How I Paint: ACW Union Infantry

[@user-mc4sq3fk5d]

Great video especially for a beginner like me.

[@KingMATTtheSuperior]

Thankyou I’m glad you found it helpful :)

[@drunkenirishmstr]

For the bed rolls, they were actually a tarred poncho that had the wool blanket rolled into it. I would used a 2 part German grey and one part black mix for the bed roll

[@KingMATTtheSuperior]

Thankyou, my more recent paint scheme have black/grey blanket rolls to represent the “tarred” look. I used to change the colours up to make the unit look a little more unique/ interesting on the tabletop 👍

[@michaelg.1786]

Looks great! Your painting approach is pretty much how I go about it for my ACW in 20mm though. 👍

[@KingMATTtheSuperior]

Thanks Michael!

[@brianfpp540]

Nice work, Andymac does the best civil war pieces i've seen.I am like yourself and use mostly grey primer for figures, if a piece has a lot of reds and yellows then i use white, all depends on the individual piece, but grey is good for the generic mass units.

[@KingMATTtheSuperior]

Thank you Brian I will check andymacs work out

[@toddjarman542]

Very nice mate awesome video 🥃🥃👍🏻

[@KingMATTtheSuperior]

Thankyou Todd

[@corvinuis]

thx for this matt i needed a bit of motivation to get through the union

[@KingMATTtheSuperior]

I’m glad you’ve found the video useful :) what union units are you working on?

[@corvinuis]

@@KingMATTtheSuperior 2 units of infantry 1x24 1x20 but have ordered 4 cannons from perry and brendans sharpshooters i have done 2 zouave units probably abit easier as they weren't a solid wall of blue

[@KingMATTtheSuperior]

Ah a nice amount of troops then! And yeah I’ve found Zouaves are easier to paint as they are more interesting if that makes sense?

[@corvinuis]

@@KingMATTtheSuperior would post u a pic if i new where to send it

[@KingMATTtheSuperior]

If you’re on Facebook I have a page you can post It on :)

[@basicminiaturepainting]

Really enjoyed this tutorial Matt

[@KingMATTtheSuperior]

Thankyou :)

[@TrevorMillin]

Great video for beginers. Thanks. One thing I didn't quite catch is what is the best wash to use on Union Civil war figures? (Also ones say from ICM, Masterbox in 1:35)?

[@KingMATTtheSuperior]

For Union I use a black wash as it’s a good base to highlight up from 👍

[@KingMATTtheSuperior]

For Union I use a black wash as it’s a good base to highlight up from 👍

[@TrevorMillin]

@ Thank you. Any specific brand and type/number you would recommend? Sorry for the Qs but I really am new at this with 68 yrs old.

[@KingMATTtheSuperior]

@@TrevorMillinI really like citadel washes from games workshop so I would recommend them. Army painter and Vallejo are great brands aswell

[@TrevorMillin]

@@KingMATTtheSuperior thanks kindly for your answers. I guess I'll try out with a black wash from Vallejo then as most of my newly bought acrylic paints are all from Vallejo.

[@Titus_Vespasianus]

Damn good video brother...wow, I'm impressed, truly...and no worries about "waffling..." I like a good length video...keep up the good work, look forward to the Confederates, and any others you produce...

[@KingMATTtheSuperior]

Thankyou I’m glad you enjoyed it! Will be working on the confederates at some point :)

[@WithHotLeadandColdSteel]

Good work!

[@KingMATTtheSuperior]

Thank you :)

[@yendub]

I love Dark Prussian Blue, I really do. I should know as I have been painting a 1,000 model Prussian 28mm army. However, I do believe that for ACW Union it is to blue. Myself, I used Vallejo Game Color Night Blue (72.019). Super dark blue.

[@KingMATTtheSuperior]

Yeah it’s a great colour and you’re probably right about it being too blue but I love the way it looks so that’s why I’ve kept going with it

[@leonleese4919]

I will have to Ryan that primer. Halfords is great for metal but plastics can be odd especially if it’s a bit on the soft side.

[@KingMATTtheSuperior]

I’ve recently tried colour forge primers and they seem a good option aswell.

[@marcellocolombarini1653]

Thank you👍🏻 Great work👏🏻👏🏻

[@KingMATTtheSuperior]

Glad you found it useful

[@KingMATTtheSuperior]

Thankyou :)

[@jamespowell5886]

Hi Andy Mac - where did you get the movement trays? I can only find mdf ones in 2 x 2?

[@KingMATTtheSuperior]

These movement trays are from Charlie foxtrott

[@tobybrock4684]

im an avid reenactor and have never seen white rifle sling for the union army. they were a brown leather. confedederate troops did have some white canvas slings. they were not popular thow and they tended not to use them.

[@KingMATTtheSuperior]

Thanks for the tip!

[@poncenroy]

I did the same and used Averland Sunset for hair, I late found Ushabti Bone makes a better blonde hair colour.

[@KingMATTtheSuperior]

Ah thanks I’ll give that a go

[@poncenroy]

@@KingMATTtheSuperior no worries, thought I'd mention it since I knicking you're ideas for my own union brigade. :p

[@KingMATTtheSuperior]

Any tips are welcome! Always learning when it comes to paint schemes I find 👍

[@thatguysmitty9715]

I've noticed a huge lack of 3D printable files for ACW wargaming online so I'm trying to model some to put in places like Thingiverse and Cults3D. Are these size models in "heroic scale"? Anything from a painting aspect that would be helpful to work into a model? (IE straps need to be wider, bayonets need to be thicker, stuff like that)?

[@drunkenirishmstr]

From what I’ve noticed that some have Perry miniature scale while others use heroic. I think if you use any 28mm size, you will get variants in height weight and body shape which in my opinion for display reasons would be neat. As for the accouterments that will definitely be noticeable as well as the differences in the weapons sizes

[@drunkenirishmstr]

If you make any acw miniature designs, please design a general john Buford and a general john reynolds. I am doing a battle of Gettysburg display at the museum where I work and am in need of those 2 individuals

[@KingMATTtheSuperior]

So Perry miniatures tend to be “true scale” but I’ve noticed the rifles tend to be abit chunky which i think is a good thing. Some 3d sculpts I’ve bought that are also true scale do have thinner rifles which seems to be harder to paint/ show details. Hope that helps?

[@drunkenirishmstr]

@@KingMATTtheSuperior it does help very much. as i stated the differences in height and build would be good. These would not be used for gaming they would be diplayed in a case and viewed from a distance not up close.

[@thatguysmitty9715]

@@KingMATTtheSuperior Super helpful. I put my first batch of Union soldiers on thingiverse, I'm gonna print some out see what needs tweaking when I paint them and hopefully find a good balance!

[@leonleese4919]

The more I look at your painting and the use of 28mm miniatures I may well settle on 28mm and build regiments from a specific brigade. Particularly Sharps Practice rules. (And my eye sight isn’t quite as good as it used to be☹️). I have a 6’’x 4’ tablespoons, which most sensible rule writers later for when adding a scenario to their rules . I just have the feeling that most gamers usually want to play the headline battles such as Gettysburg or Waterloo. Instead of 6’x 4’ A 6’x 9’ is more practical because the space used by the figures. ie the bases you show for infantry is over 40mm wide compared to a 15mm two figure base is 30mm plus about 4mm for the tray, at a guess. That is if you use 28mm figures for bigger games?

[@KingMATTtheSuperior]

When it comes to 28mm larger force games I think it’s hard to do on a 6x4. I’ve played a few sharp practice games and that’s worked fine on a 6x4 but anything like black powder or picketts charge I feel you need a larger table. From what I’ve seen of Black Powder being played on a 6x4 there seems like there is no room for manoeuvre and it’s more about bumping up the board and rolling dice. I do have limited experience of playing larger games so it is really hard for me to say but personal opinion I would probably choose a 8x6 board when playing with my 28mm black powder armies

[@Dkappa119]

Looks great, do you wash the sprues before you prime?

[@KingMATTtheSuperior]

Hey sorry for the late reply, no I do not wash the sprues before I prime them and can’t say I’ve had any issues with the priming. Don’t think I’ve come across any greasy or dirty sprues.

[@Dkappa119]

@@KingMATTtheSuperior I appreciate the response thanks

[@Peanutbrain123]

Looks awesome! What movement trays are those? Looking to set up my guys in a similar manner.

[@KingMATTtheSuperior]

These are 1p sabot bases from Charlie foxtrot :)

[@Peanutbrain123]

@@KingMATTtheSuperior Thanks! Unfortunately for the base size I use they only have the rounded corner trays. I don’t mind them in larger trays but if there will be a lot of trays per unit I like how the square edges rank up.

[@KingMATTtheSuperior]

What size trays are you using?

[@normanbowstead3616]

I use hycote and find it brilliant.👍

[@KingMATTtheSuperior]

Yeah it’s my favourite at the moment

[@andreygoncharenko3858]

scale 1:35?

[@KingMATTtheSuperior]

These are 28mm

[@yomismoytu7153]

y las luces de los unifomes ?

[@KingMATTtheSuperior]

I don’t tend to highlight my uniforms when using this paint scheme but you could easily use the base colours after the wash

[@lesliebeilby-tipping6854]

Hicote is not as good as the Halfords primers. Why don't you paint the white cut paper edges on the flags

[@KingMATTtheSuperior]

I normally paint the tips of the flags but I just haven’t got round to doing it on this one yet.

[@Castillo525]

One for confederates? Great video!

[@KingMATTtheSuperior]

I will do one for the Rebs yes but probably not for a month or so

[@Castillo525]

@@KingMATTtheSuperior understandable, good job!