Result of the inspection: not good. These are Old Glory miniatures, sculpted in the typical, "dynamic" style of Old Glory. Lots of action, interesting poses of figures on the move. The problem? These are going to be tough, tough miniatures to paint. I already mentioned to be concerned about painting "Age of Reason" miniatures, because of the complexity of uniforms. But these OG add an additional set of problems, given the style of the sculpt. There are basically no extended area where the brush can move quickly and smoothly; there are layers of details that need to be individually cared for.
I feel very overwhelmed. I anticipate that any attempt to paint this will come at the cost of a lot of frustration, and a lot of time. As an economist, I must ask myself: is it worth it?
I may still experiment around in the weekend. may they won't be as difficult as they seem to be. But I also need a plan B. here's what I have in mind.
I will do some comparisons. I have two samplers on the way from Minifigs. One bag of SYW Prussian fusiliers, directly comparable on the OG on my workbench. And a second bag of WSS French. I will look to answer these questions:
A. Can I manage to paint, in a satisfactory fashion, miniatures for the SYW? Is it my problem in the sculpting style of Old Glory, or in the uniforms of the period?
If my problem is in the figures, I can switch from OG to Minifigs and still starting in the new period. Otherwise, I will consider
B. SYW vs. WSS. I have been suggested that WSS uniforms are easier paint than SYW uniforms. Is this the case? How much easier? Should I go for Marlborough, rather than Frederick?
In either cases, it seems unlikely that Old Glory SYW miniatures will enter in my collection in significant numbers. I have five bags of them: other than the Prusina musketeers, Austrian fusiliers and cuirassiers, plus Prussian grenadiers and artillery. Right now, I feel they are bounded to eBay. We'll see if there is really no better alternative.
4 comments:
Adolfo,
I have two problems with Old Glory figures for the SYW.
First, to my mind (and that of many others), the "linear warfare" period should be marked with more of a "toy soldier" look in the sense that rank-and-file should be in the same pose.
Old Glory is justly famous for having a wide variety of poses -- good for many periods but not for the 18th century.
My second problem with Old Glory is that their sculptors tend to add more detail (ala bags, pouches, etc.) than the figures really need.
Note that I am NOT anti-Old Glory. I have several hundred of their Colonials and a large army of Ancient Arabs. I just don't think that they are the right figures for the 18th century.
My personal choice in 28mm is RSMs. These were originally marketed as 30mm and now called 25mm. They are somewhat in between. They are slim and elegant . . . and not overly detailed.
They are currently sold by the Dayton Painting Consortium. Here's their website . . . contact them . . . I believe that you can get some samples from them:
http://www.dpcltdcom.org/dpc_website.htm
I will also note that their prices are even better than Old Glory's.
-- Jeff
If you are thinking about 15mm Marlburian figures, I suspect that you might like those from Minifigs.
I believe that most of Steve's figures are from Minifigs . . . and he's recently posted a couple of nice "overview" photos and videos on his troops here (and click on the WSS (39) listing on the left hand side):
http://steve-the-wargamer.blogspot.com/
The Editions Brokaw 15mm WSS figures also look easy to paint . . . but I don't know that they have a website.
-- Jeff
Hello Adolfo,
I'll second Jeff's remarks and add that figures like Old Glory don't seem to lend themselves to fairly rapid painting. Go for either 15mm MiniFigs of the 30mm RSM95 figures. Much quicker to paint and more appropriate, pose-wise, for the 18th century.
Best Regards,
Stokes
Alfonso,
If you are tempted by the ‘tricorne’ era, you may notice a very peculiar characteristic of wargaming in that period –traditional since the C. Grant’s ‘The Wargame’ and P. Young’s ‘Charge!’ books of the seventies: the frequent use of Imagi-Nations.
The idea may appear very ‘odd’ to any ‘historical’ wargamer familiar with other periods, but actually there are degrees in the departure from historicity.
Some use perfectly historical countries and armies, just changing their names (not to sacrilegiously alter the historical records of generals and regiments?). Such is Der Alte Fritz – Bill Protz Hesse-Seewald (Prussia) vs Gallia (France) ongoing campaign.
Other field historically accurate armies, but change the geography, in order to restrict and control the scope and size of their campaign. Thus C.S. Grant’s Grand Duche de Lorraine army in ‘The Wargame’ was ‘historical Frenchs’. Currently Tidder’s Wittemberg & Monrovia belong to this category.
Most still go one step beyond (madness?) and design, not only the geography, but the flags and uniforms of their imaginary country. You already know of Stollen & Zichenau; among the numerous ‘full’ Lace Wars Imagi-Nations, one may quote the recent and well-illustrated developments of the armies of Hetzenberg, M’Uedail and Neue Sudland. A ‘napoleonic’ player recently discovered Lace Wars Imagi-Nations and so greatly enjoyed this new ‘freedom’ that he launched no less than 3 different blogs to describe the military history of Ober Nord Westfalen from the 2nd half of the 18th C. to napoleonic times and during the WSS, and its arch-enemy Hannunter (this last with a fully illustrated report of the ‘1742 Regulations for the Army’).
Some tend to add almost a ‘RPG’ aspect taking into account the personality of the rulers and major characters. Actullay the diversity of approaches of this single topic ‘Lace Wars Imagi-Nations’ is in itself amazing.
I have on my blog 70+ "Fict" 'working' links to pages or blogs at least partly devoted to (a) LW Imagi-Nation(s); many of them are part of the merry Emperor vs Elector ‘diplomatic’ blog.
In the hope you’ll be intrigued, and perhaps interested,
Sincerely,
Jean-Louis
aka Louys de Monte-Cristo
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