While this article is intended for gamers relatively new to the ACW period, it is hoped that there will be sufficient information to help the more advanced painter. Unlike Napoleonics, the ACW garner has only to know how to paint the basic Union and Confederate uniforms unless you want realistic looking units! Leaving zouave and specialty uniforms out of this article (the next issue will include a fine article by Bill Winter covering Union zouaves), the reality oriented gamer still has much deviation from the standard "dark blue/sky blue" and "Confederate gray" to cover before having a veteran army on the table. THE UNION UNIFORM There is much less to talk about when looking at Federal uniforms as opposed to those of the Confederacy. However, there are some tips that can help give you a more realistic look to your veterans. For instance, while most coats were indeed dark blue upon issue, after a few months of campaigning, such coats suffered much fading, something seen in denim clothes today. While late entering units should indeed be painted dark blue, units entering the war in 1861 or 1862 should be given a "bleach" effect. My personal choice has been to work with enamel based paints such as Humbrol. To get the right effect, and to highlight wrinkles and other details on a casting, I use something called a "wash" effect. Priming all castings with a white undercoat, I dilute my navy blue paint with about 25-50% paint thinner (depending on the amount of "fading" effect I want to create). Soaking the brush with this, I allow it to run over the area I wish to paint. The end result is that much of the paint solution runs into the depressed area of the coat, such as wrinkles, making them much darker than the protruding areas. This effect highlights all recessed lines in dark blue, with the other areas being lighter in color as it they not been in the weather. The same thing can be done with kepis and soft hats. THE CONFEDERATE UNIFORM Unlike the Federal version, the southern states had a variety of color combinations, offering modern gamers a chance to have a lot of fun in preparing his rebel force. You will need a variety of colors to do some mixing and matching, the primary colors including dove gray, dark gray, canary yellow, sky blue, white, red, and various shades of brown. The basic regulation uniform had a light gray coat and either light gray, sky blue, dark blue, or charcoal gray pants. Infantry coats had sky blue cuffs and markings. The truth is that almost everyone knows what the regulation uniform looked like. It is the non-regulation stuff that makes for a real Confederate look! The color known as "butternut" is a varied hue depending on who made the uniform. In general, it was a brownish color. It requires some mixing of paints to get a close effect, such as mahogany with a small amount of yellow. However, almost any shade of brown used would probably be right. Battleshirts are too often overlooked by today's miniature enthusiasts. Some were just plain white, while many had a checkered pattern. Such a pattern can be duplicated with red and white checker colors, or even black and white. Some shirts seen by the author include "pin-stripes", vertical thin stripes of blue, red, or black on a white backround. If you ever get the chance, this author advises you to go to an area re-enactment done by 'Living History" buffs. The experience will certainly give you many realistic ideas for painting your authentic miniatures. Until then, this brief guide will hopefully help you create a better looking army! Back to The Zouave Vol IV No. 2 Table of Contents Back to The Zouave List of Issues Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 1990 The American Civil War Society This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com