Starting 10mm American Civil War

Hi there,

Just a short update today. I've started on the 10mm American Civil War figures seen in my Pendraken review. I decided to start with the Confederates, reasoning that their irregularity will make them slower to paint and thus once their down, the Union will seem easy! With basing I decided on 30mm wide, 20mm deep basing. Infantry will be six to a base, cavalry two. These bases are small so I can use them to play Regimental Fire and Fury. RF&F has artillery based short end to the front unlike the infantry and cavalry however I won't be doing this. The 30mm base width allows me to place two bases side by side to form a brigade for Altar of Freedom - gotta plan ahead with these things! Thanks for reading. :)

Confederate infantry. These Pendrakens paint up so easily! Based the same way I've done my 6mm

An example of how I'll base for Altar of Freedom - the bases are poster tacced onto a 60x30 base, leaving 10mm at the rear for labels.

Commander (left) and cavalry (right). Going two per base with cavalry in my mind suits their role in the civil war (and makes my figures go further too!).

And the rear. The command base is simply the command figures for the cavalry re-purposed as the force commander.

Pendraken Manufacturer Review

Hi again!

Back this time with a manufacturer review, this time it's Pendraken Miniatures from the UK. Pendraken makes 10mm miniatures for a huge variety of ranges, from ancient to modern as well as sci-fi and fantasy. I was looking to do an American Civil War side project and liked the price and style of Pendraken after looking around online. 10mm seems to be a nice scale in my mind for ACW. I'll be basing six infantry/two cavalry/one gun to a 30mm wide by 25mm deep base. I intend on using these to play Regimental Fire and Fury to really focus on those key actions of the war, but this basing scheme also lets me place two bases side by side to form brigades for Altar of Freedom. As I said above, this was intended to be a side project to give me a break from my 6mm Napoleonics, but I'm been very impressed by these figures, so it may become a bit bigger down the track...

Now onto the review! I break my manufacturer reviews into three segments

- Quality and design of product
- How they are purchased/packed
- Service/Cost

Quality and design of product

Pendraken's figures are definitely of a good quality. Design wise the detail is fairly chunky, which makes them very easy to paint. The sculpts have tonnes of character to them, something which I kind of picked up in the bare metal but became very obvious once I started applying paint. Size wise these tend to sit around 12mm to the top of the hat (10mm to eye level). To me this feels perfect, large enough to have plenty of visible detail yet small enough to be easy to paint with simple techniques. I'm not a great painter by any measure but I was very pleased with the results of my first infantry. on the downside, mold lines on some of the figures can be quite prominent and often run along the face of the figure. These are relatively simple to remove as these ACW figures are not covered in equipment. This is perhaps something to keep in mind for more elaborately detailed figures (WW2 British paras come to mind, with helmet detail and plenty of gear). The biggest downside for me came with the rifles, which often have no visible firing mechanism and in some cases were perhaps cast a bit too thin, resulting in weapons that easily broke. The firing mechanism may not be necessary at this scale but the brittle rifles was disappointing. That said I think the pros outweigh the cons here.

Confederate infantry. This is not all the poses included. Lots of character!

Confederate cavalry. Some of the cavalry figures are great. Cavalry is perhaps the forgotten arm of the American Civil War, but Pendraken has brought it to life here.

Great figures!

Confederate artillery. Guns are four piece and look easy to assemble.

Size comparison to Baccus 6mm Napoleonics.

My first 12 CSA infantry. I'm very pleased with how these came out.

How they are purchased/packed
Pendraken has kept their packaging and purchase scheme simple and operates an easy to navigate website. Infantry is packed 30/pack, cavalry 15/pack. Infantry command packs have 15/pack. Artillery is sold 4 guns/pack with crew packaged separately (16/pack to match up with the guns). Personally I think this is a mistake, however it may be convenient for those who wish to make destroyed artillery markers.  Starter armies are available with 150 infantry (including command groups), 15 cavalry and 3 guns with crew. Key generals such as Lee and Grant are available individually along with a broad array of other items such as wagons, sharpshooters, stretcher bearers and even civlians. I personally purchased a starter pack for each side of the war.

Packaging is simple. The package came in a soft post bag. One plastic bag per starter army. Only the artillery is packed separately, infantry and cavalry you'll need to sort yourself! 

Service/Cost
Pricing is very competitive, something which initially attracted me to Pendraken. All prices here exclude VAT.

Infantry pack (30) - 4.38 pounds (8.30AUD)
Infantry command (15) - 2.21 pounds (4.20AUD)
Cavalry (15) -  4.38 pounds (8.30AUD)
Guns (4) - 3.50 pounds (4.60AUD)
Gun Crew (16) -  2.33 pounds (4.40AUD)
Starter Army - 27.5 pounds (52AUD)

Service was very good. Everything was cast and shipped in around a week and came in good condition. I can't comment on how you would go with complaints as I had none!

Conclusion
Pendraken offers characterful figures at a good price, making 10mm a compelling halfway between 6mm and 15mm. While their figures have fairly prominent mould lines and some of the rifles are overly brittle, the figures in general have plenty of easy to paint detail with a variety of fantastic sculpts. Highly recommended.