I was “away from base” recently. Inspired by Julian’s efforts at constructing buildings whilst ‘on the road’, I took some figures and paints with me in the hope that I might get a bit done in the evenings, thus making a good start on my share of the Army of Bohemia. I am pleased to report that it worked!
Two hundred and eighty-eight figures of Austrian line infantry, which will represent twelve units of 24-figures in our Leipzig game, undercoated with Payne's grey and a few of them given a base coat of white, flesh and black.
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| Getting there. Note largish brush, water (I use acrylics) and old tablet containers for mixing paint |
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| All undercoated and a few to the next stage |
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It’s a small step towards the 55 units of Austrians that we need for Leipzig, but is progress nonetheless.
Meanwhile, Mark has been steadily producing beautifully painted units of Austrians and some Prussians.
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| Prussian hussars, first colours—Mark undercoats in white |
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| Ditto but in this case Austrian cuirassiers |
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| An old favourite being painted as an Austrian |
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| Prussian dragoons ready for the finishing touches |
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| Prussian landwehr cavalry... |
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| ...lead by a dapper looking officer |
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| Austrian artillery |
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| Das Kaiserlicks |
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| A suave Austrian officer plays at pirates |
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| Another view |
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| IR #9 |
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| Austrian IR #19 |
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| more of the same with a Prussian dragoon officer looking on |
Leipzig 200 by October still looks possible at this stage!
Nice figures, Austrian infantry is looking great!
ReplyDeletePhil.
They are more of Mark's great work Phil
DeleteLooking good James. You must have the patience of a Saint to paint figures in those numbers mate! Good luck.
ReplyDeleteAll the best,
Steve
I just "nibbled" away at them. It took the better part of a week of evenings! I find that painting is a most therapeutic activity, the trouble is getting myself in front of the paints when I also want prepare scenarios, type up our rule edits, read and review books, look at all the wonderful blogs and do updates to our blog in non-work time!
DeleteWow! What a production line!
ReplyDeleteI get overwhelmed when I try to paint like that. I don't like to see the immensity of the task before me; I prefer nibbling away, one unit at a time!
Good luck with reaching your deadline.
I don't seem to have a 'usual' method at present Ben. I used to always paint a unit at a time but recently I have tried largish numbers, doing one while also doing bits of others, having a few on the go at a time and then this opportunistic go at painting a large number. The outcome is many units that are 1/2 (or less) to 3/4 completed. Then there is the last 10% as MurdocK mentioned below...!
DeleteThat´s perfect! We need some kinde of "painting tutorial" for us, Czech rookies :-) Looks great!
ReplyDeleteHello!
DeleteI have done a detailed one regarding doing horses with acrylics and water based inks:
http://murdocksmarauders.blogspot.ca/search/label/HORSE%20PAINTING
There are other posts in my blog about the topic in general:
http://murdocksmarauders.blogspot.ca/search/label/Brushworks
They go back many years now.
Thanks Voktech. MurdocK has given you some great posts to look at.
DeleteThere is one on our blog mainly about preparing figures for painting (http://avonnapoleonicfellowship.blogspot.com.au/2012/04/figure-preparation.html). The Hat website has some useful tips and suggestions too:
http://www.hat.com/Tips.html
http://www.hat.com/Colors.html
That is so impressive James but make sure you don't sneeze and knock 'em all over! I'm really looking forward to this game so please keep us posted with more updates like this - also any chance of you posting a full OOB with unit sizes?
ReplyDeleteThat is the plan Ian and I want to make it the topic of a future post. Trouble is that I have not yet typed it all up! :-)
DeleteFull power to the blazing brushes!
ReplyDeleteI shall have another 100 or so come out in March for the 1813 game we have going James.
I find that, especially when the poses are all the same, the painting progress goes way faster with all the troops in front of you. I can often get into a zen flow and go for 2 hours on things. The hardest part is when detail work is called for. In the bulk work of undercoating and first block colors I can do with a huge brush and wet sloppy strokes. It is when the faces and musket barrels or other metal works are needing to be done that the time gets eaten up. In those cases I will often just do one color in a night (making the white for the Austrians a long night!).
BRAVO on the works so far!
It's that last 10% that takes 80% of the time isn't it?!
Delete