Painting 10mm Union Cavalry Riders

This is the second part of my tutorial on how I painted my 10mm GHQ American Civil War Union Cavalry. This entry will demonstrate how I painted the riders. With some minor differences, this is very similar to how I painted my Union Infantry. So between the two posts it should give a pretty good idea of how I went about painting most of my 10mm union miniatures so far.

The first step was to get them mounted on something so they would be easier to paint. With the infantry and horses, this was just a matter of gluing them to some large popsicle sticks. The cavalry riders were a bit trickier, but I managed to come up with a decent system. I straightened out a paper clip and used clippers to cut it into many short, straight sections. I super-glued one of these to the tab on each of the riders. Then I drilled small holes in a popsicle stick and inserted the ends of the paper clips into the holes, applying some glue. When the glue dried, they held pretty well. The only tricky part is getting the paper clips glued solidly to the tabs on the riders. The end result can be seen below.

The miniatures are mounted on a popsicle stick using paper clips.


Black spray paint is used to give the riders an undercoat of black. Anything that is missed by the spray paint is brush painted with a thin coat of black paint to ensure there is a solid black undercoat with no metal showing through.



The base colors of the uniform are painted on, leaving some black color in the recesses. The trousers are painted a very light blue color, and the jackets are painted a bright, medium blue. These are intentionally much lighter than the intended final result.



A blue ink wash is applied to the entire miniature.



Flesh areas, wooden parts of the carbines, the Colonel's hat, and the guidon pole are painted brown. The metal parts of the weapons, spurs, and other metal parts are painted a metallic silver. The order of those two steps will vary depending on which parts of the guns are easier to paint first.



The flesh areas are drybrushed with a light flesh tone, leaving the brown color in the recesses. Afterward, moustaches are painted on many of the faces in several different colors. The Colonel's gloves are painted a dull yellow color.




The belts, cartridge boxes, cap visors, and boots are painted black. They can then be highlighted with a dark grey where desired. The flesh areas and the Colonel's gloves are given a gentle highlight with a light tan color.




The sword sheaths are painted grey. The stirrups are painted a light brown, leathery color. The same color is used to put some highlights on the carbines and the Colonel's hat. Buttons, buckles, sword hilts, the bugle, and other appropriate areas are painted metallic gold.


The trim, collars, and chevrons are painted in bright yellow. The bugler normally has a pattern of yellow trim all across the front of his jacket, which I couldn't replicate in this scale. So I tried to paint enough yellow that, from a distance, it might look similar enough. The guidon is painted white, then the top half painted red. The whole thing should be painted white first because it is much easier to paint red over white than over black. The tip of the guidon pole is painted silver.

Any necessary touch-ups are made, and the coats and trousers are highlighted using their original colors. The models are then varnished and are now ready to be glued to the horses, which I had already based. Below are some pictures of the finished unit.