Saturday, November 16, 2019

Old Glory Zouaves in 10mm

Now, this is a project that has seen no action at the painting desk in a very long time.  Checking the Painting Log, over three years have passed since last mustering out any troops for the 10mm ACW collection.  To add some color to the project, off the table are 120 figures split evenly between the 74th NY and 9th NY.  Figured are from Old Glory and are molded in five figure strips.  Some like the figures, others do not.  I like the Old Glory strip figures a lot.  Strips allow for closed ranks and an ease of basing not possible with individually cast figures from other 10mm manufacturers.  They can be painted rather quickly too.
Why a return to the 10mm ACW project now?  Really, I have no other reason than I pulled the box of 10mm ACW lead from The Lead Pile during a search for something else.  With a year-end effort, I figured I could just about exhaust the pile of infantry remaining in inventory.  With 120 Zouaves down, 120 Confederates and 120 Federals remain to hit the painting queue. Finishing these will boost the year-end painting count nicely.

Did I ever find what inspired the search?  Yes.  I was looking for horse holders for dismounted cavalry and found a small handful of them.  The horse holders are from Blaze-Away Miniatures and are excellent sculpts.  One day, I may even paint a few.

40 comments:

  1. Jonathan, they look really nice ..... but 120 .... wow. Without doubt the 5 to a strip element must help with painting output and perhaps for that reason alone, anyone embarking on a 10mm army would be well served by the Old Glory range.

    For my 4” hexes, they would make 4 regiments, though on an open table, the longer line is more eye catching.

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    1. Thank you, Norm!

      10mm and five-figure strips, I think, are perfect combination for building large armies to fight ACW battles on the tabletop.

      As for the four inches hexes, these three stand BMUs are perfectly tailored for fitting into this space. You may recall using exactly this configuration when refighting Fox Gap on a four-inch hex grid. These bases can be combined to created large units for rulesets such as Fire and Fury.

      I prefer the look of the three-stand BMU with centered command. I have been giving some thought to rebasing the whole collection to make it single element BMU of 30 figures but have dismissed that notion.

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  2. The Zouaves units look splendid.

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    1. Glad you like them, Peter! I found enough Zoauves to field a few more units. These Zouaves are wearing turban so that will add even more color.

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  3. I can see the benefits of the strips, as they certainly make basing and painting much easier, which is a great bonus for me these days. Love the work on the flags too.

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    1. I like the strip a lot. Basing and painting is much easier in my mind. I have been contemplating a WSS in 10mm and Old Glory is getting much consideration. Do I REALLY want to embark on another project? I don't know!

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  4. Glorious, Jonathan! Lovely uniforms and so many of them too!

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    1. Thank you! For ACW, one really needs to paint some Zouaves to interject some color into the battle.

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  5. Holy smokes JF- is there a scale you don't game in?!? Amazing diversity.

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  6. Always nice to see zouaves in any scale! Lovely work as always!
    Best Iain

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  7. That's a very impressive level of output, and some lovely figures Jonathan. It's almost liberating to finally complete something that has been in the lead pile for a while.

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    1. Glad you like them! The 10s on strips paint up quickly. Doing 120 at a time seems a bit much for me, though. I was tired of the repetition by the end. At my age, many figures have been in the lead pile for a long time...

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  8. As a 6mm gamer I must have said this a million times and I say it once again - nothing, but nothing, beats the smaller scales for that mass effect! Great job on those zouaves Jonathan.

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    1. You are right! For the scope of a large battle and mass effect, the smaller scales shine.

      Thanks for your comment!

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  9. Great work and well done on clearing more lead from the backlog.
    I've just painted a bunch of 74th NY for my own collection.

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    1. Thanks on both, Paul! I saw your own 74th NY and they looked super.

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  10. They look very good, Jon. While I have no intention of painting any myself, I like 10mm figures in a way that 6mm (and smaller, egads!) just doesn't do it for me. Who knows, no less a wargamer than Jack Scruby himself adopted 9mm figures in his 60's, so you never say never, I suppose! :-)

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    1. Never say never, Peter! You may find you enjoy gaming in 10mm. Painting 10s requires a different approach than painting 25s and more difficult to see as our eyes age.

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  11. Regardless of scale, that us an impressive volume, Jonathan.

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  12. Very nice Jonathan...

    10mm would probably suit my 5’x7’ table really well... alas whenever I try to paint any they seem to take just as long as 28mm... ;-)

    All the best. Aly

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    1. Thank you, Aly!

      Your 5' x 7' table would suit 10mm battles very well. AS for painting, 10mm takes a different approach than 25s. I can tell you these 120 10s took much less time than an equivalent number of 25s.

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  13. They look great, Jon, especially the flags!

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    1. Thanks, Scott! Your recent Persian cav. look amazing.

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  14. 10mm ah? What else is in your box on tricks?
    Cool painting though!

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  15. Well done, I couldn't begin to paint 10mm, lovely.

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  16. Great looking ACW, and the zouves definitely add a splash of diversity.
    But 3 years since any ACW??!!! My heart shudders to think on it. 😀

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    1. Thanks, Stew! While ACW has not seen much recent action at the painting desk, they have seen action in battle. The three year hiatus is mainly due to the already large armies I can field for this project.

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  17. 120 zouaves! You are mad man! And at 10mm too! Too much for me. I've had 30-odd sat on my paint queue (For Stew actually) for a couple years now and they've left me daunted to say the least.

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    1. Madness? I think persistence! Has Stew been wondering where his troops have been the last three years?

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  18. Very nice indeed

    https://www.10mm-wargaming.com/

    https://www.10mm-wargaming.co.uk/

    Take care

    Andy

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