Finished: 6mm ACW Cavalry, Generals and Artillery

 I finished the basing on this project on Sunday and took the photos yesterday, but ended up going down a bit of a rabbit hole of reading and forgot to do a post. Still, better late than never...

Warning! There are a lot of photos in this post. Some of them even show, rather graphically, that I failed to spot basing sand/grit which had managed to adhere to figures - I'll have to go back through and clean those up (the figures, not the photos).

Union

The Generals:

The Artillery:

The Dismounted Cavalry:

The Cavalry:

Confederates

The Generals:

The Artillery:

The Dismounted Cavalry:

The Cavalry:

What? You've made it all the way down here? I guess I'd better write something then.

For those who are interested, the figures in this post are all 6mm from Baccus Miniatures. A quick breakdown of what is on the bases:

Humans - 338

Horses - 306

Guns - 4

Limbers - 8

Paint Table Saturday 27 March plus Podcasts

Before getting onto the "Paint Table Saturday" part of this post, The goodies I mentioned ordering last Sunday have all arrived over the course of the week.

From North Star:

 From Warbases:

As you can see, I also bought some brushes to try out. I didn't take photos of the foam trays I'd ordered from Products For Wargamers because, let's face it, they're not really interesting enough to take photos of (well, not until they have figures in them).

6mm ACW Progress

Oh, yes, the real "meat" of this post. On Thursday I added the basing texture mix to all of the bases. As I was doing this, I realised when I got to the artillery and limber bases that ~I should have left the guns and limbers off. Fortunately I had only done one of each at that point, so I quickly removed the others - they'll be glued back on at the end.

I left them alone yesterday, to give the texture time to fully dry and adhere. Today I did the drybrushing:

The drybrushing step also acts to remove any loose grit and sand.

I'll be adding static grass to the bases tomorrow, then adding the guns and limbers back to the bases I'd removed them from. I'll need to dig out a couple of flags to add to some of the command bases.

Podcasts

I was remiss last week and forgot to post the podcast link. Which means you're getting two links today!

Last week's:

 

This week's:

 

Wednesday Workbench 24 March

 

It would appear that I have manged to get further along with things than I'd expected . I got the varnishing done today and have also got all the figures off the painting sticks and glued onto the bases. That means I will be able to start on the basing mix tomorrow, rather than on Friday.

Union

Confederate

Casualties, gabions and cannonball piles

Having painted all the casualties and gabions, I realised that I don't have room for them on the cavalry and artillery bases. I could, perhaps squeeze some casualties onto the mounted cavalry bases, but I suspect most will end up on the bases of future infantry additions (at some point I need to add some more to both armies).

Paint Table Sunday 21 March

 When I said last Saturday that I should have everything from my 6mm ACW project painted, varnished and ready for basing by this weekend I am sure that you expected me to get distracted and fail. Well, you were partly right. 

I didn't get quite as far as planned, but this time it wasn't the result of distractions. It was actually due to feeling crap for a few days after my Covid vaccine. However, I have bounced back and got plenty done over the past few days.

The equine casualties, limber teams and horses for the dismounted cavalry were finished this morning.

On Friday I took advantage of good daylight to finish clean-up of my US Paras. I started gluing them onto bases yesterday, but didn't quite have enough 25mm squares for NCOs; I haven't glued the 60mm mortars and crews onto bases yet as I haven't decided quite how I want to do them.

I've placed an order for some more bases (an assortment of what I might need). While I was "splashing the cash" I also ordered some more foam trays and some more US Paras - looking at the Chain of Command list I realised that I would probably want another rifle ssquad as a support option. As the LMG teams come in packs of two it made sense to add enough riflemen, SMGs and carbines for two squads. Of course, as I have two 60mm mortar squads, that would actually give me enough for two full platoons if I also bought another command pack...

This afternoon I started work on the remaining 6mm ACW bits. I finished painting the gabions and cannonball piles and made a start on the human casualties...

...and I've gone on to do a bit more on them this evening. There's not much left to do - flesh, hair, boots, belts, muskets and equipment. I should be able to knock that out quite quickly tomorrow.

Tuesday will see me cleaning my brushes and paint table, then sorting out the bases for the figures (and digging out the basing materials I used previously). Wednesday should be a day of varnishing everything and Thursday should see me gluing the figures onto bases. I can then add the basing mix on Friday. All assuming there are no distractions, of course!

Madaxeman Podcast #70

 I was going to post this yesterday but forgot! Oh, well, no harm with a slight delay.

In this episode we discuss:

• Aztec, Tlaxcallan and other central American armies as an option forwargaming
• Whether there are really just three "Biblical" armies (in terms of the figures)
• First opinions on the "O Group" rules

In "I'm Sorry, I Think You're An Arse" Adam takes the stage again to rant about the ongoing suggestion that the (historical) wargaming hobby is greying.

We also have Andy's quiz and the inevitable wittering and waffling about what the seven of us have been painting and buying.