Tuesday, January 22, 2013

A Reality Check, A Change in Tactics, and an Update on Brushes

Howdy all!

As I have little in the way of painted figures to show off, or games to talk about, I thought I would take the time to update you on whats going on in my head these days as well as touching back on my choice of new Brushes that I mentioned awhile ago.

As you know over the last month or so I've put a fair amount of time into getting many of my unpainted figures based and arranged into units.  I did this for a number of reasons..
  1. It helped to clarify the condition of my collection and pointed out figures that were lacking/needed and ones that could be passed along to other lead heads.  AKA bringing some focus to my collecting...lord knows I need it!
  2. It helped ensure that I had the right number of slotta bases for my figs....still need more!
  3. It gave me units that could be arranged for battle rather quickly compared to rooting around in various boxes trying to find missing figures and then having to blue-tac them into bases and wasting valuable gaming time.
  4. It got me thinking about how I'm going to store my figures in the future....the bag and shoebox system I have now is not a long term solution!
  5. Having them built and based would also allow me to get around to priming and ultimately painting.
Of course....it also had the consequence of demonstrating just HOW MANY figures I need to paint to play the games I hope to carry out before I retire....and lets just say...its a SHIT load of figures (and I'm not done basing yet!)

So with the bald truth staring me in the face...and knowing my plodding painting speed...I have decided to try some new tactics for getting painted forces on the table.
  1. Bulk Priming:  I've just used up an entire can of dark gray primer getting about 2/3s of my "Bretonian" army ready for painting....all in one afternoon...its going to take days to get the paint off my fingers!
  2. Bulk Painting:  Following the advice of ZeroTwoThree on his blog Paint Machine I have decided to try painting a BUNCH of figures with similiar color schemes all at once...hence my work table now looking like this.
    As you can see...last night was "flesh night!"
  3. Adjusting Expectations:  This is the tough one...I'm having to accept the fact that if I want to get usable painted forces on the table in a sane amount of time I'm going to have to cut a few corners.  I still want very nice looking units that display the wonderful character of the figures I chose to paint...but they may not all be showcase level paint jobs...finding the balance between speed and perfection is the challenge before me now. 
So what does this mean for the Blog?  Well I would hope that it means less posts about a figure here and there and more posts about completed units and wonderful games that I have had with them...that is assuming I don't pull my hair out and go completely nutters after painting the same color for days in a row...;-)

Anyway....I digress....Lets talk about Brushes!

As I mentioned in a previous post (Here) I recently changed brushes and gave the ones from Rosemary & Co. a try.  I replaced my much loved set of Windsor and Newton sable brushes with a wider selection of the R&Co's Sable/synthetic blend brushes....so whats the verdict after 5 months?  Its good!  I like them a lot and they have manged to hold their points fairly well...and as mentioned in the previous post their price is hard to beat!  If I have one complaint it would be that their bristles are too long...One of my favorite aspects of the W&N sables was their short bristle length...I find the ones from R&Co to be a bit bendy due to the extra length...but again the price makes these a worthwhile investment.  If you're married to the W&N (which I fully understand...they are AWESOME) then you might think about picking up some of these for painting metals or other tasks that are "beneath" your better brushes.

I'm not saying I'll use them forever...but with the amount of painting I hope to due this year I'm going to ride them out till the bitter end!

That's all for now...got to get back to "Flesh Highlight 1 night" ...sigh...pray for me in my hour of need...

Cheers,

Blue

17 comments:

  1. Look forward to seeing many complete units Blue.

    I need to get my arse in gear too!

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  2. Those plastic Bretonians juts don't hold a candle to these!

    All I can say is AMAZING - I can't wait to see the end results.

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    1. Too true...though I have included one of each plastic archer in my unit just for the variation...but in the back rank only!
      These are the most recent figures I have...everything else being 3rd edition...but the sculpts on these by the Perry bros. are just stellar...great faces!

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  3. Blue sounds like you got a plan. Hope all goes well. Can't wait to start seeing your units painted up. Good luck!!!!

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  4. I hear you, buddy. Hang in there! I still feel dirty if I spend less than two hours on every figure, but it gets easier...

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  5. Hmm... your new method of painting seems a little bit boring. Aren't you afraid of getting tired of painting again and again the same colors?

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    1. I am certainly afraid of that...these particular figures are fairly straight forward so I hope the move along fairly fast...I can always switch back if its not working for me.

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  6. A brave move. I came to this decision about a year ago, like yourself, coming to the conclusion that if I ever wanted to finish a damn army I was going to have to buckle down, be a little less of a perfectionist and get things painted. I looked up techniques that sped things up without dropping the quality too much, including dipping, (now, hear me out) which when used in conjunction with overpainting and some pre-dip techniques for adding detail, is a quick way to get SOME colours done fast. Very much depends on the army.

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    1. I certainly see a place for the dip....and am considering using it on my wood legs if I ever get around to them...but if you pre paint details and have to over paint is it really saving much time?

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    2. With detail, I mean things like tattoos, marks/damage on armour, that kind of thing. It does indeed save time, as I generally keep overpainting to things like faces, shields and so on, the focal points basically.

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    3. I certainly think that if I ever did a Skaven warband that dip would be perfect for them. Do you use the Army Painter variety? or make your own?

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    4. Yep, strong tone army painter, I brush it on rather than dip. Good product.

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    5. thanks for that info...food for thought.

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  7. Although nowhere your skill with a brush I'm in the process of varnishing seven LotR metal Rangers of the North, who I painted in together starting Wednesday last (I have had a virus over the weekend, which slowed me somewhat). Because my standards are fairly low I've actually noticed no drop in quality (honestly)! At this rate my 'miniature a week for 2013' should be a sinch!

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    1. Glad to hear its working for you Gareth...so far it's going we'll and I can see that the little efficiencies of not having to mix the same color over and over again will add up to time saved....I just hope I'm still sane at the end!

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  8. Thanks for the encouragement all! I'll keep you posted on how it progresses and how my "system" works out.

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  9. I am looking forward to seeing and reading about your progress. I am one of those people who doesn't have an army ready (painted or not) for gaming. So I am liking the "glue them onto bases" first, and paint them later. I would love to hear more about your "cutting" corners method. What methods work and what methods didn't work. Good luck Blue.

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