Plastic ACW (1 Viewer)

[Shiloh]

Hey everyone
After a 30 year break I have some how gotten interested in toy soldiers again. I bought some re issue Marx and the rest is history. I didn't want to paint anything and stupid me thought they would all be close to the same color WRONG. If that isn't bad enough it seems all the makers go out of their stinking way to make a different scale. Living in the middle of no where means no hobby shop so I shop on the internet and this leaves you open to someone else ideal of what 54 mm means. I wish I knew about this forum a few months ago it would have saved me some money. (Anyone interested in buying some Butternut and Blue) they don't mesh with anything. But I have now picked up the paint brush and am painting my way toward some uniformity. I still have lots of questions and like the general discussion that goes on since I am the only one in my area that seems to have this disease. Does anyone recommend the crater playset from Conte? Also does anyone have a time frame on Conte's new confederates? Let me know.

 

[Leadmen]

Welcome to Forum Shiloh: I found out at the time I got some Butternut and Blue figures they were too small, more like 35mm. I painted some but still don't match other figures. San Diego makes some nice plastic Civil War, larger figures about 60mm but fun to paint. I only got some painted Conte figures and have not seen the crater set. Leadmen

 

[Shiloh]

Hey Leadman
I have some of the TSSD rebel and yankees first series and unpainted Conte to. Couldn't use the great coat version or Iron brigade because Shiloh was fought in April. I am leaning toward collecting the Conte and TSSD size figures. Man I wish I knew about the painted Conte before I bought the unpainted kind. Rebels you can get away with just about anything but I am picky about the Union being pretty uniform. The thought of painting those flags has almost made me decide to buy them anyway. One major problem with the larger size stuff is I have just about got all my Barzso casulaties painted and I can't stand the thought of not using them but they seem so small compared to Conte size. I also have painted several Imex and Accurate figures to and it seems like such a waste not to use them. They may all be used and let the chips fall where they may.

 

[Leadmen]

I too painted various figures by accurate, Imex and I like the Confederate Cavalry and foot figures by Italeri. I still set them all up together. I guess I am not fussy even had Detail figures with them. Fubar on forum might have painted Conte cards for sale.. I visited Shiloh battlefield three years ago.Busy doing wwll figures now. I like to change periods every once in awhile. I like plastic and metal. Leadmen

 

[fishead19690]

I think that the conte and tssd are the best that are out right now and you can paint the rebs as union and the union as rebs for even more poses. And they are both around the same size so you can use both for conversions and the body parts match up well. Here are some that I painted up and also some italeri conversions that I did also. I have a few conversions of the conte and tssd but I haven,t gotten around to painting them yet.

 

[Leadmen]

The pics look good Fish. I am priming some wwll SD and Conte guys to paint this winter.I did not buy any play sets but got scenery and build a rama from George.Fish, do you use that photo bucket site? If you do is it easy to use? Leadmen

 

[Shiloh]

Great pics but where the Rebels?

 

[fishead19690]

The pics look good Fish. I am priming some wwll SD and Conte guys to paint this winter.I did not buy any play sets but got scenery and build a rama from George.Fish, do you use that photo bucket site? If you do is it easy to use? Leadmen

http://www.photobucket.com/
Yes thats photo bucket! I posted a link if you want to join. Its free and it holds lots of pictures, i,m not sure how many your allowed but I have quite a few on there already.

You can also post multiple pictures without having to click on them to see them like you have when you post more than one picture here.

Phalanx toy soldiers walked me through it and i,ll try and do the same for you if you like.

Post some pictures when your done painting! I,m working on some more austrain conversion right now and hope to get them painted soon and would like to do a big diorama set up of an 1813-1814 era battle with austrains and prussian attacking the french and include all the new sets of frontline figures and britains that i,ve gotten lately mixed with some painted plastic and lots of conversions.
I keep putting it off waiting for more sets to arrive and a night when the old lady is working and the kids stay over her mothers so I can transform the living room floor into a big battle scene.
Space is tight living in a small apartment. Boy I wish I had fubars set-up!!! I beefed up my cavalry a bit and just about doubled my french infantry but I,ll have to do most of my austrains in plastic and the prussains are even fewer, i only have the frontline and britains. My british are getting up there but they were not really a part of this allied army(they were in spain) and I don,t have any russains (did you hear that FUBAR!) and I don,t know of any swiss troops so thats it.
I odered some mulberry miniatures prussain artillary and a few other sets from them but i,m not sure on the quality of them and the sculpts don,t look that great but will be good for fillers.
The prussain artillary didn,t look bad in the picture but I,ll know better when they arrive on the slow boat from britain.

 

[Fubar]

Shiloh,Welcome to the Asylum. Lots of good guys here.
Heres my take. Use the Imex and Accurate guys.You can always add a base to the bottom to make them a little taller and then add some static grass or woodland scenicsNot everyones the same size anyway and many of use do mix figures.
Can't go wrong with the Conte figures.They convert well for different poses, even just head swaps for variety.The painted reb sets, well I used 1 set as is, and did a couple others by just repainting uniforms, horse collars etc.
The TSSd Rebs are pretty good overall,the Yankees no comment.I only found a couple of the 8 of any use. I did take the running flagbearer and replace the flag with a Conte .Much better.
All my Cannons crews and Cavalry are either Britians or Conte metal sets, so if you are not into metal, I'd go with Imex.I also mix in lots of the metals with the plastics, along with all the conversions it's a great variety.
Old pix attatched for you Shiloh. My ACW collection hasnt been on the table for a while so no new pix. Sorry for the redundency to the rest of ya'll.

Fish, I have a few more molds to make on the Russians.I just keep making more poses.Then I'm going to spin until I can't stand it
and I'll have all the russians you can stand.Real world modern problems have kept me away from the workbench.Another week and I hope to tackle it again.
FubArrRRrrRRr

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[Shiloh]

Thanks for the great advice and the awesome pictures Fubar. I like the Britain's cannons I also have Imex, Timpo, and some CTS. Like I said, I wish I would have discovered this place before I bought some of this stuff. I have only seen pictures of the Conte metal cannons they seem a little pricey but I would snap some up if the price was right. I read on the Conte sight about the retirement of a bunch of their ACW line, while not terribly upsetting to a new collector it does cause me some concern because I was hoping the New confederates in the preview would be plastic. I love the metal figures but plastic gives me more figures to love. Were those Barzso casualties in the pics? If so I am very happy because they don't seem out of place at all.

 

[Fubar]

Shiloh, Some of those unfortunates are Barzo , Conte { from the Alamo sets} and theres a couple Shenandoah metal kits in there too.The Barzo are smaller, but they fit alright .Yes, Conte is retiring 15 sets. A few of those poses are duplicated in plastic, Maybe most of them.
I was hoping top see the new Rebs in plastic as well, butI new that was almost certainly not the case.Plastics simply are a huge investment and it's far cheaper to make painted metal figure sets.

Also regarding the Conte cannon sets. It might just be me but those cannons are SMALL. I've been around enough full scale replica in the past and these look like 6 pounders to me, or heaven forbid they made the mistake of taking measurments off a 3/4 scale replica?! Maybe most guys won't notice, care.Maybe I'm all wet.

FubArrrRRrr

 

[Nick Nasta]

Not to change the topic but I painted these plastic BMC American Rev. soldiers back in 2003. They were the 1st time that I ever painted plastics..They are the gloss paint version...My 7yr old son at the time wanted his soldiers to look more realistic!AAHHHHHH. So I painted over 100 soldiers and cannons,horses,and so on...I made houses,fences,a bridge. I made saddle bags, modified the cannons,made hats,blah,blah,blah.....So, here are just a few of them...

Nick

 

[Nick Nasta]

Shiloh, Some of those unfortunates are Barzo , Conte { from the Alamo sets} and theres a couple Shenandoah metal kits in there too.The Barzo are smaller, but they fit alright .Yes, Conte is retiring 15 sets. A few of those poses are duplicated in plastic, Maybe most of them.
I was hoping top see the new Rebs in plastic as well, butI new that was almost certainly not the case.Plastics simply are a huge investment and it's far cheaper to make painted metal figure sets.

Also regarding the Conte cannon sets. It might just be me but those cannons are SMALL. I've been around enough full scale replica in the past and these look like 6 pounders to me, or heaven forbid they made the mistake of taking measurments off a 3/4 scale replica?! Maybe most guys won't notice, care.Maybe I'm all wet.

FubArrrRRrr

Awesome...

 

[Shiloh]

Excellent pictures Fubar and Morbshock
I to prefer the more realistic look. Fubar what are using as a sealing coat. I bought what was supposed to an acrylic matte finish spray but it looks more like a semi gloss. I was thinking of ordering Testors dull coat. Has anyone got any ideals on this? I want the protection but not the shine. As always I look forward to the advice.

 

[Leadmen]

Nice Pics Fubar and Morbshock. Shiloh, sometimes when I use Krylon matte spray varnish it leaves a sheen on figures. I tried" Floquil " figure flat clear spray and it made it a nice flat finish. Leadmen I used it over the Krylon matte.

 

[kilted vampire]

Great work you guys! I am never surprised any more at the quality of your work

 

[Shiloh]

Would anyone recommend buying the crater playset. I have some resevations about it. One I don't need the terrain piece and two I don't need the Iron brigade figures. The battle of Shiloh does not have this legendary unit and I haven't been able to find any record of Union Zouaves either. This kind of limits you on figures in today's market. But the vignettes in the crater set are awesome. Also need advice on a decent water product alot of people talk negative about the woodland scenic products. I understand the layer concept but does it look good?
Thanks