

I now got 180 infantry and 1 battery.

I still got enough figures for another reb regiment and 3 more union regiments, pluss some command figures.

Union v. 2.0

I think I've found the right blue now, it's still a little light, but going darker would mean loosing to much detail, infact some detail has allready been lost with this shade, but not to much.
Most importantly there is now a clear diffrence from jacket to trousers.

Tomorrow I'll go at the rebs, trying to find the right gray.

The detial on the folds on the arms are very nice I think,



One thing i've notised is just how natural the figures are, there is always the lure to figure makers to do lots and lots of folds, becasue folds are easy to get to look good, it's much harder blending shades when there are no folds, yet these figures do not have an excess of fold, only on the bent arms do we see any amount of folds, as it should be. And even those folds are no way excessive.

Union 40mm v.1,5

So did another two figurs today, tried a diffrent take on the jackets, but again, to light.
It it slightly darker tho.

Look at this foureyes, what is a nerd doing with a gun, get that gun away from him before he takes revange on the jocks.

I must say, the faces have so much character, really they are just a joy to paint.

I'm gonna try another go at the blue later to try and get it just right.

40mm Union

So while I was painting my 10mm ACW I felt a hole in my heart.
After painting some 200 28mm Ancients, the 10mm are a little simple, while I love the look of massed ACW figures, the painting is very mechanical, asebly line stuff, fill in the colors, ad some easy highlights, And I do 30 at a time, it left me a little cold.

Then I rememberd I had like 100+ 40mm ACW, they were for another project that is now dead. But I still have them.
So I thought it was a fun idea to just paint some of them, and really putting in the effort, not havin to think about "oh I have to finish so and so many figures, I have to hurry" ect.

This is painting for painting sake, not having to finish to finish, there is no goal, I'll just paint, and one day, I might have enough to do a small skirmish game. But the game is not the goal, it's simply iceing on the kake, the goal is to paint something VERY WELL.

To do this I only paint two figures at a time, I did two so I can paint two diffrenct poses at the same time, it also lets me paint one figure while the other dries, if I only painted one, I would have to stop up all the time, while waiting for the paint jo dry.

When I did this I made the consius choice to paint the union jackets in a lighter color then what is historic. I did this for one reason and one reason only, it's more rewarding to paint, when you paint very dark blue, alot of the effort you put in, gets lost, it's very hard to spot all the details on dark blue paint, So you might spend 2 hours painting 5 layers of diffrent dark blue, and in the end, most of the effort won't show up.
It's much easier to get a good looking paint job on mid or light blue, in the ned, the resault was mixed.



So here's the figures, I'm 95% happy with them, I went all out with this, almost everything has 3 or more layers. Trousers got 4 layers, jackets got 3 layers, kepi got 3 layers, blanket got 4 layers, face got 3 layers and one layer of wash, musket stock got 3 layers, hair got 3 layers.
The only things that got only two layers is leather, musket metal and shoes.
It's EASLY my very very very best paint job EVAH, but why only 95% happy?

Well the jacket is to light, I said I was going to paint them light, but the jacket is to close to the trousers in color. The problem was simply lack of a shade. You see I found a great base coat, it was just dark enough to use as shade, but then I missed a shade, I have like 8 differnt blues, but still I was missing a mid shade, so I had to use a lighter color then I wanted, which left the whole jacket to light. it still looks good, but the diffrence between the jacket and trousers is to small.


The musket got 3 wood colors, and two metal colors, it got gun metal base with chain mail highlights.

I'm very happy with the faces, first a dark flesh, then a flesh wash, then I did the eyes, then a main mid color flesh and finnaly a very light highlight flesh.


The S&S faces ae great, so much character, and very easy to paint.

So this was very fun to paint, except for the jackets lightness I'm extremly happy with these.