Miniatures Getting started modeling

[9th US Regulars]

I stopped by Gettysburg Miniature Soldiers last time I visited the battlefield and purchased two packs of 15mm Union Infantry at shoulder arms and a package of color bearers. I have officers, sergeants, and drummers coming by mail. I had initially thought to base them like this; a 30-soldier company plus 2 color bearers, a 1st Sgt, a Captain, and a drummer. But this seems unwieldy.

No, I have not yet committed to a rule set. It seems like Johnny Reb 3 is the standard. Is that about right? Is there another one I should consider?

Basing. I see in a few JR3 articles they recommend a 3/4"x7/8" base. Pictures would suggest folks like to put 6 figures on each base. Would 8 on a 3/4"x1" be unreasonable? That would allow a column marching 4 abreast to take up battle line formation and back simply by rearranging the bases. It would also make one stand an accurate color guard. Would this idea simply not work with certain rule sets?

Lastly, I'm still looking for a rule book. PDF format would be great, as I've had some issues with leaks destroying game books lately. Is there a recommended source?

 

[Kurtlg]

View attachment 478186

I stopped by Gettysburg Miniature Soldiers last time I visited the battlefield and purchased two packs of 15mm Union Infantry at shoulder arms and a package of color bearers. I have officers, sergeants, and drummers coming by mail. I had initially thought to base them like this; a 30-soldier company plus 2 color bearers, a 1st Sgt, a Captain, and a drummer. But this seems unwieldy.

No, I have not yet committed to a rule set. It seems like Johnny Reb 3 is the standard. Is that about right? Is there another one I should consider?

Basing. I see in a few JR3 articles they recommend a 3/4"x7/8" base. Pictures would suggest folks like to put 6 figures on each base. Would 8 on a 3/4"x1" be unreasonable? That would allow a column marching 4 abreast to take up battle line formation and back simply by rearranging the bases. It would also make one stand an accurate color guard. Would this idea simply not work with certain rule sets?

Lastly, I'm still looking for a rule book. PDF format would be great, as I've had some issues with leaks destroying game books lately. Is there a recommended source?

I am not a gamer so I can't help. I do paint miniatures so please post pictures of your work .

 

[7th Mississippi Infantry]

I am not a gamer so I can't help. I do paint miniatures so please post pictures of your work .

Same here.

I used to attempt to paint miniatures. But it never worked out.
I realized my limits and stopped.

The closest I achieved to anything half-way decent ... was a box of 1/700
Revell Normans with one basic color.

Gunmetal, with silver highlights on the chain mail, and a small bit of flesh color.

The shields were a bit more colorful, but at the the same time much more difficult to try to paint.

 

[Pat Answer]

I do believe Johnny Reb III is still your best bet for 15mm.

Wargame Vault - Johnny Reb Gaming Society - PDF - The largest wargame download store

Wargame Vault is the largest wargame download store.

www.wargamevault.com

A little more pricey:

Fire and Fury Games - designers of wargame miniatures rules

Fire and Fury Games Civil War wargame minatures rules

www.fireandfury.com

The "Little Wars TV" crew sponsors this one. Though intended for 6mm, some rules could always be adapted.

Altar of Freedom

Author: Greg Wagman Published: 2013, Iron Ivan Games Price: $25 soft cover print ; $15 PDF Length: 68 pg. Genre: American Civil War Scale: Grand Tactical, army level

www.littlewarstv.com

How many figures go on each base usually depends on what the base is supposed to represent, and this depends on the scale (regimental skirmish? - 1 figure=1 soldier, entire major battle? - 1 figure=100 or more soldiers, &c).

 

[DixieRifles]

Basing. I see in a few JR3 articles they recommend a 3/4"x7/8" base. Pictures would suggest folks like to put 6 figures on each base. Would 8 on a 3/4"x1" be unreasonable? That would allow a column marching 4 abreast to take up battle line formation and back simply by rearranging the bases. It would also make one stand an accurate color guard. Would this idea simply not work with certain rule sets?

I no longer play war games. But I know that the basing will depend on the rules and the scale you are playing. So start priming and painting and get with some gamers to see what the rules are.

 

[7th Mississippi Infantry]

The closest I achieved to anything half-way decent ... was a box of 1/700
Revell Normans with one basic color.

Forgot to add ... I did do a decent job with some 1/700 Afrika Corps figures.
That was about the extent of my venture into this craft.

Glueing real sand on the bases and other parts really helped.

 

[Kurtlg]

Forgot to add ... I did do a decent job with some 1/700 Afrika Corps figures.
That was about the extent of my venture into this craft.

Glueing real sand on the bases and other parts really helped.

Do you mean 1/72 ? 1/700 would be smaller than a grain of rice .

 

[7th Mississippi Infantry]

Do you mean 1/72 ? 1/700 would be smaller than a grain of rice .

OK, I made a typo.

But I think everyone knew what I meant.

It was actually these guys:

Plastic Soldier Review

 

[Cavalier]

Long out of print but some of us guys here in Baltimore played Stars n Bars for almost 40 years. The scale was 1 to 40, which, in 15mm meant each player could handle a Corps. Great times!

John

 

[9th US Regulars]

I found a copy of Across a Deadly Field, which seems to be based on JR3. I'll see how it goes.

 

[Cavalier]

@9th US Regulars Are you aware of a site called The Miniature Page? Lots of helpful discussions about many aspects of gaming with miniatures.

John

 

[Pat Answer]

American Civil War Rules - TMP

 

[7thWisconsin]

30 figs in a company is pretty big. That´s 1:3 or even 1:1 scale. A single regiment is going to be 300+ minis. I would recommend 20 figs per regiment, with a command stand with flags, commander and musician. That´s close to the classic wargame scale of 1:20. I would base 4 figs to a stand, in 2 ranks, so when you line ´em up, you´ll have 5 stands in a row, plus the command stand. A good simple, easy playing set of rules can be found in Warlord´s Black Powder rules. They´ll take you from the mid 17th century all the way to the early 20th century, with some good advice about organising and basing individual units. I used to base my ACW troops 12 per regiment, on 2 stands of 6, plus a 2 man command stand. I had a limited number of minis to work with and I was recreating the 2nd and 5th Corps. Still those were enough stands to represent tactics accurately and have nice visual appeal also.

 

[Cavalier]

I agree with 7th.Wisconsin, Black Powder is very popular now. Johnny Reb has been around for a long time in several versions and has remained popular. Fire & Fury has two versions, brigade & regimental, both of which are also fun.

Having played miniature war games since 1965 I do have one piece of advice. Before you mount your figures decide what rules you will use. That might even require decisions such as who you will be gaming with and what rules they use.

Doing some research before you mount you "troops" can save lots of trouble remounting later.

You might consider attending one of the Historical Miniature Gaming Society, (HMGS), conventions. There will be a convention in Lancaster Pa. in the fall if I'm not mistaken. Most of the larger conventions have several Civil War games scheduled.

Just some thoughts,good luck, it a fun hobby for sure.

John

 

[9th US Regulars]

Okay. I think I found my solution. ADF recommends square stands of 4 figures at a soldier scale of 1=60. In a 720-strong regiment, that's 12 figures. When I look at 12 figures in battle line it looks like this:

That looks way too small. More like a reenactor unit.

So I tried a 3-stand battle line regiment with a FRONTAGE of 12. It looks like this:

I like that a lot better. I can just do the game mechanics off of the numbers in the front rank and the rest are decorations in effect.

Not really worried about playing against others just yet, so I'll likely make some of both in the long run, if I don't just hop over to BP epic.

 

[Albert Sailhorst]

For a 15mm Johnny Reb III Regiment, this is what we use:

4 Stands, four figures per stand. One of the four stands will have an Officer, Flag Bearer, Drummer and soldier (this is the Lead stand when marching, etc). Base is approximately 1 inch long by maybe 3/4 inch wide, with the figures facing on the long side.