"Newbie 10mm query" Topic

I'm new to this period having played some Battle Cry boardgames. I'm thinking of extending the board game into a miniatures game with 10mm figures on a hex mat etc.
There seem to be quite a lot of 10mm ACW minis available. Pendraken look good to me – the new range. I wonder if they might be a one stop shop for my needs. Am I right in thinking the range is a bit limited in uniform styles? I wonder if this would matter at this scale.

Any other suggestions/recommendations welcome!

I just started ACW in 10mm late last year and I went with the new Pendraken line. The figures are beautiful and Leon is great to deal with, so I highly recommend them.
As for the one stop shop, they seem to me to have all you would need, including auxiliaries. About uniforms, I think they cover just about everything, including the Iron Brigade. What is it you were missing?

Good luck with your project!

I do ACW in 6mm, 15mm, 28mm and 54mm – and the only thing that stops me from doing 10mm is that my wife would shoot me dead if I added another scale – the 15mms are mostly about 25 years old

If I was starting again, 10mm is a great scale to go with – and I think the Pendraken line has just about everything you will need; remember, 90% plus of ACW troops had vdery generic uniforms

I went with OG because I do not like individually mounted figures for this time period but that is a matter of personal choice.

Consider Bill Moreno's Crackerline Miniatures line of
10mm. Figures are really nicely sculpted and look
great when painted.

Pen darken get my vote, I stared collecting and painting them earlier this year.

Check my blog

link

If you want to pick just one line (although I find sticking to it is like just eating one chip) then Pendraken's "new" line is definitely the way to go. Well sculpted, lots of variety, and very thorough, and with great Pendraken prices and service. If you want a true shoulder-to-shoulder look, then their advancing poses still fit on a 5mm frontage, although the marching poses are a bit problematic on that small of frontage.

One added advantage is that the new Pendraken line falls on the small/average side of 10mm figures, which means that you can mix in figures from the excellent, but still small and growing, Cracker Line miniatures. They are coming out with artillery this summer (I think?) and from what I saw of the greens it would be a great idea to use them, even if you go with Pendraken for other things.

The new Pendraken line would also mix well with GHQ (small, pretty pricey, but excellent quality for the most part), Starfort (small range, but useful, especially for adding some extra poses or limbers and horse holders), and even the old 10 High range for bulking out (older sculpts, but very cheap).

They unfortunately don't fit so well with the nice new Blaze Away line, which are a bit larger both in height and bulk, but their specialty figures can easily be used.

Cheers,

Christopher

We've still got the limbers and the Zouaves in strawboater to come, so hopefully we'll have those sooner rather than later. Other than that, I think the range is pretty complete (as much as a range ever can be!)

Give me a shout if I can help with anything though.

Artillery is in the mould right now and will be in house by middle of June and up on the site. Along with them I have infantry in frock coats firing and at right shoulder shift. As in all my groups of infantry, there will be multiple poses within each.

Leon is REALLY helpful- if you have any query just drop him a line

Thanks guys – really helpful information.

Love the Pendraken ACW figures but I started on the older range first which are a bit bigger. So I plan to go with Blaze Away and the older Pendraken figures for ACW.

Having said that, I did purchase several of the new Pendraken 10mm ACW figures shortly after they came out. If anyone is interested I would like to sell them all as a package deal with a bit of a discount and postage free in the U.S. I am willing to work with folks overseas.

I have the following packs

x2 ACW-23 Iron Brigade w/ Command
x2 ACW-9 Confederate Foot Type 1 Firing
x5 ACW-7 Confederate Foot Type 1 Advancing
x2 ACW-33 Union horse holders
x2 ACW-35 Standing horses
x3 ACW-15 Confederate foot command, standing
x3 ACW-16 Confederate foot command, advancing
x2 ACW-29 Dismounted cavalry in kepi (Standing Firing only)
x7 ACW-27 Union cavalry, inc. command
x5 ACW-11 Confederate foot, marching, type 1

I was building forces to do several first day of Gettysburg scenarios. lol

Send me an email if interested to

Duane@SyrHobbsWargames.com

thanks all
Duane

I've got a page with links to all* of the 10mm ACW manufacturers on my website, and a load of photo's comparing many of them as well

link

Hope its useful

tim
* I think!

Another recommendation for Pendraken. As well as being a good quality and range of figures, their customer service is excellent. They also listen to gamers on what figures they would like to see.

Pendraken and also Kalistra's which are beautiful.

Kallistra's new figures are indeed very nice – but a word of warning! They are so large that they do not fit with any other 10mm scale line – so if you pick them you have to go all the way with them. It's a shame.

Surely that means they are not 10 mm then!

I think it looks like most 10mm ACW troops are in sack coats. Do any of the infantry in these lines come in frock coat?

I'm getting interested in the early war, and it looks to me like there were more frock-coated troops than sack or shell ('course I could be completely wrong too!)

Some of Crackerline's newer figures are in frock coats.

I just received artillery and crews from Crackerline.

Look great, probably even better after painted !

Crackerline are excellent figures. Very nicely sculpted! I know they were going to come out with frock coats. Also GHQ has some troops in frock coats too!

I have infantry in Frock Coats Marching and Firing in stock. I will be updating the website this evening. They are as my other groups with 4-6 poses in each group. Twelve figures sell for $ 4.00 each. The artillery was so popular that I am almost out of stock before I even got it on to my site. That being said I am adding the guns to my next mould which will include a second crew running up the gun and a limber team at the gallop. Gun, 8-barrel assortment and four man crew are also $ 4.00.

Barrels include:

10 Lb Parrott Gun M1863 with no muzzle swell
3" Ordinance Rifle
M1841 6 Lb Gun
14 Lb James Rifle
M1857 12 Lb US Napoleon
M1857 12 Lb CS Napoleon with no Muzzle Swell
6 Lb Wiard Rifle
12 Lb Whitworth

crackerlineminis.com
ACWBill@aol.com

E-Mail me directly if you don't want to wait for the site update. I will invoice you via Paypal.

That's great! Thanks ACWBill – and thanks for the pointer to Crackerline…

Wow! You get all 8 barrels with the gun carrage? Sounds awesome!

ACW Bill do you have a supplier in the UK?

No UK supllier, but I will ship to UK. The price for shipping to UK is usually around $ 6.00-9.00 USD

After years of building up my Ancients, Dark Age, and Medieval DBA/DBM armies I too will begin a 10mm ACW project (like the Alan Parsons Project it will be complex, intense, and enigmatic, for the "one who must be obeyed" aka the wife…but not enigmatic to me).

After many emails to several figure companies I'm 99% sure I'll go either 1) 100% with Cracker Line OR 2) disperse a majority with CL and supplement with Pendraken (new line) and Starfort. I've seen the pictures and asked about comparability and these three will appear to do the job for all arms of service (inf/cav/art). Conversely if CL expands its range it could provide a "one stop shop", which would be especially nice here in the US.

Either option will make me, in the words of a great Southern statesmen, "Happy Happy".

Crusader – I think you've picked a great way to start the ACW. One word of warning – although I really like the new Pendraken line, and they are generally compatible with CL and Starfort, I wouldn't put them on the same bases or in the same units. They are just a little bit heftier, and they also come with full packs and gear, which makes them seem even heftier … er. ;) You are probably already aware that their original marching pack has the musket on the left shoulder, but they have a new pack with right shoulder poses. However, by some quirk of sculpting, the "advancing" figures fit on a 5mm per figure frontage but the "marching" figures do not. Pendraken cavalry are also much larger than my GHQ cavalry, or the mounted commanders from CL that I have.

None of these are huge issues – I just wanted to let you know my experience.

Cheers,

Christopher

Well, I have been gaming and painting in 28mm for a number of years, but the Cracker Line miniatures and 6mmacw.com have got me wanting to do some mass battles in addition to the small unit tussles I have played for the last decade.

You should check out 6mmacw.com and crackerlineminis.com and check out the galleries. I am looking to fight out the late war battles in the west…….maybe even build some nice fortifications.

I am currently into 10mm Napoleonics right now, but my basing conventions for both periods I envision as being the same. If I am using Old Glory strips, are there any other manufacturers who can have their 10mm figures fitted at the same density of 5mm per figure as per old glory?

Well, that's a slight problem … the figures that fit on a 5mm frontage (also my preferred basing) are the "small" 10mm figures: GHQ, Starfort, Ten High, and now luckily the new Cracker Line miniatures (although I think you will have to be careful with some poses). However, the Old Glory figures are both a bit larger themselves, and also stand on a horribly thick strip-base, which makes them seem much larger. The "new" Pendraken advancing poses might work, but the "marching" poses will not, and all the other lines are too large to fit on a 5mm per figure frontage (yes, I've tried).

Cheers,

Christopher

Old Glory is unique in their presentation of strips for all of their 10mm lines. The use of Old Glory strips restricts the use of other figures to separate stands. I did try this and ended up selling off my painted OG ACW stuff. I use OG for Napoleonics and keep my OG figures on bases by themselves. My Cracker Line figures will fit between 6-8 figures on a base without looking like a cluster…. : )

I stick with 6 in for the most part. The mass effect is apparent with 6 figures. In general, almost any of the compatible 10mm lines look best around 6 per base. These are my own Cracker Line, Starfort, New Pendraken and on the big side of this group Magister Militum/Perrin/Noble.

ACW Bill, how big of a base are you using? 1 X 1?

Using 1 X 3/4" as required for Fire & Fury.

Thanks CATenWolde! A Finn who uses Cheers as a salutation? Remarkable!

I've talked to ACWBill and I'm confident I can figure out a way to use plenty of his CL, with Starfort. I'll be careful to consider what you've said with Pendraken (new). Leon P is a delight to contact. LOTS of great British humor, AND excellent advice. Bill of CL is also excellent to deal with.

Now I just need to get together with my ACW "mates" to get a combined order into CL / Pendraken and then paint, paint, paint LOTS of figures (a Union and CSA Corp in Regimental F n F will need, something like 1,000 figures each…assuming 6 Inf per base, 6-8 bases per regiment, etc for cav and art/ crews).

NOW the hard part, to agree upon rules. I'm a F n F Reg guy a couple others JR III. It will be like fighting in the ACW.

A Finn who uses Cheers as a salutation? Remarkable!

Even more remarkable, a transplanted American living in Helsinki who still uses "Cheers" … ;)

Sounds like you have a good handle on things, and you're right that Pendraken are top notch to deal with. Cracker Line will be expanding in various interesting ways this year I think, which is great news, and they do match up extremely well with Starfort. Good luck our group!

Cheers,

Christopher