Originally Posted by: ThomoTheLost on 31 July 2003 at 04:01
Thomo has, over recent years, been purchasing lots of American Civil War figures in 15mm. These have been collected from multiple manufacturers. I have been looking for a quick and easy way to paint them all and so, after a bit of research through the book collection, I present to you, the Idiots Guide to Painting American Civil War Figures.
There are a couple of methods of painting figures and some of them are described in various places on the Internet. The descriptions may not necessarily be for painting American Civil War figures, but the principles are basically the same. When I get a chance, I will include Some Painting Links in the Links section of Thomo’s Hole.
There are a couple of basic styles of painting. Broadly speaking, they fall into the categories of shading and highlighting figures and of black shading. Shading and highlighting consists of starting with a base undercoat for the figure of a white, or light grey tone. Detail is then painted on, such as the flesh tones for the face and hands. A thin ink wash, darker than the painted tone is then applied to the areas just painted. This should run into the cracks and folds on the figure. After that a highlight colour is applied to the high spots. The highlight colour should be a lighter colour than the base colour. The result of this is a shaded figure, where the shading varies across three shades.
An alternative to this is the ‘black shading’ method. In this case, the figure is under coated in black. Detail is then painted in, with each area painted covering almost the entire area of the detail. As more colours are applied, an small area of black appears between each of the colours. This causes a delineation of the colours and provides an appearance of a shaded figure. Any detail areas missed simply appear as an area in deep shadow on the figure. The advantage of this method of painting is that it is quick when painting lots of figures. I do not like this method for most wargames figures, however, I do find it a good method that produces an excellent result when applied to Civil War figures, especially figures from the Union.
And now, the Idiots Painting Guide to American Civil War Figures. There are two sections below (two sides in the war after all) and they contain enough of the basic information needed for a quick paint job of both the Union and the Confederates. The colours and descriptions are based on the way the troops appeared in 1862 and most of 1863. As the war progressed through 1864 and later, the Union forces became more standardised and the Confederate forces less so. In fact, it was sometime after 1863 that the Confederates really started to appear in butternut. Before that, they tended to appear in a more regular uniform.
The guide below allows you to build a reasonable representative set.
| Union Troops | Infantry | Cavalry | Artillery |
| Jacket or coat | Dark Blue | Dark Blue with yellow trim | Dark Blue with red trim |
| Trousers | Light blue | Light blue | Light blue |
| Kepi | Dark blue | Dark blue | Dark blue |
| Felt Hat | Black | Black | Black |
| Officer’s sash | Red | Red | Red |
| Officer’s shoulder bars | Light blue edge with gold | Light blue edge with gold | Light blue edge with gold |
| Officer’s and NCO’s trouser stripe | Dark blue | Yellow | Red |
| Chevrons | Light Blue | Yellow | Red |
| Leather straps | Black | Black | Black |
| Pack | Black | - | - |
| Canteen | Black | Black | Black |
| Blanket | Red or light blue | Grey. Horse blanket is blue with orange stripe | Light blue |
Easy then, isn’t it. This guide will cover the major number of troops. There were exceptions to this. Zouaves, for example, tended to have rather bright uniforms. However, in the scale of Fire and Fury, we are dealing with brigades and divisions, so Zouaves would, as a regiment, simply provide a couple of stands in the brigade. Still, they do add some nice colour.
| Confederate Troops | Infantry | Cavalry | Artillery |
| Coat or Jacket | Grey with light blue trim | Grey with yellow trim | Grey with red trim |
| Trousers | Light blue | Light blue | Light blue |
| Kepi - note that later in the period, this was grey with the headband in the colour of the service | Light blue with dark blue headband | Yellow with dark blue headband | Red with dark blue headband |
| Felt Hat | Any shade from grey to brown or black | Any shade from grey to brown or black | Any shade from grey to brown or black |
| Officer’s sash | Crimson | Yellow | Red |
| Officer’s and NCO’s trouser stripe | Dark blue | Yellow | Red |
| Officer’s sleeve badges | Gold | Gold | Gold |
| Chevrons | Light blue | Yellow | Red |
| Leather straps - these were sometimes black as well | Brown | Brown | Brown |
| Pack | Brown | - | - |
| Canteen | Black or other shades | Black or other shades | Black or other shades |
| Blanket | Any shade from grey to brown | Any shade from grey to brown | Any shade from grey to brown |
As with the Union, this is pretty easy then, isn’t it. This guide will cover the major number of troops involved at the time. As with the Union, there were exceptions to this in the Confederates. Zouaves, for example, tended to have rather bright uniforms. However, in the scale of Fire and Fury, we are dealing with brigades and divisions, so Zouaves would, as a regiment, simply provide a couple of stands in the brigade. Still, they do add some nice colour.
