Chasseur a Cheval Revolutionary Army

 The WSS Marshalls are taking a little break while I mull over the basing, in the meantime Ive been busying myself with some commissions (more goblins and a 40K thingummy bob) and a couple of Napoleonic pieces for myself which come from a diorama set piece. Small problems with uniform details had held up this project, now resolved, so some pig energy has been diverted into this direction.

Bit bright with the photos but you get the general idea, figure from Eureka Miniatures tell Nic I sent you and he's bound to be nice to one of us.

 Fear not goblinites and thingummy bob users your pieces will get done before Santa wipes his nose on your duvet.

thanks for looking
Dave

Your thoughts on paint brands, a paint is a paint of course of course

Hello Mr Ed here....... what paints do you use?

At risk of posting highly flammable topic I want to gauge the general consensus regarding paint quality nowadays, what has prompted this post? .....well my dissapointment with some brands (or particular colours within a range) of paints in recent years, am I alone, what do you think?

Most of you probably have a selection of brands as I do and maybe like me you may have multiple generations of a particular brand. It is claimed, rightly or wrongly, that certain brands suit particular styles of painting so perhaps you may have an opinion regarding suitability of brands based on this assumption. There is a lot of hearsay and Chinese whispers within the hobby regarding formulations of paint brands which promotes speculation on their quality and usefulness, I'm really more interested in personal experiences not the "I was talking to someone who new a bloke that was mates with a guy that worked for........"

I'm interested in hearing/reading what your thoughts are regardless of your experience, style and what you paint for (table top, display etc) if I can decode a general trend I will try to write up your combined thoughts as an publishable article.



Let me provide a bit of background as to my own paint collection. No matter what the age if the paint is still viable and behaves as it did when I first purchased it I still own it, this makes my paint collection look a little like a museum, I have no shame. Big old glass jars, tiny 80's Humbrol white plastic pots and tinned enamels, every type of citadel pot, Ral Partha/AD&D fat screw tops etc. Of course many more have been tossed than survived the years as the climate isn't kind to paints that haven't been carefully watched what was liquid last week might well be hard as rock the next. As far as style goes, well to be honest, for many years it has revolved around painting 15mm historical armies (lots of figures) so layered dry brushing was the most effective way for me to produce good results on small miniatures in quantity although generals or personality figures would get thorough treatment with carefully layered highlights and shading. The last year 18 months has seen me move to 25-32mm with an eye to eventually painting display miniatures mostly utilizing dry layering and if I'm feeling bold or confident I use the transparency (well diluted) style. Surprisingly enough it is the transperency style and a very old Humbrol acrylic which started me thinking, I found I was having enormous trouble getting the right result with GW and Reaper (both new pots) paints and as a last resort went to an old Humbrol, in good condition and close to the right shade, success. No plasticky (it's a word) finish, no shiny shiny. no breaking down of previous layers, no chalkiness, in short other than slightly courser pigments a nice even matt finish. Now no doubt some of you may be thinking "hey Paint Pig you like a shiny finish to your miniatures" too true, but not half way through the paint job. The plastic shiny finish some brands leave make it very difficult to add subsequent washes or layers and quickly lead you down a slippery slope.

To avoid overly long comments you may send your thoughts via email and I will post them in entirety or relevant sections on the blog. Please dont use this as an opportunity to overtly diss a particular brand, constructive useful criticism or praise works best.

thanks for reading

Dave

Return of the WSS French Marshalls

Yes an actual rooly trooly painting post!

Getting back to where I left off some months ago with my French Marshalls and the NMM and TMM attempts (geez those initials look totally wank).  Basically nmm is using normal non metallic paint to simulate metal like the amazing Hussar Bob (check him out, google it!) and tmm uses metallic paints to simulate metal, "derrrr" I hear you scream, that's fair. OK for me it means using different shades/colours of metallic paint (and in my case inks) to give shade, highlight and mid tones to the metal parts of the figurine.  I'll say more about the processes of both these techniques and how I coped or not in a later post, suffice to say I'm really glad I had a crack at them.

A bit off work has been done on the figures at last and the metallic painted lace is finished the figure has been sealed with lacquer and the final 'fiddly bits' are moving into place, most noticeably with this figure is the amount of mane and rein that needed to be trimmed off of the mount to fit the rider. All that aside progress has been made, so here a few photos of work to date, the quality is not to my best standard, it appears the lacquer I used was pretty well full gloss instead of my normal satin and all that extra shiny played havoc with the camera's perjerba sensors and grommit flange stabilizers!

Thanks for looking
Dave

Ahoy there my meaty merlot swilling matey's Painting DVDs

To be honest this is a naval and wine free post so the title is slightly irrelevant. Having completed settling in the family elder into her new abode, modding it to suit her requirements, holding garage sales and generally wasting my time around the Bunderburg area with fishing rod in hand ;-) I return to the land of the painted lead. Not that I have been totally absent, completing two commissions in the interval on my days when I have been back in Brisbane looking after matters at home. I have also had the chance to watch a couple of painting DVDs all the way through, something I struggle to do with just about any DVD, whilst up north away from the brushes. Now I'm not saying I sat down and watched a 3 DVD set in one sitting but I did watch them more or less without distraction over consecutive days.

So, having now watched theses miniature painting DVDs more or less in their entirety without massive periods of time elapsing between sittings I find myself better placed to appreciate the approach of the painters and their techniques and evaluate the benefits. I suppose I should mention the title of the DVDs in question instead of rambling on, in no particular order they are ....... "Hot Lead" a 3 DVD set which covers all the basics through to some advanced techniques in detailed fashion and at a relatively even pace. The second is "Painting with JBT" a two DVD set which covers the basics in a fairly sparse way but covers more advanced techniques and ideas in much more detail and matter of fact delivery.

Now I'm not going to go into a detailed critique of these titles here and now but I will pad out a little about each DVD set in an upcoming post. I will say that I feel I got my moneys worth with both sets even though they covered information and techniques I already utilize in my painting. Till next time.

thanks guys
Dave