The ACW projects continues. And expands…. Many moons ago I bought some Lancashire Games ACW Union cavalry as I liked the figure. I then sold them! I then bought some more (because I still liked the figure!)
Now, Lancashire Games are currently revamping their ACW range and the new figures are really rather nice. But they are marketed as 18mm and they are way bigger than any of the Minfigs and old Peter Pig I have. But the old range are just about the right size (a tad bigger but fine on the table) and now that the range is ‘Archived’ they have been selling off some of the packs on eBay. I managed to secure six assorted packs (2 x ABP140 Marching Infantry, 1 x ABP141 Advancing Infantry,1 x ABP142 cavalry and 1 x ABP146 Artillery crew and guns) for the bargain of £38 and added another three bought direct at a reduced price. This lot was kindly picked up for me at Derby by Simon T (Goat Major) and when combined with other Lancashire stuff acquired from Iain Burt (Essex Boy) is quite a lot of figures!
The other bag at bottom right is mostly Peter Pig (collected from SELWG by EB) and is assorted casualty and low ammo type figures. And an Essex ambulance.
This should keep me going for a while!
And to show I’ve not just been adding to the project I’ve actually painted a few more of the Minifigs. As mentioned in the last ACW related post where I finished off the Zouaves I had decide that Humbrol 104 Oxford Blue was a good match to that used on all my old Minifigs. So I decided to paint up a full unit using that. And now I’m not so sure…
It’s pretty close and may be affected by the varnish yellowing on the old figures but although it would do I’m really not sure it’s the right blue! But I’ll do the remaining Minfigs I have and the Zouaves I need to match and then additions like the Lancashire games stuff will be done differently. I think… Maybe the Vallejo Dark Prussian Blue. Maybe something else…
And I finished rebasing a few more low ammo markers and officer figures…
It’s never ending…
You’ve picked up some cracking deals
Blue is blue mate, don’t worry about it. Unless all the units had just been to the dry cleaners at the same time I think some variance in shade is expected!
Blue is a forgiving colour, since changing to Xtracolor XDFF matt varnish, yellowing is a thing of the past!
have you tried revell 56 blue instead of the humbrol 104 , i use that all the time now
Have you got any pics online I could look at?
Don’t worry about the shade of blue. About twenty years ago a city renovation project targeted an old warehouse in New Haven, CT. Before bringing on the bull dozers a group of people sent to check the building for “stuff” found a most interesting artifact from the Civil War. It was a bolt of cloth used for jackets and coats. The thing which is on point is that as the bolt of cloth was unraveled it revealed darker and deeper shades of blue. The outside cloth was almost an ocean blue and people who study such things pointed out that the dyes used were very subject to oxidation and subsequent lightening. Even with a single unit uniform colors could vary dramatically.
On another note, the Foundry blue color works as does the Vallejo deep Prussian blue. For anyone who criticizes your choice you can simply as “Wuz you dere, Charlie?”
That’s useful. It’s not so much getting an ‘historically accurate’ blue I’m concerned with. I’m happy with variance. It’s finding a blue that I’M happy with as giving the right effect on the table. I’ve just used a GW blue wash over the Humbrol blue I used and I’m quite happy with that, though I don’t want the added step! I’ve also got the Howard Hues Union Blue to try as well as that looks OK too. Once they are all based the same and on the table no one will notice anyway!