ACW painting part 1 -The first step is always the hardest

26 April 2022

I have taken two infantry units and two mounted cavalry units, both Union and Confederate from my collection of 15mm figures. To record progress, I am going to try out some picture styles and just for starters I'm going with the basics for the Union Infantry by blocking out the light blue trousers for a solid beginning and removing the background. They look very glossy at the moment but this will change as we add layers.

For the Confederate Infantry, I did the same light blue with the trousers and hats, also added some light and dark browns with a few grey Kepis with blue bands on them. This would also help them look less uniform. The base was too light so it got taken out of the picture, now with the base gone, I think it looks quite cool as an effect.

For the Cavalry bases, I have taken a different approach, in so much as I undercoated them in a mid-brown this was to avoid too much horse painting. So as with the Infantry bases, I began with the trousers and then moved on to the jackets, this was a quick and effective way to progress and it took about 30 minutes to do.

The Union above have been easy to paint so far, and the detail stands out really well and helps to pick out the painting lines. It’s the same with the Confederates below.

I think it’s been a good solid start. And these Peter Pig Figures are easy to handle and more importantly I can see the detail to paint the figure. It’s a very different process from painting the units in 6mm but I am enjoying it. More filling in and adding block colours next before applying a blackwash for the next layer of detail in Part 2.