The start of a 10mm ACW project?

[Techno]

Terrific stuff Theo !
Cheers - Phil.

[Duke Speedy of Leighton]

This is looking great! 
Now what are the other 5000 going to look like?

[Theo]

I just ordered a whole bunch of them mate so I will get to them soon as they arrive! 5 packs of RM8 and 2 of RM9 so that makes for 210 infantry. Three to a base for Regimental fire and fury, that's 70 bases right there. Add to that a command pack so another 10 bases for a total of 80 infantry. Also got a pack of guns, some cavalry and two packs of flags. Can't wait.

Now to finish this little lad I started for this thread.

[Theo]

And here is the finished article. Thanks for bearing with me during the painting of this test fig.

[goat major]

Fantastic !

[fred.]

Really nice -

How are you taking the close up photos, they seem very crisp and well lit?

[Theo]

Cheers lads; I can't wait to get started on them proper.

Fred;
I have an ancient camera mate a Fuji Finepix 5600 and as you can see I don't use any sort of tripod or specially prepared photo booth. I just snap a shot of the mini on my painting desk. Maybe it's the settings I use on the camera? I enable the macro function, the setting at A (aperture), disable the flash, place the camera 10cm or so away from the figure, steady it on the desk and snap away. I don't think I am a particularly good photo taker to be honest, quite the opposite; I only stumbled on these settings after much experimentation. I regret I can't be more helpful; I do hope the description of what I do helped a bit?

[Techno]

You do yourself an injustice Theo.
Very crisp and clear photo's !
How are you lighting the wee chap ?
Cheers - Phil.

[Theo]

Phil I have a lovely white light lamp thingame I got a couple of years ago. It also has a lift off lid which then allows you to use it as a magnifier but while I was hoping it would help my painting when I bought it, in practice I have never used it as it enlarges EVERYTHING ones brush included! lol It did make for half an hour filled with laughter though when a local wargamer mate, during a painting session insisted on using it with predictably dire results! lol

[Techno]

Thanks Theo.....Very interesting....It seems to diffuse the light in a very natural way...Like it !
Works particularly well !
Cheers - Phil.

[Theo]

After some playing around with the bases and more careful planning of the project I asked Leon if I could change/add to my last order assuming it hadn't been cast yet and the top fellow was kind enough to indulge me. The idea is I wish to stick with the marching and advancing pose for now. This will not only make my painting easier but it will also allow me to use the cavalry/zouaves etc. from the upcoming ACW range.

Contents of my order became:
7 packs of ACW RM8 (marching), 
2 packs of RM11 (command),
5 packs of RM13 (advancing),
1 pack of RM16 (casualties)
and
2 packs of ACW flags (Union State and National)

Rules used will be Regimental Fire & Fury. I also considered Guns at Gettysburg as I love General de Brigade and British Grenadier and I even play their WW2 rules Panzer Grenadier. In the end I went with Reg. F & F because I thought it would be easier to play in 10mm with stand removal as opposed to marking figure casualties.

I found plenty of scenarios online for Reg. F & F and also for Johny Rebel 3 which can be converted to the former. From looking at these it is my understanding that I should aim for a Union army of at the very least 120 infantry stands with further command/cavalry/artillery etc. Does that sound about right?

Assuming anyone has done this sort of thing in 10mm with Reg. F & F would you mind sharing what base sizes you ended up using? One option would be to use the 15mm ones and just stick more figures on of course. Again any input from the esteemed fellow lead addicts out there?

That's it from me for now. I can't wait for the figures to arrive so I can get started.

[Dave T]

I've used the 1" by 7/8" brigade fire & fury base size and put around 6 figures on it.  I think regimental moved this to 1" by 3/4".

I started on four figures to a base, but this looked a bit "thin". 

I found 2 rows of 3 worked well for marching pose.  For advancing figures I liked something less parade ground, so 6's but with the occasional base of 5 or 4 gives a good overall impression of some losses and slight loss of formation on the advance.  For confed bases I made the line spacing less regular, which felt suited them.

If you do go for 6's paint thne base before gluing as its difficult to reach the middle with figres on! This may seem obvious, but no guesses how I remembered this.

Its all a matter of taste, I spent some time with bases, figures and blu-tack  trying out different combinations to see how it looked when the bases were all ranked up.

Command stand I used a front rank of officer and 2 drummers, 2 flags on the back rank, though I'm not sure if the flags shoud be ahead of the drums?

I've just hit the 540 figure mark,  660 to go for my target forces!

good luck, with the project, Dave T

[Theo]

Many thanks for the suggestions and advice Dave. I guess some experimentation is in order for me as well.