ACW Federal Regular Infantry

It's not all pork pie and claret this Christmas; I've actually finished some figures today!

These are going to be for the unit of Federal Regulars who fought at Bull Run.  They were a composite unit formed from men from several different regiments.  A few more regiments like these may have made a difference to the eventual outcome.

Perry Miniatures don't make the correct figures for these troops but fortunately, and rather to my surprise, Crusader do, under their rank and file range.  I am very fussy about mixing figures from different manufacturers but while these are a little shorter than the Perry figures they aren't that different and, crucially, the muskets are the same length.  In separate units the difference will be unnoticeable.  I will now order the rest of the figures I need for the unit as Crusader also do a command set.

As regards painting, I saw several mentions that in this period the regulars had dark blue trousers but then again some illustrations had them in the paler blue.  Some had them in the pale blue but with a broad dark blue stripe down the outside of the trousers.  Given that it is a composite unit I might paint the others up with these different trousers.  

They look a bit squat in the picture as I only managed to get one done before the battery died in my camera and my wife's camera battery had packed up too.  I'll try to get some better pictures when I do the whole unit.