OK, so I have now painted 5 strips plus a mounted commander, Brigadier General D. Crook will command a 4 regiment brigade of seasoned men and is known for his tough fighting and hard drinking and has a certain reputation among the fine ladies of Virginia.
Like many others I think these work best with 3 bases per unit, a healthy looking 60 figures representing a regiment. One video that did tempt me was that linked below where the two outer bases had the figures moved slightly inwards to form a more continuous line, although the downside is a somewhat out of formation column. At the moment I'm sticking with the regular basing though.
Yesterday I painted 4 strips and put a timer on applying the 2 basic shades of Flat Earth and London Grey. It took just under two hours to do this, but included a break for a sandwich and cup of tea of maybe 10 minutes. Bearing in mind that I generally paint with the TV on so glancing back and forth as I go. Yesterday was a couple of episodes of The Commander starring Amanda Burton - yes, I'm a fan of her work :)
So the first image was taken at that point. In the evening I went back and finished them off in a round an hour, including this time adding highlights and varnishing. The highlights I used were Japanese WW2 uniform for the 'butternut' and Light Grey again applied at speed and only where it could be seen. I think this has made a big difference?
I added a flag from warflag and decided to trim down the second flag bearer to a musket as having two flags in the front of a Reb unit just did not sit right with me. As my epic box arrived yesterday - and what a box of joy it is - I may replace it with the better quality flag supplied.
Today I'm going to paint another 2 strips to complete regiment number 2 plus a couple of the artillery bases. Tomorrow I'm out for my first Covid jab so will have to see how I feel afterwards but I think I may do a couple of UNion regiments next which I think will paint faster but I do intend to trim down some of those hats to kepis so we shall see.
Phots show the first 3 bases with added highlights, they look far better at 13.5mm than as they appear here looking more like 28mm figures!
This is picking up a momentum :-)
ReplyDeletePainting style aside, the truth of the matter is that the detail at this scale is present and sharp, quite an achievement and most buyers are going to have to go through a learning curve of what to leave in / out.
Norm, I just had to have a bash at these to see what I could do and they got me hooked! Must admit I love the figures in the strips I just wish they could be cut in half to make F&F bases of 10 figures. With the additional highlights I'm sitting at around 1.5 hours per base, not bad for 20 figures which is only achievable because of the way they are made, but still demanding when one has two and half thousand of the little beauties to paint! I'm enjoying being in on this at least.
DeleteThey look brilliant Lee. I found when painting my many 6mm figures that if you exaggerated the painting style it seemed to make them look better.
ReplyDeleteYours look quality.
Very many thanks :) I'm still not sure if I want to commit long term yet but happy with results so far.
DeleteAwesome looking troops! I don't know you miss a couple of posts and you've changed projects had a shipping disaster and still completed some new units!
ReplyDeleteBest Iain
Never a dull moment here Iain! I'm addicted to painting soldiers but get bored quickly, that's why I never seem to actually own any figures :)
DeleteThey look great. I'm feeling somewhat tempted...
ReplyDeleteI like them far more than actually thought I would, I must admit.
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