"Starting a 15/18mm Union force." Topic

So a new year starts and it's time to move into another period with my wargaming. Obviously as I'm posting here it's ACW and in my case a Union force. The scale will be 15/18mm to fit in with other club members' collections and the chosen rules will be Fire & Fury at brigade level.

A lead pile has been acquired,

Plus some already painted that I've re-based

So off we go.
More on the start of this enterprise on my blog at Jabba's Wargaming

Tony.

Great post and thanks for sharing. I keep looking at the Blue Moon bags I have accumulated and wonder when am I ever going to get to those?

Thanks for inspiring me.

You are off to a great start! Nicely done

Nice – our group here in San Antonio TX (Lone Star Historical Miniatures – LSHM) is venturing into 28mm Fire & Fury Regimental -- now start painting!!!! Keep us posted.

I've been collectting ACW 15mm since mid-70s. I have a project in progress to replace the very earliest minis because they are true 15MMs and not 18MMs as we use now. I had been using Battle Honors, but they are all painted. I have set aside my OG in favor of Bluemoon. The project is moving along fairly nicely. I figure just about the time I see the light at the end of the tunnel Russ D. will bring out a new line of ACW 18MM figures. Just my luck.

Update on my growing force. Completion of the artillery and some thoughts on primers and scale for railway track. More on my blog at Jabba's Wargaming

Artillery park.

Rail track.

Tony.

So with the rail road track sorted out I needed a couple of 15mm scale rail road related buildings as this is one area the club was lacking. Back to Peter Pig I went and ordered a station and water tower from their AWI, ACW and western range.
A few nights work later and they were ready for the table last friday.

More on these at my blog Jabba's Wargaming

Tony.

Looks like you are soon going to have a great collection. You have got me very interested in the station building and water tower so I might be making a similar purchase soon.

I do query the choice of scale for the railway track. I note from your blog that you prefer the look of the figures with HOm (TT) scale track but wonder which is better on the tabletop overall. That is, wouldn't the N scale track look better (and be less intrusive visually and for play) once placed on the table with the buildings you acquired together with other scenery and figures en masse?

Discussed this with the other players on Friday. At some point you have to ignore ground scale and go with what looks right, otherwise your roads and tracks would be so narrow to look silly. For example at F&F ground scale a 3/4 inch wide wargame track would equate to 101 feet wide.
As I also mentioned in my blog I can get sensibly priced war games model rolling stock for this scale track.
There is also the fact it didn't look too bad on the table.

I agree that at "some point you have to ignore ground scale and go with what looks right": my roads (and doubtless those of most, if not all, other wargamers) suffer the same dilemma. I suppose I was curious to see how it fitted overall on the tabletop so thanks for the additional picture.

I understand price is also a concern and I know from a brief, and expensive, foray into model railroads that cost can quickly balloon once you start adding rolling stock let alone engines. Wargaming is a very inexpensive pastime when compared with model railroading. I think I'll just be buying some track at this stage.

Agreed Quaama. Mind you a 15mm western/acw locomotive from Peter Pig is £12.00 GBP plus postage with carriages from £4.50 GBP to £6.00 GBP each so an affordable bit of window dressing.
The track I got was flexible so I can bend it for curves etc. I drilled some small holes in a few sleepers so I could pin it in place on the terrain boards.

So next up were some Corps and Division command stands. For these I decided, as I am doing Union, that I would include the Corps and Divisional flags. Also I would make these flags removable so as to be able to represent different formations with these bases. I have given more detail on my blog at Jabba's Wargaming and here are the results. Figures by AB and Blue Moon.

Tony.

Next Update
Finally got round to starting on the lead pile of infantry. First up some AB figures I acquired surplus from another gamer.

These provide enough figures to represent a brigade of between 1050 and 1400 men depending of game scale being used (Brigade F&F)

I have produced a blog post on how I am painting my ACW infantry which can be found at Jabba's Wargaming

Tony.

Another unit completed. More AB figures with one Blue Moon in the mix.

more on the Blog

Tony.

Some bridges and rivers from TimeCast for my ACW project. The banks and tracks up to the wooden bridges were coloured to match my Hotz Mats tracks.

More about these on my Blog

Tony.

Cool stuff. You're doing a great job!

Further update.

Another Infantry brigade completed, this time all Blue Moon Figures.

Also the hasty fieldworks from TimeCast.

As well as the Fences from Ironclad Miniatures.

This gives me a Union force that currently looks like this.

More on these including paints used can be found at my blog Jabba's Wargaming

Tony.

Another update. A further Brigade, slightly different paint colours this time, some casualty/disorder markers and my attempt at snake rail fencing.

more information on the blog post at Jabba's Wargaming

Your attempt at snake rail fencing appears sucessful to me. Hope I can do as well.