Monday, January 11, 2010

Victrix finished! (well half of 'em anyway!)



After my 40mm and then 20mm digressions, its back to the 28mm figures.

The 1st Regimente of Infantry of the Line, Kingdom of Italy is now complete.  With casualty marker and skirmishers.  They turned out OK - would that I could get a finish like the figures by Giles (Tarleton's Quarter) or Dave (Saxon Dog) but I'm reasonably happy with the results.  I spent a bit of extra time on the basing and used rocks and grass - although the grass (grasfaser - dunkelgrun) is a little too dark for my liking.  After seeing Dave's results with dipping (the Army Painter system?) I'm tempted to try it.  It may save time rather than innumerable washes.

After doing that tutorial on my 'you-beaut' methods of painting white uniforms I'm ashamed to say I ended up using an inferior white acrylic in which the pigment was too coarse.  With the heat it dried too fast leaving an unfortunate chalky finish which I couldn't always disguise.  Best thing you could say about it was that it took the washes well!

I'll photograph the full regimente, skirmish and casualty sets again as the heat is affecting both the photographer and his equipment!

I'll post some more of the other skirmish & casualties and a WIP of the latter as I've got some of the Perry's from the French Heavy Cav box and Frankenstein-like I have been slicing and dicing to create more dead 'uns!

Cheers,
    Doc

6 comments:

  1. Nice job!

    I am completely confused which direction to go in Napoleonics

    15mm and 2mm were my chosen scales
    25/28 seem more feasible now in plastics
    Hmm

    An equation involving:
    Time to paint
    Cost
    Bulk

    Hmmm?

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  2. No easy answer to that one Geordie - as you can see from my last few posts I went through the whole thing myself - only difference being I sold all my 15mm some years ago.

    If you do Napoleonics there are great ranges in all three scales. I personally think 20mm are easier to paint - as long as they are hard plastic or metal. On the other hand there is a major movement into (hard) plastics by some of the best sculptors working now like the Perrys. It means we are spoiled for choice.

    So, time to paint, cost & bulk 20mm still have the competitive edge BUT - 28mm are also very affordable and the quality and range are rapidly increasing.

    Yeh, very confusing but I've got no plans to go back to 20mm just at the moment.

    Cheers,
    Doc

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  3. Doc - nice job. I like the Italian uniforms - it's a nice change of pace from the standard french uniforms I paint.

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  4. Love the 20mm stuff as well!

    Matt

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  5. Hi Doc,

    Doing a wash on white is quite a challenge that I have still not worked out. I am finishing a unit of Perry British that are coming out great with using a wash technique over an automotive white primer. Pretty well the whole figure has been done with washes, aside from the facings and the metallics. They have come out great, until I tried to wash the white trousers. I just can not get the wash (a much diluted GW sepia) to settle in the crevasses. I am puzzled why this is as all the undiluted washes work fantastically. Is it the primer or the dilution. Unfortunately no one appears to make a wash that is thin enough for white.

    I am sort of reluctant to use the army painter because of the mess. I am trying another trick now, but am unsure if it will work. I am going to spray a light coat of Testors Dullcote over the white primer and see if this will improve the settling of the wash into the crevasses.I will keep you appraised. I really got to find a method to do white as want to do some Italians and my next big project will be Austrians.

    John

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  6. Hi John - I had a similar problem and I think its because there's just not enough pigment in the diluted wash to enable it to gravitate into the crevices as it doesn't seem to do it with standard (non-diluted) washes. I ended up using a primer white that with the chalky consistency was more absorbent, allowing the water to soak in rather than run off. The downside it that it is grainy - perhaps a bit too much so. I'd be interested to see how you go with the Dullcoat because, as you say with the dipping method - its messy, and I'd prefer to work out a reliable wash method first!

    The other way is to use a full strength wash and then highlight a few times over the top with cream or off-white, then white. You won't get that smooth transition of shading but you will get a nice graded effect of shadow in the creases. Just an idea.

    Cheers,
    Doc

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