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Thursday 6 October 2016

Project Battle Cry & Airfix ACW

I recently purchased the board bame 'Battle Cry' which is based upon the American Civil War (ACW). I really like the game system, which is similar to Memoire 44 and Command and Colors. That said, I have never been a fan of board games and thus I have decided to play Battle Cry on the wargames table using 20mm figures. I had a huge stock of Airfix ACW troops and I plan to use these.

Battle cry has a unit of four figures for infantry, three for cavalry and the same for artillery. I have decided to have four stands of figures for my infantry, three for cavalry and one gun with crew to represent a battery.

For the infantry I will need to create 40 stands for each side, 9 cavalry and three guns. I have made a start. Here are my Union forces:

Union Artillery - more than I need for the game

Union Infantry - just one more unit needed:



Union Cavalry - I need a few more:


I have also made a start with the Confederate (CSA) forces:

CSA Artillery - again more than enough for the game:
CSA Infantry- I have another four units on the painting table, so more than enough when they are completed:


CSA Cavalry; again a few more needed:
I am also painting some limbers for the artillery and supply wagons.

The table will be laid out the same as the board game using a cloth marked with 5" hexes. Scenery etc will match the game, but will be three dimensional. More updates to follow.

12 comments:

  1. Being a big fan of Airfix ACW figures and Battle Cry, I am looking forward to your project reports. It will be most informative.

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  2. Bob, that strikes me as a noble enterprise and I look forward to seeing the results on the table. Battlecry is a cracking, simple game and plays well and is even better with multiple players.

    Which edition did you pick up?

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    1. It is a used copy of the 150th anniversary edition. The game system does indeed look very good.

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  3. Brilliant and Unbelievable!!!! :-) Last month I decided to go "old School" and with no less than the Airfix ACW range, and painting them with the classic green bases as well !!! :-)
    http://airfixtributeforum.myfastforum.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=49455
    I´ve even gone down the same path of creating Drummers...and even used one of the running poses to do so
    http://airfixtributeforum.myfastforum.org/viewtopic.php?f=331&t=46643&start=80
    I haven´t got around to posting anything on my blog as so far as it´s a WIP on the Airfix Tribute Forum.
    You´ve made massively more Progress than I have. I was going to use the Airfix foriegn Legion as zouaves but now seeing yours I´ll go for that.
    I was considering adding gloss to my lot. Are yours painted with gloss or have you glossed them after painting?

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    1. Hi Paul
      I took a look at your posts on ATF - very nice, much better painting than mine. I seem to recall that you painted a few ACW figures some years ago as part of your project to paint all of the Airfix figure sets.

      Regarding paints, I tend to use gloss paints where I can, although some of the browns and butternut colours are hard to achieve by mixing, so those are matt with a high gloss varnish. All of the detail is painted in gloss.

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    2. Thanks Bob. Not better..different style :-D And you have got the dark blue for the Union soldiers spot on..It´s giving me a headache trying to get it not looking too black or too blue. And I´ve just noticed..you´ve used the texan flag as well.
      The "paint all the poses of every set ever made" Project.That one is still going, 32 down -28 to go, but has slowed down. I´ve painted most of the fun/colourfull sets now it´s mostly WWI/WWII and some modern ones to go but the colours aren´t as much fun which puts me off a bit and also, then Comes along a new Project idea and it gets shoved to the back of the Queue.
      I´ll do a test varnish to see how it Looks on mine..hopefully they will turn out as good looking as yours.

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    3. I use Ronseal Hard Glaze varnish as it is very glossy and is tough.

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    4. The blue is good old Humbrol 15 - Midnight? blue

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  4. Always loved the Airfix ACW sets, your treatment of them works really well. Just wondering if you did anything to make the horses a bit more secure on the bases? The Sheriff of Nottingham horses were even worse as I remember!

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    1. Hi Dave
      I tend to use the charging cavalry horse where I can as this tends to be more stable. For the generals, which are from the artillery sets, I normally glue these horses directly onto an MDF base.

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  5. Looking forward to see the first conversion in action on the table. Your units are looking good. The 5" hex should. Give enough breathing space for both. Figures and terrain to occupy the same space, something that I sometimes find a bit tight on a 4" hex.

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