WIP Critique ACW Lieutenant - Any uniform painting advice is appreciated

[Bailey]

I just started on this ACW Confederate figure from Pegaso (54mm). It's my first confederate figure so I'm not overly familiar with their equipment. I know there was a lot of variability in their clothing, but in some ways that makes painting him tougher. So I'm hoping that those of you more familiar with the subject matter will help keep me from going off track.

This figure will be a gift for my father. He's a big civil war buff and artifact collector (although he's got mostly northern stuff). He found this kit at a toy soldier show for $5 (not a bad deal) and gave it to me to do what I wanted with it. The box art didn't really grab my interest, but upon taking a closer look at the actual figure I realized it's a nice sculpt and would be a fun project, so I decided to paint him up and then gift it back to my dad.

Not a whole lot done, just blocked in the main uniform colors and finished the face. But, since I'm not as sure about the colors I thought it was better to start posting early. The figure will have an old tattered flag in his left hand. I want to do one of the state flags or a flag associated with a specific brigade instead of the generic confederate flag. I have yet to decide which one, I need to do some more research first. This is going to be an end of the war/road to Appomattox scene.

Here's a close up of his face. I think the sculpt had a nice expressive quality to it, so I tried to play with that (deep shadow in the brow, eyes peering off to his left).

 

[Blind Pew]

An excellent start already mate. That face is superb (the figure's, not yours!)
I think the start you've made suggesting a grey-ish jacket and butternut trousers is perfectly correct historically. Carry on as you are. The kepi can, if you like, be red, suggect an artillery unit.

As for the flag, I have loads of books for Civil War flags. Can I suggest the Hardee Patern, a blue flag with a white circle, if you wanted to keep it simple that is.......

 

[Paul Kernan]

http://www.mmsichicago.com/

Great start....I always recommend the MMSI site. Look for the article links down on the left side. Click on "Painting Blue and Grey" by Bob Knee. Can't get any better start on painting ACW tones than here.

 

[ChaosCossack]

Great start! The face is spot on but I expect no less from you.
The late war mish mash of clothing allows for a lot of artistic license. When I get home I'll post some samples of grays and butternut (like the ones I included in my "Southern Pride" thread.
You've already used blue gray on the cuffs which makes him infantry. The kepi can be the same blue or gray with a blue band or even plain butternut.
Butternut is a catchall term that can describe colours ranging from undyed wool,though a variety of yellowish browns/tans to a solid brown.

I hope I've muddied the water sufficiently

Following

Colin

 

[MENTAL DENTAL]

Like the face!

 

[Rich Sculpts]

Nice figure and a good start with the face, has a lot of character this one.

-Rich

 

[Bailey]

Thank you for the responses.

Blind Pew, the Hardee flag is a good suggestion. I want to do something a little more intricate, but if units made embellishments to the basic Hardee flag then that could be perfect.

Paul, thanks for the link. That was an interesting article. I hadn't thought about using yellow to highlight the grey, I will have to give that a try.

Colin, thanks. I had taken a look at your Southern Pride thread back before I started painting. I like how you're mixing different grays to distinguish the different pieces of clothing.

 

[Wings5797]

54mm.......WOW!!!!

 

[ChaosCossack]

As promised... Home from work... here's the uniform samples

 

[Sgt. Red]

Like the beard!

 

[Bailey]

Thanks, Colin!

I took a first crack at the coat. I still need to go back over it and fix some of the blends and shadows.

 

[ChaosCossack]

Looks good so far.
I found that with the grays... you think you're done, go for a smoke, come back and see spots that need retouching, or softening, or deepening.... It's maddening. I'm still fiddling with the grays.

I love the plaid shirt showing under the jacket.

Cheers

Colin

 

[Colin_Fraser]

The shirt is great. Makes me hungry for a picnic or a pizza. Really well rendered.

Colin

 

[Blind Pew]

Great stuff, yes the Hardee flag was often embellished with battle honours consisting of place names..... great stuff so far mate

 

[F Troop]

Hey Bailey;
Figure is looking good and you have a lot of flexibility in your final choice of gray for the jacket. Here are a couple of thoughts on this fellow.

If your are going for Appomattox and the Army of Northern Virginia (ANV), the Hardee flag would be a poor choice because it was an Army of Tennessee (AoT) pattern. An ANV flag this late in the war would most likely be the familiar Confederate "battle flag" BUT that still leaves a lot of state flags as well as unit flags to choose from. A web search should turn up something. Also at the end of the war the Richmond Depot was doing a good job of keeping the ANV in decent uniforms including a lot of the Cadet blue gray.

If you go with a late war AoT then the Hardee flag works for you and you can go with a more rag-tag look of mixed clothing. "Butternut" would be also more prominent in the AoT.

Lots of choices on the kepi if you want to add some color. Leather gear can be brown of a mix of brown and black pieces but keep the shoes black. I don't know how smooth the canteen is but pictures of captured Confederates show that the cloth cover on this particular style canteen were usually missing so bare metal is an exceelent choice. Otherwise a brown-drab of grayish cover works. I would stay away from sky-blue as well as a leather sholder stap.

If you have questions, I'd be glad to help as best I can.

 

[ChaosCossack]

Great info Rick!

 

[MalcC]

Superb painting.

Malc

 

[Bailey]

Yeah, thank you for the info, Rick. I like the idea of mixed clothing colors so I think I'll stick with butternut for the pants. Perhaps he should be AoT. Of course I would still think butternut pants would show up in the ANV even near the end of the war. Even with better supply I doubt it was perfect.

Thanks for the tip on the shoes. The box art has brown ones so I probably would have done that instead of black. The sculpt of the canteen has a texture to it, so aside from filing it smooth I will have to paint it with a cloth covering.

I will be looking through state and unit flag options. I've done a bit of searching online and I'm going to pick up a copy of Echoes of Glory. I believe my dad mentioned it had a number of good examples.

 

[sayeret]

Very very very nice!!!

I also have this figure... I'll paint it soon!

Roberto

 

[osceola]

Very nice!