Shiny 28mm AWI's?

It's been a difficult past few weeks on the hobby front and indeed for my painting service. After eighteen months of continuous painting I hit the dreaded 'block'. For me that's time to clear the decks and start again with something fresh.

I had to make the decision to focus my ongoing commission work on 20mm figures from now on, mainly because I have noticed that my eyesight is struggling with the smaller scales (6mm & 10mm) somewhat. Unfortunately this has meant returning a couple of 6mm jobs unpainted, something I was really loathe to do, but all is now sorted amicably I'm pleased to say. With the 15mm Napoleonics now sold and posted, together with two more units of early Spanish infantry (20mm) completed and delivered I feel that I can move on again. This morning I have undercoated and started on more figures for Old John, beginning with the Strelets  plastic set featuring Charles X11 of Sweden being carried on a litter at Poltava.

28mm Perry AWI's.
Last week I was browsing the Perry website and was drawn to the latest plastic boxes - the American Revolution British line and Continental line sets. On impulse I ordered a box of each to 'play around with'. Both sets are great value offering lots of variations and after a break from the brushes painted up 4 test figures from the British set. I'm pleased how they turned out, and after painting smaller figures for so long I found them remarkably easy to paint. The results you can see below.

Last night I gave them a final highlight to coats, flesh and belts and then sat back to think about varnish. I thought I would try a shiny finish so they were given a couple of coats of Klear wash. I kind of liked the results I have to say, the reds came up nice and bright and it seemed to lift the highlights slightly. However this morning I matt varnished them. I'm still not sure which I like best! I don't know what I'll do with them yet, I have no intention of starting another large collection, but I might - just might - think about using them for the new Commands & Colors AWI scenarios that are appearing on ccnapoleonics.net. Just 50 or so figures per side would do the trick and could look quite spectacular.

Before final highlights.

Highlights added (coats brought up to scarlet) 

'Unfashionably shiny'..... nice though?

Yes, I kind of like this finish.

And now matt varnished - I can't make up my mind!

I like to listen to music when I paint although I'm quite selective and tend not to listen to the radio but rather individual tunes and albums of choice. Today's post on Tony's blog (click) re great guitar solos caught my attention. I find certain songs can match my mood, and often when I'm about to do some close painting work I'll choose carefully what I listen to. My tastes run from the seventies through to the nineties mainly, but above all I enjoy good rock/blues. One of my all time faves is Rory Gallagher, one of the great Irish rock musicians, I could listen to his music for hours, surely one of the classic rock trios. Last nights highlighting and varnishing was done while listening to several of my favourite Gallagher tunes, including this fine live performance of 'Bad Penny'. Sadly Gallagher died young, he was as he sang "a hard drinking man" and he died following a failed liver transplant. The battered old Stratocaster he played is now on display in Dublin I believe, and was the first Start to be delivered to Ireland I'm told, the rich tone he got from that guitar was always stunning and still sends shivers down my back today!