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Post by PitYak Studios on May 27, 2006 10:30:32 GMT 12
Bought my first packs of FOW figures yesterday and I love 'em!
I got what I think must be two old packs, BEF Rifle Platoon and late war rifle platoon. So many figures! No more than three of any pose I think, and far better than I was expecting. The paint jobs in the books don't do them justice, I was expecting really coarse faces going by the book, but they are actually quite nice, the hands too. All the detail was surprisingly sharp for the size, and it wasn't until I put a 20mm up against these that I really appreciated how small they were. Top work! I expect I'll have swarms of these before too long.
Need to get some vehicles now.
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Post by c0d3monk33 on May 28, 2006 18:26:14 GMT 12
I know the Brits have been remastered...my original Infantry blister had a lot of quite chunky fatheads, including a number of handy prone figures. My second Infantry blister the figures were noticably more realistic scale and the detail was a little finer. Their quality control has gone up too and the casting issues have gone down so it's probably not a bad time to start buying them!
The figure painting in the FoW rulebooks has never really impressed me that much to be honest. They do very nice vehicles and tanks, including some decent weathering...but the figures? No.
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kreativescenery
Ambitious Upstart
"Life, I don't have a life, I have something better, a family"
Posts: 93
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Post by kreativescenery on May 28, 2006 21:43:34 GMT 12
The figure painting in the FoW rulebooks has never really impressed me that much to be honest. They do very nice vehicles and tanks, including some decent weathering...but the figures? No.
I don't know about that, in the spot lights on the Italian tanks most of the painting was pretty one dimentional. Also some of the Finish and Hungarian paint jobs were a bit 1D. I can't comment on the infantry as thats not my best area.
Cheers
Kim
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Post by PitYak Studios on May 29, 2006 11:08:54 GMT 12
Tell you something I wasn't prepared for, just how little putty it takes to convert these guys! I rolled up a tiny ball yesterday to work on some and had about 96% of it left over when I finished!
I've started my first commando platoon, got the command team and one smg team ready for priming. Using these old figs, I've given them all a mixture of berets, helmets and cap-comforters, and puttied up new battledress for most, a mix of regualr blouses, jumpers and para smocks. I've got some smles converted to m1 carbines, others to (almost) thomson smgs, otherwise using smg figures from the packs with thommys and stens. I've got one guy armed with a fairbairn/sykes, and several with rope slung around their shoulders (one is even swinging a grapnel with a coil of rope by his feet - pretty pleased with that one. Some have had extra bags and pouches, some have had their existing packs removed. A few minor pose changes and they are looking pretty dandy.
I seemed to get a lot of prone figures too. Do people tend not to use them? I''ll probably use the gunners and piat men but that's all.
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Post by c0d3monk33 on May 29, 2006 19:47:12 GMT 12
You have to show us pictures Phil! I'm painting my guys stock...I don't think I've done any conversion at all...and 'conversion' on the vehicles for me mainly consists of banging on stowage and radio aerials.
Of course this is my first FOW army so I wanted to get them out of the way as quick as possible (hah for me I mean)! I've just started collecting a DAK German Armored Coy and I fully anticipate taking a lot longer with this army...particularly since the bulk of it consists of eight tanks! I'd really like to get a nice weathered look on them so I anticipate some experimental painting...
Oh and I like the prone guys but didn't seem to get a lot of them in my second blister. So the bulk of my lads are 'on the charge'. The prone guys are handy just for mixing up the teams a little imho.
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Post by PitYak Studios on May 30, 2006 9:14:02 GMT 12
I got another pack yesterday - rifle platoon Italy, and I'm not quite as happy with those. Still plenty of poses, but all very similar. 28 slightly different charging men aren't too exciting.
On the plus side, I got them from Wellington's new best shop "Wargames supply" run by Brook smith of the online store of the same name. Go there if you're in town! it rocks! Every FOW blister, rackham, gw, rpgs, PitYak Studios products, board games, osprey books, Foundry, the lot!
Good one Brook, I think he's bitten off a big mouthful, but wish him the best of luck.
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Post by PitYak Studios on May 31, 2006 12:50:05 GMT 12
Just for you Stu; I've spent longer trying to get these photos than I did on the modelling! Damned tiny figures!  The two guys in front are the command group. The pistol weilding co on left has had his blouse extended into a para smock, but apart from that is stock. The rifleman has been given a beret, sweater and rope sling around the shoulders. There is also a bren gunner with this group, but I seem to have lost him already. Damned tiny figures! He has a cap comforter, and while removing his helmet i also removed the bren's barrel, so had to scratch that and the tripod out of a couple of bits of wire. The five on the lolly stick are the first smg team. From the left; No 1 has had a cap comforter added, the drum magazine filed down to a regular type, and in his oddly waving hand he's now hurling a grapnel, with the excess rope coiled at his feet. No 2 has had a smock added, and his smle has been converted into a M1 carbine. The mag was made by glueing on a lump of lead; this still needs filing into shape. Likewise No 3's smg; supposed to be a thomson, the pistol grip and mag have just been roughed in, to be tidied up later (or now to be exact). He also received a cap comforter. No 4 is another rope bearing fella, plus he has a fairbairn-sykes dagger. Making and fixing that into place was about the hardes part of the whole job. It is tiny! No 5 has had his stupid waving arm moved (that shoulder still needs a bit of attention, and a beret added. (pleased with that one, came out much better than the other one, which I never was quite happy with) So there you have it. 8 down, several dozen to go! then vehicles. and all the rest. |
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Post by c0d3monk33 on May 31, 2006 16:36:44 GMT 12
Heh, they all look good! Particularly the ropes and berets. Nicely done. Yes I can imagine the tiny dabs of green stuff involved and the endless attempts to superglue a 'dagger' onto a 15mm man's hand.
Looking forward to seeing them painted!
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Post by PitYak Studios on Jun 14, 2006 21:49:49 GMT 12
Well they looked better before they got the paint on. I'm still experimenting trying to find the best way to paint these. I've got a load at every stage at the minute; bare, primed, basecoated and finished, and the basecoated figures look better than the finished ones. I think I've over shaded them, not given enough thought to just how tiny they are, so I think I might go back over some of them, and try a few different approaches on the ones I've got left.
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Post by c0d3monk33 on Jun 15, 2006 16:51:54 GMT 12
My recipe for the NA NZers is described here: www.tabletop-terrain.com/index.php/archives/2005/06/04/394/I don't use washes on the 15mm figures (although I normally would on 25-28mm) and only apply a single layer of highlighting to helmets and flesh. I reckon they look ok. They're fast to paint too. |
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Post by PitYak Studios on Jun 15, 2006 19:45:30 GMT 12
Good idea, logging your recipes like that!
So do you have all your figures based before painting? I couldn't be bothered with that. I super glue gravel to the cast base, which obviously gets painted black when I prime. When I paint the figure, I slap a bit of brown on this. Once the figs are all done, I base them, the black / brown gravel on the figures makes it easier to blend groundwork without worrying about missing bits.
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Post by PitYak Studios on Jun 15, 2006 19:47:56 GMT 12
Yours are more like it I reckon, higher contrast. Mine just look like they've all been rolling around in engine oil before going off for a scrap. Bearable for the commandos who just may been doing that, but I'd best sort it out before I get to the other infantry
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Post by c0d3monk33 on Jun 16, 2006 12:33:25 GMT 12
That's primarily why I started my blog Phil. I got sick of creating nice effect and then coming back to the same figures six months later and wondering how the hell I'd done that  . Don't forget the 'three feet rule'. When painting 15mm figures you needn't bother with much detail since viewed from three feet away they're very tiny. |
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Post by PitYak Studios on Jun 16, 2006 13:19:35 GMT 12
yep, that's my own mantra, I just didn't follow it! I've actually put more detail in than I would on 20mm figs, and it just doesn't work.
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