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Writer's pictureBlaxkleric

“The 1st Alabama Infantry Regiment…”


“...Was a Confederate volunteer infantry unit from the state of Alabama during the American Civil War.”

These ten 15mm scale plastic Confederate soldiers are produced by “Warlord Games” and came free on a sprue accompanying Issue 393 of "Wargames Illustrated". Later released as part of the Nottingham-based company's "Epic Battles: American Civil War" game for its Black Powder rule-set, the line of infantrymen are the second of two I needed to form a single stand of miniatures, and are based upon the uniforms of an Alabama unit.


The figures were all primed using a double-coat of "Citadel" Abaddon Black and then slowly had their somewhat intricate details 'picked out' from the ground up. Originally, I was awfully tempted simply to stick to basic black for all of their shoes, but as with the first line of troops I painted, I decided to apply a combination of "Vallejo" Heavy Sienna and "The Army Painter" Strong Tone Quickshade to the footwear of three models.

"For a year it staffed the batteries at Pensacola, then with 1,000 soldiers moved to Missouri."

I then did something similar with the miniatures’ trousers too, as I didn't just want all of them to be marching in the colour pants. As a result I pigmented six with "Vallejo" Heavy Bluegrey and "Citadel" Nuln Oil, a couple with Vallejo" Heavy Sienna and "The Army Painter" Strong Tone Quickshade, and the remaining two with “Vallejo” Steel Grey and “Citadel” Drakenhof Nightshade.


For the Confederates' jackets I either went with a mixture of "Vallejo" Sombre Grey and "Citadel" Nuln Oil, "Vallejo" Heavy Blue and "Citadel" Drakenhof Nightshade, or Vallejo" Heavy Sienna and "The Army Painter" Strong Tone Quickshade. Such colours might seem a little odd for a Southern unit but the Alabama recruits actually wore "a dark blue frock coat" and "black broad brimmed felt hats at the war's start," so I wanted to capture that uniqueness with my palette choices.

"Games Workshop" WIPs - A tiny Space Marine, a Rhino, and a larger (Second Edition) Space Marine

I gave all the Kepi hats a dash of "Vallejo" Sombre Grey and "Citadel" Nuln Oil, their blanket rolls a smidgeon of either "Vallejo" Heavy Sienna or White with a wash of "The Army Painter" Strong Tone Quickshade, and their belt buckles a touch of "Vallejo" Gold and (more) Strong Tone Quickshade by "The Army Painter". Finally their hands and faces were layered with "Vallejo" Heavy Skintone, shaded in "Citadel" Reikland Fleshshade, and later highlighted with extra dabs of "Vallejo" Heavy Skintone.


With the last of my Weekly Challenges now completed, and the first of my "Epic Battles: American Civil War" infantry stands finished after a ten-month delay, I have been able to fully focus upon the first batch of “Epic” figures by “Games Workshop” I want to submit to the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge. All of these plastic 6mm models had already been previously painted in some way, shape or form, so I am turning them all into the Space Marine Chapter Black Templars, so as to be able to eradicate their previous paint-jobs with a layer of “Citadel” Abaddon Black…

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undercoat2670
Dec 22, 2021

Lovely job on the epic ACW. I adore the variety of the coats, trousers and boots. Awesome stuff on such a small scale. The epic space marines look good too. I expect the chapter symbols to be painted on those shoulder pads!

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Blaxkleric
Blaxkleric
Dec 22, 2021
Replying to

Thanks Undercoat. I think a load of similarly-painted stands for my Alabama unit would look excellent on the tabletop, But the amount of time that would take with the approach I used on these figures would be daunting to say the least. I simply don't see the 'footprint' on the battlefield for these ACW plastics being anywhere near as motivating as those of FoW.


I actually think even the 2nd edition sculpts of the space marines pale in comparison with those of the detail on the Bloodletters. So I've no intention of spending as much time on them as those - that being said though, getting their shoulder-pads straight at such a small scale is already hurting my eyes. 😓

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planetmut
Dec 22, 2021

The Confederates look good, Simon! Just remember that if you're going to do a flag for them, it should be white LOL!


The Epic marines are giving me flashbacks! I had hundreds of them, and luckily I was able to find a car primer that was close enough to Ultramarine blue to work. No such luck with my Emperor's Children traitors though, I had to brush paint each one...

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Blaxkleric
Blaxkleric
Dec 22, 2021
Replying to

Cheers Matt. I'm not sure I'm going to be painting any more of these tbh. They were fun(ish). But having painted 20 x 15mm minis all I have to show for it is a small stand. In FoW I'd have 5 bases ready for the table-top.


I will be doing some Ultramarines, once I've worked through all the pre-painted black coloured figures I own. Not sure about any Emperor's Children though... LOL!!!

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wargamesterrainworkshop
wargamesterrainworkshop
Dec 21, 2021

Great work on the ACW Simon, must be great to finally get these finished, will you be doing more later on ?

The epic models are coming on nicely, and I think you went with the right chapter, as the Raven guard would not have the stark white shoulder pads to break up the black.

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Blaxkleric
Blaxkleric
Dec 22, 2021
Replying to

I did try to paint the ridges on the shoulder pads for a test Black Templar, but it was clearly going to add some significant time to finishing all the models, so I'll be giving that step a miss and going for the mass ranks look with all-white shoulder pads instead. 😀

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