The start of a Roman WAB army?

This one's been in a semi painted state for a few months now, but I dug him out and finished him off today. I have a bunch of these Foundry sculpts and their Dacian adversaries, but they always seem to be on the 'to do' list.

Although they should be easy enough to paint in large batches because the colour schemes are quite basic (... by that reasoning so should the ACW...), the major problem is the shield. As this was a test piece to see whether I was inspired enough to do an army, I did this one totally freehand. The prospect of doing a hundred more is, however, enough sap my will to live. Although it looks ok, I will order some decals and paint over the top of them. Decals never look quite right on their own, but as a template they'll be fine.

It's a shame I painted this model and then attached the shield. I didn't realise the torso would be completely hidden until I attached it. I guess that would save quite a lot of painting time too ;)
Having looked at the tunic colour debate that seems to get the reenactors so animated, I was swayed by the 'undyed' option as for Trajan's army on campaign, resupply would be an issue. Just a shame you can't see it!

Sikh Wars conversions

Two Foundry Sikh Wars figures that will be painted up as part of a Union brigade. I wanted to have this unit charging forward, taking casualties as they ran. Because of the limited number of 'charging' poses in the ACW range, I have been scouring the lead pile for likely looking substitutes to add some variety.

Fortunately I found these two - the cast of the running figure was slightly misaligned, so the cap would have needed to be resculpted in any case. Easier to simply cut it off and give him a forage cap. As you can see the sack coat tails were added and the shoulders filed down. Bands were added to the rifle to make it look more like the Springfield. I'll probably paint these up over the weekend and post the results later. Yes - the rifle is on the wrong shoulder, but this is a one off, in the heat of battle.

Good news about the Perry's return to the ACW - although I have mixed feelings over their decision to use plastic. I have seen their LOTR plastics, and the horses are especially nice as horse legs can be molded to the correct thickness in this medium. However, I prefer the weight and durability of metal. I guess those 'drastic plastic' orcs put me off... The promise of metal 'extras' for this range makes up for an misgivings.

The idea of producing a 'generic' ACW soldier is great for an entry into the period, they may not satisfy the purist. Although kepis, slouches, sack coats and shell jackets were utilised by both sides in both theatres, it may be difficult to build historically correct armies from these packs in isolation. The price looks extremely competitive though, and I'm sure I'll be buying a number of packs even if they aren't all usable. The prospect of extra bits to use in conversions is an added bonus. Hopefully some separate rifles will be added to the sprue so they can be used in vignettes.

Hopefully the range will be compatible with the Foundry range - I'd be happy with the small differences observed between the respective AWI and ECW ranges. Can't wait for the release date!