I seem to have lost a bit of 'traction' since Salute - little hobby activity, partly due to 'real life' stuff, as always. But I have been trying to make some painting progress, however sporadic.Chiefly this has been with the Spencer-Smith 7YW infantry for Saxony - but I am first to admit I have not been doing a brilliant job!
The main problem is that they are quite lacking in definition of uniform details - plus the ones I have had been varnished too, presumably as a stiffening undercoat. Perhaps I should have tried to strip them, but was very uncertain about what could be used safely without dissolving the figures - they are the old plastic versions. So I slathered a coat of white onto them, and hoped for the best - in the process blurring even more of what little detail they had. I just don't have the skill, patience and dexterity to accurately 'paint on' the details. Choosing a regiment with Yellow facing colour also made things more 'interesting', and there's always the challenge of white crossbelts on a predominantly white uniform - how to make them stand out? For that feature, I have tried using a fine artist's black lining pen to mark the edges of the belt ( more or less - not a very steady hand!) and then painting the white belt inside the lines. I wasn't very hopeful for the results, but persisted and they look ( just about ) OK to me for my very simple block-painted style. One foible I have is to always do the faces and hands pretty much last; I think I read that in Terry Wise as a kid, and it seems to 'bring the figure to life' somehow.
So, with apologies to any half-decent painters out there, let alone the button-counters, here's a work in progress picture..
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| "don't look, Ethel.." |
Not my finest hour, and the officer, drummer and ensign will be even more of a challenge, but it will be great to have some genuine old 'SSMs' on the table, as seen in the old pics of Charles Grant / Young and Lawford games. The worst-painted units always fight best anyway, don't they?
A change is as good as a rest, they say, so I am also turning to my recently-acquired Macedonians and Persian 'DBA' armies. Reading the relevant Osprey books is interesting, both by Nicholas Sekunda who takes a pretty rigourous approach, the illustations are strictly recreated from depictions of soldiers on carvings, mosaics, wall-paintings and ceramics etc from the time, which I suppose is the only real evidence, after all. The Macedonians seem to have a pretty limited palate, simple colour schemes on simple clothing, which suits me - but the Persians may be another thing completely, with multi-coloured outfits and quite complex patterns. They should look fantastically colourful when painted up, but it will certainly be 'interesting' to paint them!
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| Ospreys for basic reference |
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| Persian Immortals will be 'fun' to paint(!) |
So far, I have gone as far as spraying both DBA armies with primer - Macedonians in white, Persians grey. I suppose a game of DBA could be played, as they are? ( 'Unpainted figues on the table? You'll be drummed out, sir!' ).
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| Primed and ready.. |
There has been a little gaming, but you already know about it, if you follow the excellent Jon Freitag's Palouse Wargaming Journal : I was lucky enough to be one of the players in his second game of Montgomery, 1644 a couple of weeks ago. A thoroughly good time was had by all, and we 'romantic but wrong' Royalists were victorious, albeit quite narrowly, I thought. My infantry pretty well knocked out their opposite numbers ( we did have a 5 to 3 advantage there ), while Chris ('Nundanket') i/c cavalry just about managed to hold out against the superior Parliamentary horse - though they ended up with a couple of their regiments on our baseline, pretty scary! Our opponent Mark ( aka Jolly Broom Man ) put up a great fight, especially since he was also probably writing orders for the French at Wavre, at the same time, in his role as Grouchy. He was anything but a grouch with us.. ( I'll get my coat ).
Finally for now, I am thinking quite hard about venturing northwards to Newark on Sunday, for a first visit to the Partizan show. 120 miles each way to drive will be hard work, but I have a free day and am inclined to give it a go. If so, there will inevitably be pictures in an upcoming post here - watch this space! Meanwhile keep well, everyone.
David, in my book, any progress is good progress. Keep pressing on! Your Persian Army will be a colorful delight to see once mustered out.
ReplyDeleteGlad you enjoyed the recent Montgomery battle. The battle was good fun with a congenial group of players. I appreciate the blog plug.
Having successfully returned from ACW battlefield forays Back East, plans are formulating to bring some of these ACW actions to the table. I am considering First Manassas as a starter. Interested?
Many thanks for kind words, Jon. I will indeed persist, and the ancients will be nothing if not colourful! I would be about as experienced at ACW as the real-life protagonists were ( i.e. total beginners ) - but yes, please count me in!
DeleteDavid,
ReplyDeleteAs the person responsible for inflicting the Spencer Smiths on you, I feel compelled to offer some advice!
Firstly, a coat of varnish BEFORE undercoating is essential. I do this with all my figures, although I'm not responsible for the ones I gave you.
The reason is that the plastic used will shed paint at the merest look, irrespective of whether you have scrubbed them with detergent or not. Some is worse than others; there's a glossy light grey that is especially paint resistant and slippy, brown is generally OK.
Stripping, I have used Dettol without ill effects on the figures, but the smell is another matter.
You are correct; details are very fine and can be better on some figures rather than others. Block colours look flat. You have to either black line or use a black undercoat as I do. I appreciate this makes the details even harder to see. It does allow definition and the colours to pop out.
Many people approach SS figures as they would a metal miniature and are sadly disappointed. I was when I first painted them. That said, I've seen the likes of Willz Hartley paint shading and highlights without black lining.
If you are unhappy with them, all I can suggest is trying some black lining on them as per Duchy of Alzheim where he took block painted miniatures and outlined the straps and different parts. Alternatively, undercoat in black and drybrush in grey or white trying yo leave black in the shadows.
As to Partizan, I have debated going (a friend suggested it but may not be able to make it), still undecided as it's a pain to get to even though geographically close due to a lack of public transport.
Neil
Thanks Neil, that is all very good advice. I think I shyed away from a black undercoat becuase I was worried that the white for the coats might not cover it very well, but I think I may try it on the next batch - I like your 'black undercoat, drybrush white/grey' suggestion. And yes, I remember that you were not responsible for the initial state of these! Overall I think this first batch will do OK - as it happens I did apply the lining pen to all the 'joins' on one figure and it looked OK, now mulling whether to do that to the rest. Thanks again - I should emphasise that I am really pleased to have these figures!
DeleteI had no problems with white coats using Vallejo white on black car primer. As I had to touch up where I went over black lines, they did get a second visit with the white, but as an added highlight, not main coat as it were.
DeleteExamples here (including yellow facings!):
http://aufklarungsabteilung.blogspot.com/2022/05/progress-report.html
Neil
thanks Neil, those look good, I like your 'black-lining' style!
DeleteSo much to comment on here! My painting technique is to undercoat with a white or light grey spray then wash with GW nuln oil (black) - the oil settles in all of the strap edges and detail while the light coloured undercoat doesn’t present problems if painting lightish block colours over the top. If you don’t paint right up to the edges you get nice bright colours with a thin black line around belts etc already done for you. Montgomery…mmm…your comments were way too kind. Your good self and Chris gave me a total drubbing. I’d love to say I was distracted by my involvement in the Wavre game but I wasn’t…I was just rubbish…lol. I think we all experience highs and lows in painting progress by the way. Don’t let it get you down old fruit, things will undoubtedly pick up again soon enough.
ReplyDeleteThanks JBM, that painting method looks interesting..
DeleteMontgomery was a great game anyway, in a way it's nicely balanced 'cos the Royalist foot should beat its opposite numbers and the Parliamentary Horse should do the same - which makes for an interesting situation at the end of the game.
Agree about painting 'highs and lows' - I think a 'low' was the last few weeks not getting very far with these Saxons, but actually I am more positive having got some sort of result, even if not perfect!
Sounds like a difficult job. I have no words of advice other than, if it's good enough at arm's length it's good enough to game with.
ReplyDeleteThanks Chris, you are exactly right - I reckon they will still fight OK!
DeleteIt sounds like the DBA are more joyous at the moment, so I would switch attention to them. The SYW figs will soon come back into your orbit.
ReplyDeleteThanks Norm, yes I think it's probably a good idea to have one or two different things on the go, on the basis of 'a change is as good as a rest'. Actually I was fairly encouraged once I'd got some of those SYW figures more or less finished, it was just a bit hard going at times when trying to work out how to progress with them!
DeleteYou've had various good advice but I'll give you my one experience instead. It was a commission job some 20 odd years ago. Since I'd never seen a SS in the flesh, and few in pictures, I willingly accepted though I doubted my ability to make anything attractive of them. I used techniques I'd learned in the early 70's before becoming a wargamer. In my case a white or light grey primer then block painting then some subtle shading. No black outlining etc, instead I used a darker shade of the colours, where shadows would lie, in creases, under arms under the belts (but not the tops) and and a lighter shade applied lightly on top of areas where the light would fall. To my surprise the figures didn't look 1/2 bad. I've got a picture somewhere..........AHH https://gameofmonth.blogspot.com/2014/02/spencer-smith-flashback.html
ReplyDeleteThanks Ross, all advice from those with experience is good, and from the look of it you did a lovely job on those figures! I now have several different options for doing the next lot, though I suspect my rudimentary painting 'skills' may be a limiting factor. Many thanks to all who have contributed their thoughts!
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