Rebel Yell

As I've mentioned, I am over Napoleonics for a while. I spent more than a year concentrating on building up my armies without a period shift, which is almost unheard of for me. I'm positive I'll be back to it before long (I have two boxes of Perry Dragoons sitting on my desk), but I wanted to try something completely different.

American Civil War in 40mm. I got a chance to see the great Sash & Saber models at Historicon, but I resisted buying any until Barry Hilton suggested we might put on an ACW for Historicon next year. Now, we haven't even decided for sure to attend, but all it took was the idea (thanks for that). I have piles of books on the ACW, but no figures... until now. I ordered enough models for one regiment of 30 or so. I have only a vague plan of exactly what I want to do so far other than collect a few regiments. I'll go into the details as they develop, but for now I thought I'd share my experiment with gray.

All paints are Foundry except the sparing use of metallics which were GW Shining Gold, primarily for buttons, and GW Bolt Gun Metal for the bayonet, musket bits, belt buckles, etc...). The models were first undercoated with black spray paint. The flesh tones are based with Terracotta 37A, then built up with Flesh 5A-C.

Rebel One
Kepi: Slate 32A-C
Jacket: Slate 32A-C
Trousers: Spearshaft Brown 13A-C
Blanket: Terracotta 37A-C
Haversack: Boneyard 9A-C
Musket: Bay Brown 42A and 42C (only one highlight)
Musket Sling: Spearshaft Brown 13A-C
Canteen: Night Sky 62A-C with Bay Brown 42A+42C strap
All black highlighted with Charcoal Black 34B

(Click the photo for a larger image)

Rebel Two
Kepi: Night Sky 62A-C
Jacket: Granite 31A-C
Trousers: Night Sky 62A-C
Blanket: Boneyard 9A-C
Haversack: Rawhide 11A-C
Musket: Bay Brown 42A and 42C (only one highlight)
Musket Sling: Spearshaft Brown 13A-C
Canteen: Night Sky 62A-C with Spearshaft Brown 13A-C strap
All black highlighted with Charcoal Black 34B

(Click the photo for a larger image)

Rebel Three
Hat: Charcoal Black 34B over undercoat
Jacket: Night Sky 62A-C
Trousers: Slate 32A-C
Backpack: Charcoal Black 34B over undercoat
Haversack: Boneyard 9A-C
Musket: Bay Brown 42A and 42C (only one highlight)
Musket Sling: Spearshaft Brown 13A-C
Canteen: Spearshaft Brown 13A-C with Black strap
All black highlighted with Charcoal Black 34B

(Click the photo for a larger image)

Rebel Four
Hat: Spearshaft Brown 13A-C
Jacket: Stone 57A-C
Trousers: Night Sky 62A-C
Blanket: Boneyard 9A-C
Haversack: Arctic White A+B (only one highlight)
Musket: Bay Brown 42A and 42C (only one highlight)
Musket Sling: Spearshaft Brown 13A-C
Canteen: GW Boltgun Metal with Bay Brown 42A+42C strap
All black highlighted with Charcoal Black 34B

(Click the photo for a larger image)

I don't think there are any 'wrong' choices here. There were four 'official' shades of gray issued from various CSA depots and about a zillion variations based on wear, replacement with local cloth, and captured enemy equipment. Most of the unit will be be painted using one of the schemes above (or a combination thereof), with about one in four sporting one of the alternate colors above. The result will be a very dynamic unit with lots of variety, but it should still look like a unit rather than rabble. Many Confederate units were far more uniform than often depicted on wargame tables.

More on this project as it unfolds. Hopefully this was helpful (I tried to search the net for ACW units painted with Foundry paints to get a head start and found NOTHING). This should serve as an example the type of thing I'm going to try to do in the future so the site is more than just pretty pictures!