Saturday Update-Finally..A Head to Head Comparison

Dang...you woulda' thought that I was having a root canal by the length of time it has taken me to get this far on this unit. Geez...it's only 16 or so figures. The picture on the right is where the unit is at this point. I've put together a head to head gallery at Flickr. Please click here or on the title to take you to the gallery.

ALL THE BLUE FIGURES ARE WARLORD MINIATURES. THEY ARE THE MINIATURES WITH THE IN PROGRESS BASES AS IN THE INSET PICTURE

The unit is being based at this point. I've borrowed (stolen in a gamer's fashion) Clarence Harrison's basing style. It's simple and once it's dry is robust for fat war gamer fingers, dropping on the table, etc. This unit needs another24 hours for the basing sand and rocks to dry. I won't paint them until Monday afternoon at the least. I use Clarence's formula to the T. The bases get painted with Vallejo's Beasty Brown (I won't waste money on crappy GW paints-ever), let dry, painted again with a diluted Elmer's School Glue mix and dipped into mix of Medium and Light Woodland Scenics ballast (brown). The brown paint makes the places in which the ballast didn't stick invisible unless close. I then use a bright green static grass (again NOT GW) to work in on the bases. Clarence advised me to use a camouflage type of pattern so multiple bases go together well. Again, advise well taken to heart! It works and looks good.

Let's take a few moments to discuss head to head how Warlord compares to Old Glory, Dixon, Renegade, and Perry figures on the game table. As previously blogged, the Warlord figures look consistent with the other manufacturers on the game table. That's OK with me since I've got more to paint out of the box set. The OG figures are curiously chunkier than the Warlord (a little more well fed perchance?) and are a tad easier to paint. As has been blogged before, both sets of miniatures take my "git 'er done and don't Richard around with the project" style of painting. This may disturb more sedate and organized painters but; it works and looks PDG on my game table. Has for years!

In my opinion, Warlord figures will not mix well with OG, Dixon, nor Renegade but should mix quite well with Perry since these figures are on the scrawny side of 28mm anyway. I will paint another regiment or so plus some F'Lorne Hope to add to the collection. They do look fine when built into solely Warlord units. Funny how that works eh? It's a vast British conspiracy right? The Warlord figures just don't have the deep "cuts" (folds?) necessary for producing large amounts of contrasts on the figures. I'm not disappointed but probably just lazy...I would rather not do the Dallimore glop and paint every single musculature like a Rubens painting. I want to get things started, get things done and have units look good on the table in a reasonable time frame. Putting Warlord figures together is an extra time irritant for me. I knew that going into this mini-project. Would I buy more? I don't know. I want to see their cavalry just to see if I can paint plastic horses using my 30+ year old oil rub method. Hope Rustoleum primer sticks to horse's butts like it did to the musketeers.

For an inexpensive (relative term in any hobby) way for gamers to get started or add units quickly to an existing collection; Warlord ECW figures may be something to consider. I'm an old school lead junky and like the weight of figures on the table. I'd also paint Warlord figures if I was doing a demo game in which I didn't want my primary collection to get abused by fat, stinky war gamers with greasy hands from eating at Mickey D's.

We have a news spot here in Dallas called "Deal or Dud". I'd rate these figures a deal but if they don't get painted and still played....their OWNER is a DUD!

Wednesday Update

Am plonking along on this little project. I've completed the base coat colors for the regiment and have brushed on a light coat of Minwax Royal Walnut stain.

Here's a list of the colors I used for the regiment. Only Vallejo acrylic paints were used.

Face:Beige Red
Hats: various shades of Beasty Brown (Game Color), Tan, Orange Brown, Saddle Brown, Red Brown.
Feathers: One was painted with...get this...Ral Partha Gold Yellow. I STILL have about 6 bottles of the old stuff. Hasn't crapped out on me yet. I've got to go to Sherwyn-Williams and get a pint made up since I can't get it anymore. The fifer's feather (say that five times fast) was painted with some Liquitex Medium Viscosity Red. I had the tube laying around, found it under a pile of crap and said..hmm...oughta work!
Uniform Coats: Prussian Dark Blue
Cuffs: Liquitex Medium Viscosity White. Another ancient bottle of paint. It's a 4 oz. bottle and I've had it for years. I think it's majic and refills itself sometimes.
Pants: Some Prussian Dark Blue, British Tan, Yellow Ochre, Russian Green, Medium Sea Gray IIRC. I don't worry much and just paint them where they lay.
Shoes: Various browns..see above and add some Snakesomething Game Color. It's a weird in between light and dark brown. Pretty cool color. I've used it a lot for the ECW project for belts, shoes, horse tack, horse hooves, horse tails, etc. You should buy a bottle and give it a go.
Socks: Light grey, Howard Hues (uh huh...more classic paint) Concrete and an odd color just to not stay bored!
Armor: I use a bastardized Dallimore technique of Black base coat, Vallejo Brassy Brass first dry brush, Vallejo Oily Steel for highlights. This works great with a light coat of Minwax!

Overall, so far so good. I'm still not overly in love with these figures. I like figures that are "cut" deeper with more relief. That type of figure just fits my style.

I had high humidity-white finish-itis tonight. I sprayed the unit with Floquil Figure Flat (yeah..I've still got 12 cans) and didn't pass the "stupid test". I know better than to spray figures flat and leave them out when the humidity is high. No worries, I resprayed them and brought them inside. Uh huh...my spouse has gone to the other side of the house, my dog doesn't love me and I'm sure my feeble senior's mind is getting fried by the fumes. At least the unit is getting painted right?

I paint by the unit and don't dick around painting one figure at a time. Life's too short not to throw figures on the table. My technique is simple:

1. Hot glue the figures on strips of cardboard about three fingers wide. I don't touch the figures, the cardboard is more comfortable than trying to paint on stupid Popsicle sticks and is cheap in "mass quantities".
   
2. Block paint the figure
3. Light coat of Minwax Royal Walnut (NOT A DIP..DIPPPING SUCKS!)
4. Highlight the figures with a traditional highlighting technique. I use a mix of Foundry's glop on each highlight method and a softer complimentary color highlight. I don't know...I paint by the seat of my pants! Whatever fits the figure works for me and they turn out cool for the table.

I should be done with the unit tonight and will get them hot glued (it's a standing joke in my gaming group) to stands. I'll take pics on Thursday and suffer the slings and arrows of not having them based. I know there are several folks that want to see just the size differential and could not give a rat's behind about how they were painted. Well...you'll just have to wait until Thursday won't you!

Warlord ECW Under Construction Update

I've finished the basic tones painting on the entire regiment (16 figures). I've just brushed on some Minwax Royal Walnut stain. I don't want to argue the merits or demerits of Minwax. I don't dip my figures and the light brush coat seals, shades and gives the figure the tone that I want and like. They should be dry enough to flat coat and the highlights will be painted (face, flesh, highlights, any lowlights as well).

Keep checking back, I'll have some pics Wednesday night and definitely will put them side to side with my OG/Dixon/Perry stuff. They're pretty big...larger than the Renegade officers I've got in several regiments. We'll see, my jury's still out and it's weird to work with figures that don't weigh anything.