Tuesday 26 January 2016

Smooth & Rifled ACW figures

I managed to purchase a number of boxes of 54mm scale ACW figures (Armies in Plastic and Call to Arms) recently at bargain basement prices. I've long had a fascination for larger scale figures and have often toyed with the idea of gaming with them.
I went on the hunt for a suitable set of skirmish rules and came upon Smooth & rifled which look like they may be the ticket but until I have some figs and scenery I cant comment on them till theyve been playtested...more to follow.

It's always a chore having to paint both sides of a conflict so I hit on a cunning plan. My good mate Rodgerof Rebel Barracks fame is a real ACW Confedertae fan and a sucker for nice figures, the plastic soldier type of course. All I had to do was give him a peek at the figs and some subtle encouragement and in no time he was walking out the door with a box of Confederate infantry and plans to get stuck into painting. To my delight he set to with a will and has already completed around twenty figs ready for action.
This put the ball squarely in my court to get my troops painted and based.

I present my first 54mm ACW figures.










The figures are fun to paint but I found the flag a cast iron bitch to do and frankly I'm not overly proud of the finished article...the stars look wrong and the stripes are a bit wavy but it'll do I guess.

Now let battle commence.

Oh BTW the picture in the background was taken by my intrepeid mate Rodger on a trip he made to Gettysburg last year.

10 comments:

  1. Nice looking figures! Look forward to seeing their opposition...
    54mm has always seemed to big to me for gaming.
    I've used Smooth & Rifled a few times and I think they're a good set of rules, they never seem to have caught on though as you don't see them mentioned much on gaming sites. Maybe there's a lot of closet users 😳. I downloaded all the period supplements even though I won't use some.

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  2. You can check out Rodgers Confederates on his blog 'Rebel Barracks'. I agree there hasnt been much interest from fellow gamers re: S & R but to be honest there's that many rules out there it's impossible to keep up. As long as theyre simple and quick play but have the right feel I'll be happy.
    Thoroughly enjoying your Landship AAR's BTW.

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  3. Very very nice buddy! I feel like I should paint up a few more!

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  4. Hey Ogilvie check out the 'A State of War' rules at:
    http://tynesidewargames.co.uk/downloads.html
    I don't think they're better than S&R (which I splashed out and bought and as above I like) but I've modified Richards for my use as i love the classes of troops using different dice to give them individuality plus these lend themselves to customising, I can send you mine with updates if you're interested...there's a review of them on my blog...lots of dice rolling but that's what gaming is about :-)
    http://captaindarlingsminiaturesemporium.blogspot.com.au/2015/02/a-ramble-on-rules.html
    Time for a Mint Julep me thinks!

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  5. Lovely work and images. Great seeing 54mm figures - I think for gaming it would have to be skirmish type of games; or at least just a portion of a larger battle. They are visually appealing though. To be honest, if I had to do it over again, I'd rather have fewer 54mm figs than more 28mm figs for gaming :)

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  6. 54mm is definitely best suited for skirmish level games. Sometimes its the small encounters between scouting parties or picket lines that make for an entertaining game. These sort of encounters would have happened on an almost daily basis when opposing armies were in close proximity to each other. I like the idea of using the models rather than having them on display on the shelf.

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