From TamsinP - 6mm Confederate Infantry (308 points)

You've all been wondering when I will drop my first points bomb of the Challenge. In the past I'd have dropped one or two by now, but you need wait no longer for here is my first (and maybe only) points bomb of the year.

For your delectation I present you with 616 Confederate infantry. These are 6mm figures from Baccus

As I wanted to create some variation in clothing, etc I made the decision to paint all of them as one batch. Never again. Painting the same tiny detail on 616 figures (particularly flesh - 616 faces and 1232 hands!) is enough to reduce any sane person to a gibbering wreck who has lost the will to live. However, I was slightly ahead of the game and only had the will to live to lose.

(numbers in parenthesis after colours are the Vallejo Model Colour codes unless otherwise indicated).

For those who are interested, after basecoating the figures with a mix of Sky Grey (989) and Light Grey (990), I then randomly selected 0, 1 or 2 figures per stick (6 strips of 4 line or 2/3 strips of 4 skirmish order) to get jackets or trousers in either of 2 different greys (Sky Grey/Field Blue (964) mix, Neutral Grey (992) or 3 different browns (Brown Sand (876), Beige Brown (875), English Uniform (921)/Beige Brown mix). 

I also gave each stick a 1 in 6 chance of having one guy in Sky Blue (961) trousers removed from a dead Union soldier. 

To vary the officers a bit, I gave a 1 in 4 chance for his jacket and trousers to be Dark Bluegrey (867).

Hats were done in 6 different colours - Sky Grey, Basalt Grey (869), Black Grey (862), Tan Earth (874), Cork Brown (843), Chocolate Brown (872). The order was varied according to a matrix I worked out.

Blanket rolls were done in 4 colours - Luftwaffe Uniform (816), Green Grey (886), German Camo Pale Brown (825), Mahogany Brown (846). As with the hats, I used a matrix to vary the order.

Half the strips had Orange Brown (981) belts and bayonet scabbards, the other half black (950). Officers' belts and sword scabbards were also done in black as were all the cartridge boxes. Similarly, half the water canteens were Dark blue Grey (904). The breadbags and their straps were Pale Sand (837).

Faces and hands were done in Flat Flesh (955), hair was German cam Medium Brown (826). The strip bases were Burnt Umber (941).

The musket stocks and the flag staffs were painted Light Brown (929). For the metallic parts I used Model Air paints - Steel (065) for muskets barrels, and Gold (066) for the tips of flag staffs and various bits on the officers. The drums were painted with a mix of VMC Copper (999) and VMA Gold, then given rims of Flat Red (957); the skins were Pale Sand.

Once all the painting was done, they got a coat of brush-on matt varnish before basing. To create further variety I mixed up all the strips with the same belt colour and randomly selected 5 strips to go with each command strip.

Now for the dangerous part - close up pics of 6mm figures!!

Phew! I'm going to take a break from 6mm Rebs for a short while and paint something else. I still have two bases of Zouave infantry, cavalry (mounted and dismounted), artillery (crews only - I painted the guns last year) and commanders to paint which will appear later in the Challenge once my will to live has returned!

I guess the points thing goes here: 616 x 6mm foot should be 308 points. The flags are commercial from Baccus so won't get any points - and I do know that I need to go over the edges where the white is showing.

I thought it would be good to greet the day with a hearty rebel yell and this entry from Tamsin fit the bill quite nicely. 

Wow. This is a rootin' tootin' passel of Rebs Tamsin, make no mistake. 

You've done a beautiful job on making these figures varied enough to keep them from turning into amorphous grey lines. Also, I think your basing came off very well, making them look like they are in proper battle formations, yet not cluttered with unnecessary terrain which can make 6mm basing seem too busy. Very clean and impressive work.

This 308 points will vault you nicely among those in the top 10 - Well done Ms. P!