American Civil War 2022

The Plan
It's time to return to the ACW which I first attempted in 1999. Back then I started building 18 man units for Principles of War and produced too many Union and not enough Confederates. Although these units probably represented the pinnacle of my painting ability, I didn't like the bases and I sold them off (for quite a lot of money, so not all bad).
Nowadays I'm better at planning projects. I did have a second aborted attempt in 2021 but I made a mistake with the miniatures I bought and inspiration failed me. I switched to the Crimean War however, and completed that project fairly quickly.
Armed with this experience I'm off to the USA again.
I want to produce two armies, Union and Confederate obviously, with 28mm miniatures. Each army will consist (to begin with) of six infantry units of 16 miniatures each, two cavalry units of 6 mounted miniatues, 6 dismounted miniatures and a horse holder each and two guns with 4 crew each. Commanders will be a main commander fielded as a 5 miniature group of mixed mounted and foot and a sub commander fielded as a pair of mounted miniatues.
I shall be using Wargaming, an introduction by Neil Thomas which contains a nice set of ACW rules.
All my miniatures are coming from the excellent Redoubt Enterprises ACW range.

Painting
It took me a while to decide how I wanted my colour scheme to look. In the end, I opted for a very dark blue for the Union as opposed to the dark, highlighted medium blue I'd used before.

Here are the paints I've used so far for the Union. These will cover all the basic blue Union troops, Zouaves and Berdan's Sharpeshooters will differ. I've mostly used Valejo paints.
Jackets, kepi Dark Prussian blue
Trousers, some canteens Deep sky blue, Sky blue Off-white strap
Belts, pouches, kepi peaks, bayonet scabbards Black
Blankets, socks, some canteens Coat D'arms Grey triad, Panzer grey, Tank blue grey, Slate grey.
Haversacks Bone white, Ivory
Muskets, canteen tops Flat brown
Brassy brass, Oily steel
Sword scabbards are either black with brass trim (officers) or steel (NCOs)
Bases from Warbases (80mm x 60mm x 3mm) and flags from Flags of War. I have some flags supplied from Redoubt made by Body's Banners, If I use them, I'll mention it. Flag poles are brass from eBay.

1st Michigan Infantry Regiment

The second Union infantry regiment.

The 166th Pennsylvania Volunteers

The third Union infantry unit.

The 6th Wisconsin Volunteers (Iron Brigade)

All my Union so far.

Everything so far.

I've only got a couple of days before the end of the year so I've decided to do my Berdan Sharpshooters in order to get them completed before 2023. they're skirmishers so there's only eight of them.

Berdan's Sharpshooters

My next Union infantry regiment is the 20th Maine. I've replaced the standard officer miniature with one of Joshua Chamberlain.

The 20th Maine were the first ACW miniatures I bought when I first attempted this project. Back then, I bought the regiment pack and added several more infantry packs to bulk it out.

The 20th Maine

Next up for the Union is the 54th Massachusetts, the famous coloured regiment from the film Glory.

The 54th Massachusetts

22.01.23 The union army so far.

My next Union infantry unit is the Irish Brigade.

The 88th New York Volunteer Infantry, The Irish Brigade

My final Union infantry unit is a Zouave regiment.

The 5th New York Volunteer Infantry, Duryée's Zouaves

All the completed union infantry units.

The final two Union Infantry are a pair of skirmishers. A Naval landing party and Garrard's Tigers, the 146 NY Volunteer Infantry.

My previous skirmish units were done on a single base which allowed for some elaborate scenery to be added.

Naval landing party

The 146 NY Volunteer Infantry Garrard's Tigers

I'm painting all my Union cavalry in a single batch as I have done with my Confederate regulars. There are two units here, the 1st Michigan, commanded by George Armstrong Custer and the 7th Cavalry. The 7th were not raised until 1866 so they're not really a Civil War unit, but these are my toys and I want the 7th.

1st Michigan Cavalry

7th Cavalry

All the Union cavalry.

The four guns on the right are for the Union.

One army commander, I'm using general Sherman, and two brigade commanders.

My previous commanders were more elaborate.

I bought a pack of civilians (and got a couple as freebies with an order) from Redoubt to add some period colour.

First up, I'll need a lot of fencing. These are plastic kit log fences from Rubicon. This is a single box's worth.

And some Rubicon picket fencing.

These gabions are from Debris of War. Whilst I was painting them I rebased my larger Empress ones as well.

This is a hay wain from Hovels. It's usable for many periods and settings but I'm putting it here since i painted it while I was doing this project.

Here are the completed armies.

December 2023 Update
I've decided I want ten infantry units per side and some more artillery. The Confederates are also getting another set of skirmishers.
First up is the US Marine Corps.

The flags are from GMB Designs.
US Marine Corps

I'm going to work on both the Confederate infantry units together. I'm beginning by painting all the twenty basic infantry miniatures in one go.

Then finishing with the command and the crew for a siege mortar.

Flags by GMB Designs.

4th North Carolina Volunteer Infantry

5th Virginia Volunteer Infantry

Another unit of Confederate skirmishers. I'm painting these to match the odd colours of my old Timpo 54mm plastic Confederates. (It's a tradition).

As a final addition, I've decided to increase the number of skirmish units on each side to four so that each brigade can have two. Both of these units, one Union and one Confederate, will be Zouaves to add some variation and glamour.
The union skirmishers will be the 10th New York Volunteer infantry and the Confederates will be the South Carolina Zouave Volunteers from Hampton's legion.
The Confederates are also going to get a fourth gun.

The South Carolina Zouaves

The 10th New York Zouaves

I need some more scenery too so I've bought four more Hovels buildings and an army camp site.

Twenty more sections of Rubicon plastic picket fencing.

My completed Union army

Painting
Clean uniform. I want one unit in regulation uniform. I've decided that it will be the 1st maryland, Band of Brothers since they were the 'pristine' troops in my old collection.
Once again, most paints are by Valejo.
Jacket, Coat d’arms Tank blue grey, Blue grey pale. Deep sky blue, Sky blue cuffs
Kepi Deep sky blue, Sky blue
Trousers and canteens Deep sky blue, Sky blue Off-white strap
Belts, pouches, kepi peaks, bayonet scabbards Black
Blankets, socks, Cavalry brown
Haversacks Bone white, Ivory
Muskets, canteen tops Flat brown
Brassy brass, Oily steel
Sword scabbards are either black with brass trim (officers) or steel (NCOs)
Bases from Warbases (80mm x 60mm x 3mm) and flags from Flags of War. I have some flags supplied from Redoubt made by Body's Banners, If I use them, I'll mention it. Flag poles are brass from eBay.

Here are my old Band of Brothers, followed by the new versions.

I damaged the state flag so I'm awaiting a replacement. This set of flags is from Redoubt.

I got a replacement state flag from GMB Designs.

The 1st Maryland regiment, the Band of Brothers

My second Confederate unit, Texans.

The 1st Texas regiment

My two Confederate units so far.

Everyone so far. It's starting to feel like I'm assembling armies now.

My third Confederate unit is the Virginia Military Institute cadets.

I gave my cadets historically innacurate white trousers this time around. They appear to have worn an all-grey uniform which is how I painted them the first time I did them but both Gods and Generals and The Horse Soldiers went with white so I took the opportunity to add some more variation to my Confederates.

My original cadets from the late 90s. My new lot didn't come with the distinctive cadet heads so I had to rummage around for normal kepi heads without beards. They were also missing their flags and field gun. I bought replacement flags from GMB Designs.

Everything so far at the end of 2022.

This is the first of my 'mixed uniform' Confederate units. These portray the traditional rag-tag look of the Confederate army. This first unit is the most decrepid with patched clothing. The next units will be mixed colours but still have decent uniforms.

The 11th Mississippi Volunteers

My final two Confederate infantry units are going to be mixed colours and uniform styles but not actually 'ragged'.

The 57th Virginia Volunteer Infantry

Both mixed colours units so far.

Everything so far.

The last of my Confederate infantry units.

The 2nd Kentucky Infantry Regiment

All the infantry units.

Both my Confederate skirmish units are going to be Louisiana Tigers.

Louisiana Tigers

My previous skirmish units were done on a single base which allowed for some elaborate scenery to be added.

I've re-jigged the Confederate army list to give them an extra two infantry units. Because both units are going to be mixed uniform, ragged troops I've decided to paint them together. Here are the troops, I'll do the officers, drummers etc. afterwards.

These are the officers and standard bearers etc.

All done.

Flags from GMB Designs.

18th Georgia Infantry

33rd Virginia Infantry

I'm starting with the 1st Virginia cavalry. I'm going to have more than I'd planned because of the packs containing six miniatures so one command pack and one trooper pack makes two units.
I'm also doing a set of six dismounted skirmishers to go with each mounted unit.
One of the units is being led by J.E.B. Stuart.