Experiments with Army Painter

I thought I would try a couple of figures with 2 improved painting techniques. Usually I have painted 28mm figures using the Dalimore technique with some success, but it takes me a long time. It takes me around 3 weeks per 24 figure battalion. I want to speed it up a little.

So I thought I would compare 2 different techniques, 1 using base coat + Washes + highlight, and the other base coat Army Painter Quick Shade strong tone + highlight.

Left - is a figure done with, base coats then washes, Pale Grey on the pants, brown on the jacket etc... Saves around 20% on the 3 layer technique...

Right - Base coats then Army Painter followed by some highlights. Saving around 40% on 3 layer painting.

I kind of like the Army Painter technique, looks quite natural. It took a few abortive efforts to get right but it needs to be brushed on and excess brushed off. I may put a couple of deeper shades in the folds in the jacket but the compromise I think is worth it.....

Incidentally the figures are offensive miniatures.

New rulesets and a change of scale....

There has been a spate of rulesets release recently and I particularly like Lasalle and Black Powder. But here lies the problem, I don't have enough space to play either. My maximum table size is 6ft x 4ft and this is going to be too small for 28mm games ( I don't want to play skirmish ). On top of that I am running out of storage space !

So I have decided that I will go down a scale to 18mm. I've painted a few to test and I can paint them pretty well and paint a 32 figure unit 1/2 the time that I can paint a 24 man 28mm one.

So AB or CGM it will be probably AB.

So the whole French collection are on Ebay. With the Brits going on this afternoon.

Offensive Miniatures French...

My French army is under way, my first battalion is a line battalion from Offensive miniatures. I bought a battalion pack of 36 figures. There are 3 variants for the march attack fusiliers. The figures are a pretty good match for Foundry, the officer even has a largish head....

I like these figures, the detail is very crisp and they are easy to paint. Later I will post some comparison shots.