I had an hour or so spare last night and while fighting off a cold that just will not quit, I decided to get a few ACW ironclad ships painted.
So, through sniffles and watery eyes I managed to get paint on half a dozen ships, including the USS Monitor, USS Essex, USS Switzerland, CSS Tennessee, CSS Tuscaloosa and the CSS Planter.
They are not great, but they are the first ACW ships I have ever done before… actually the first ships I have ever done!
I wasn’t 100% sure about the colours needed for the ships but looking at a few pictures on the internet of other people’s models I got a basic idea.
I just used Gunmetal for the basic metal parts and Oak Brown for the darker wood and a mix of German Camouflage Beige and a Desert Yellow for the light wooden deck panels, and Dead White for the white painted panels.
And finally, a good wash of dark tone on all the metal and dark areas and a soft tone wash on all the light wooden stuff.
As I said not the greatest painted miniatures, but I think good enough for table top gaming.
So at least now I have some fully painted models for some ACW river action.
chris mata
Great looking ships. I have just started myself. Where did you find photos?
Mac
Hi Chris,
I just searched the interweb and found other gamers blogs, there are a few historical sites but they don’t really give many clues other than mentions of some ships being painted grey.
So I just copied a few colours that I liked on the blogs and made them up, I think they look good on the table although probably not very historical.
Mac
Simon
These look great – where did you get the models from?
I am about to paint some ACW ships and hope they turn out like yours!
Would also be interested in hearing more about the rules you are writing/
Simon
Mac
Hi Simon,
All of the ships are from a company called Peter Pig –
https://www.peterpig.co.uk/acwnaval.html
They have a nice range of ACW ships, and all the rest of my ships are 3D printed ships ( seen elsewhere on this site )
My painting ( like all of my painting ) is real quick and basic, just a quick base coat and then a wash with Army Painter Soft Tone.
The rules are in the final stages, I am just tidying, proofreading, adding a few last-minute pictures etc.
They are like Stars & Lasers my spaceship combat rules, very simple and fast play and are great fun.
Most people pick the rules up within a turn or two and only need to look in the rule book for the first couple of games.
The rules contain several fun scenarios, so all your games do not have to be just a straightforward meeting engagement.
The rules themselves are not meant to be an actual historical representation of the ACW river battles, but what they try to give you is a good fun game that gives a feel for how those battles were fought, and they do that.
I knew nothing about the era before writing these rules and I have had to read lots of stuff about the battles and the ships and it has been fascinating and I have thoroughly enjoyed it.
I will try and get another battle report up on here soon so you can see a little more of what the games are like.
Cheers,
Mac