Painting the masses of figures needed for RFAF

This week I have been gearing up to paint another horde of Union troops for Regimental Fire and Fury. Just checking through the rules and what I would need to play the scenarios, I was amazed to see just how many figures one would need for a game. Games featuring 175 stands for example, now considering there are three figures per stand, that's a lot of painting to be done.
I have seen on other Blogs that some 28mm gamers use bases with only two figures on and this certainly helps in raising forces quickly, but I like the packed, crowded battle lines so will stick with three per base. It says early on in the rules that they were designed for 15mm which does kind of explains a few things.

The one thing I do love about the game is that It tells you to paint up generic armies of Union and Confederate, so they can be used for any unit. I like this as It gives me an excuse to go crazy and paint buckets of lead not worrying about what Corps they belong to or special regiment. Just loads of dark blue and sky blue is needed to start the mass production. Saying that I have just received my favourite regiment the 14th Brooklyn from Forgotten and Glorious. This and of course the Iron Brigade will be the only units in the army that are based on renown regiments. I'm looking forward to it and It will come as a nice break from painting dirty Orcs.

I plan to paint on a big scale due the the mass of figures I will need for a big game, so will aim to paint in batches of 60 figures. I will keep everything simple with just a few colour changes to trousers etc and not go too crazy. Hopefully that way I can churn out the numbers quickly. Oh well It's a thought anyway...

I'm still going to stick with my new rule of only painting figures with Sack coats and Frock coats for Union troops. This may mean I will go back and try to tweak some of my earlier painting this year.