New brushes and different scales.

After many years of sticking with the same range of brushes I am currently trying out some different ones. Some of the brushes that I have been using daily for several years are just starting show their age, which is not bad considering the hours of painting I do each week. For 40mm figures I stick with a good size '0' for most of the work only using a '000' for highlighting the faces and hands. As I plan to paint more 6mm figures I wanted to find some new ones that could hold the tip well and carry a bit more paint, as my style in this scale has always been to dot and dash colours over a flat black base coat, trying leave some black showing to add depth and shade.

My wife found this range of Daler/Rowney 'Graduate' brushes in Hobbycraft and showed them to me via Face Time (isn't technology a wonderful thing?) so I asked her to get me a few to try out. I have to say I'm very impressed with them so far, they certainly hold a fine point and have a nice balance in the hand, I also like the white handles. painted a couple of strips of the 10mm Goblins yesterday, start to finish using a single 'liner' brush. I think they will be perfect for the 6mm WSS project, time will tell.

New kids on the block.

My brush holder tin of many years.

I will go and grab a few more of these in different sizes. And speaking of different sizes I'm now back painting in numerous figure scales again and really enjoying the changes. Currently on the painting desk are 10mm (fantasy), 20mm 18th century for John C, a couple of 28mm German crew for my Bolt Action half track and a test paint of one of the 40mm RHA officers. It struck me that they would make a good comparison photo. I can see why the early 20mm or 1/72nd scale became so popular with wargamers. The 28mm multi part plastics that seem to dominate the market now can be made in some pretty dynamic poses and each new release from Warlord Games or Perry Miniatures are clearly extremely well supported and profitable, but for me they do lack the charm of the earlier metal ranges. I recently posed the question on the FB Napoleonic page where there are some incredibly talented figure artists - I have to call them that - as to the huge investment of time and talent into painting plastic figures over metal and provoked an interesting debate, many younger wargamers are clearly in the plastic 'camp' whilst many older gamers remain firmly committed to metals.

Finally for now, I see so many photos of other painting areas, most are incredibly untidy with pots of paint and brushes all over the place,  stuff everywhere! Personally I can't work like that, as you can see I like to keep everything in it's place, paints stored upside down in compartments, brushes in the tin and all confined to a small area that can be quickly packed away if required. The IPad provides background viewing/listening as I paint. I just now need to find a new lamp that does the job as well as this one has for the last 2 years.

I am obsessively neat and tidy, can't help it!

10mm, 20mm, 28mm and 40mm.

Warlord plastics and 3D resin print.

Vintage 20mm metals.