General de Brigade

[Silver Whistle]

This subject is in answer to GJ's request on my 'North West Frontier' thread.

GJ. With the 'Army painter' I only actually tin dunked one figure, all the rest I brushed it on.

I found that dunking the figure left too much of the quick shade/varnish on for my taste, even with several good shakes of the figure.

I brushed the shade on and found that I had more control of how the figure would look doing it this way. Applying more thickly in certain areas where it was needed, whilst flesh areas and items of white or light coloured clothing/equipment you could draw off the figure with the brush.

I think initially it is a lot of trial and error with the colours you choose for the figure before you actually use the ' Army painter' which will have an effect on the finished figure.

I have tried both black and white undercoat before starting to paint the figure and for me white works best.

Flesh, I tried many different shades/brands.
Afghan flesh - Foundry dusky flesh 6c or Spearshaft 13b works well.
European flesh - I found that Foundry Flesh c has a nice effect but I opted for foundry flesh b then a very, very quick highlight of flesh c. This extra little touch is well worth the effort.

I also do two shades on black, Foundry black a and b, otherwise the army painter does not show through on this colour.

If I give any colour a highlight before using the army painter, it is done very quickly and non to fussy as the shade will cover up any little mistakes.

The pictures attached are -
Afghans - using Foundry spearshaft 13b for flesh
The Hessians - Foundry flesh 5c for the casualty and Fusiler figure.
Foundry 5 b for the officer.
The British AWI were a mixture of different colours experimenting with flesh tones and uniform red.

The Perry British Napoleonics in my opinion are an improvement on the AWI figures and I think it is a matter of trial and error and a constant learning curve with painting figures.

Whilst these are not for the top shelf, Army Painter is really fast and I painted these figures probably in a quarter of the time it would normally have taken me.

I don't bother painting additional white on the figure, just use the white undercoat.
I mostly just use one layer of paint.
The Army Painter acts as a gloss varnish, saving you time.
I then usually mix up and brush on Blackfriars matt varnish but spraying with Army Painter matt varnish is again a lot quicker and gives a reasonable result.

Anyway enough of the chat and on with the pictures.

Hope this is of use,

Pat.

[Axebreaker]

The figures look nice and if your not too picky it's a nice way to conquer the lead mountain.I'm too much of a purist and can't make myself to try it.I want my mini's to look a certain way and short cuts just don't work for me.That's probably why I have such a large lead himalaya at home.I'm too much of an obsessive complusive I guess.

[Silver Whistle]

Axebreaker, I know where you are coming from.
I think we all suffer from that mountain of lead and plastic problem and for me this is a compromise of getting stuff actually on the table instead of incomplete after incomplete project, I am not a very fast painter.
I still plan on painting the traditional way but for me it will be a mix and match.
Cheers,
Pat.

[Axebreaker]

[Gentleman Johnny]

Pat: Thanks! Very interesting... from memory there are three different shades of Army Painter; which were you using? I suspect each of the shades may work better on different backgrounds and red is probably not the ideal base...
I agree the Naps do seem to have taken well, could this be to do with the way the A.P sits on the grey of the overalls rather than the white breeks? (Incidently the moulding on the Perry Plastics IS impressive, the 'trowser' seams just-look-right)
The A.P does seem to work well on hands, running away from the knuckles...
I also "know where Axebreaker is coming from", but I can certainly see the value in relation to finishing 'sideline' projects without diverting too much time from the main event.
Interesting.
GJ

[Silver Whistle]

GJ,

I used the middle one, 'Strong Tone'.

I couldn't justify buying all three types at those prices just to try them out. I think if they did small tester pots more people would try.

I agree with you about it being more suited for some colours but the red I found okay as 'strong tone' has a brownish colour effect to it.

The 'Dark Tone' would probably not work so well on red as this has, so I believe, a black colour effect.

Agree, works better on grey than white and would be ideal for painting those ACW Rebs.

Cheers,
Pat.

[Axebreaker]

I must admit,I did see the army painter on some 25mm ACW mini's and the look was very nice and much better then I had expected.

[Giles]

Pat, this is fascinating. Personally speaking, I think the Afghans and the Perry Naps are the most effective, although the Brit Naps all seem to be ginger nuts which is one of the most noticeable things about them (to me at least ). But they all look very good and this is clearly an excellent way of getting troops painted to a decent standard very quickly.

That said, I haven't seen enough Army Painter models to know how the final effect varies between painters. Clearly its results depend to some extent on the undercoat, choice of colours etc, but I query how much of a "painting by numbers" method it is. You have quite a distinctive freehand style that is very recognisable and it's a shame to lose that effect.

Giles

[Silver Whistle]

Axebreaker,
I have some Perry dismounted reb cavalry that I plan on giving this a try with. Also a load of Mexican Peons that I think would work well with AP, giving them a dirty white look.
There must be other periods/nations out there that would be more suitable for AP.
Egyptions from the Sudan.
WWI and 2 with the German grey and British khaki.
Figures with lots of armour, but then I think you would need the 'Dark Tone' for these.
Hi Giles,
Hopefully my next batch of AWI will be an improvement on the last but they were my first figures I painted with AP so there was a lot of experimenting going on.
The Afghans and any colonial type figures are ideal for AP, especially if you need lots of them.
The British Naps are rather Ginger in the photo's but they thankfully don't look that bad in the flesh. I was cutting corners by painting the hair, rifles and waterbottle straps all the same colour (Vallejo red leather) to save time. If I had varied the hair colour it would have been an improvement and should be ashamed of myself.
Thanks for the info on your First Carlist War thread, the buildings look very impressive and are excellent value if they come already painted.
Cheers,
Pat.