Thursday 8 March 2012

Russian Around 2

So that's my 1st battalion of Russians done with the Army Painter and I have to say I am chuffed and also shocked at how fast they painted up. I can see 2 ways that I could speed them up a little more, 1 don't touch up the belts and straps and 2 use a lighter flesh base coat and don't touch that up after the AP. However I like the effect you get when both are done so I will continue to do that until I am really pushed for time.
 
I'll put them aside for the moment as I move onto the 2nd battalion (I cleaned and based the 2nd lot while I was waiting for the AP to dry on my final batch).
   
It may not be perfect but it does fine for me. I would continue to undercoat in black for the Russians. I didn't undercoat at all with my Saxons as I was lazy and they were going to get 3 to 4 coats of paint etc..
  
This has got to be the fastest I have ever painted a battalion of 15mm Naps just short of a week of evenings painting with the odd couple of hours here and there.
     
Sorry about the picture quality, my wee light is just not up to it. You can barely make out the shading and the white is pretty exposed. I would have waited till the unit is all finished off before posting but I want to get straight onto my next battalion as I have a crazy couple of weeks at work coming up.
   
Almost forgot the comparison pic. I think they fit in pretty well with the other AB battalion I painted with my previous method.
  
And lastly my hussar for the Isum regiment again army paintered. These will be nice!
  
This guy was already painted to a basic wargames standard when I picked it up on ebay. I blocked in the colour and tried to match as best I could and after the AP just highlighted here and there. I had forgotten most of the Hussar uniform finer detail so had to quickly read up a bit. Still a little more to find out.

All comments good or bad are much appreciated and if you spot anything I have missed or needs correcting please point it out!

31 comments:

Phil said...

Wonderful grenadiers...a little problem with "dddd"?

DeanM said...

Super looking! Very encouraging as I plan to do the same (Minwax stain) on those soon to released Perry Russians. Best, Dean

Phil said...

Ok, text was not passed... I was saying that the Russian grenadiers are beautiful, as always, and that the overview is impressive!
Very nice work.

Ray Rousell said...

Great painting, can't really tell the difference between the two styles. The Hussar looks nice, should be very cool to see them all in a unit.

Paulalba said...

Hi Phil,
Thanks very much and I am glad you like them, Yeah the "dddd" was just to give me a base to insert my txt. I like to publish before editing the text to see how the pics fall. You were just to fast for me ;0)

I Dean, thanks a million, I to am looking forward to the Perry Russians (I do hope they do Cuirassiers in plastic).

Best regards
Paul

Paulalba said...

Thanks Ray, Yeah I am looking forward to doing the hussars!!! However I have to stay focused foot 1st ;0)
Regards
Paul

BigRedBat said...

Lovely paintng! Simon

Sgt Steiner said...

Those look excellent keep em comimg

Ben Gilmour said...

They're superb, Paul! Keep up the good work.

The Angry Lurker said...

Correcting my arse, everything looks stunning.....

Christopher(aka Axebreaker) said...

Really fantastic work!

Christopher

Paulalba said...

Thank lads, very much appreciated!!!

Angry L, Seriously I miss a lot. My buddy Robert spoted I had a brown leather box on my hussar. I new in my head it should be black but as the belt was red leather I just painted it red leather too.

Thanks for taking the time to post comments. I am struggling to get round everyones blogs at the moment.

Best regards
Paul

John (Von Blucher) said...

Paul,
The figures look as good as your previous units and huge time savings. You'll be through the Russians in no time!! I really like the Hussar though, you did a fine job on him. These will end up being a really good looking unit.

Paulalba said...

Hi John,
Thanks, I am really pleased with them. The time saved is amazing. Strange thing is I was told about Army Painter a few years ago and passed the idea onto my brother who used the method to paint his 28mm Naps. It's sad that it has taken me this long to try it out on my 15mm Naps! I'm daft!!!

Anyway wish me luck as there are a lot to do. I will keep you posted.

Next up will be your early Prussian artillery.

Best regards
Paul

kingsleypark said...

I still detect in some parts of the wargaming fraternity a degree of snobbery against the dip method and that it is not "real" painting.

All I can say in response to that is firstly, "get a life" and secondly it gives me the results I'm happy with and is getting figures on to the table and your Russians are testament to how effective the method can be

Giles said...

Excellent stuff, Paul. Army Painter works incredibly well on those figures, at least in the way you've applied it. It's easy to overpaint ABs, but these are well-nigh perfect.

Best wishes

Giles

Rodger said...

The troops look wonderful. Really like the hussar!

Paulalba said...

Hi KP, Totally agree with you.

I heard a few people talking that way about using Army Painter however when I decided to put together my wee Naps collection I had to think about a few things. I can paint every item pretty much with 2 or 3 shades but I wanted to get an army together.

The 1st battalion I did was an Old Glory Young Guard battalion and to be honest although it turned out nice the shading is not so noticable in 15mm so I decided simple flesh over black on faces and limit my highlighting to a level I can live with. The process was still slow but I put a little Prussian force together ok.

With the AP in 15mm at least it gives the illusion of shading without actually going to the trouble of doing the shading and works even better if you pick out the finer detail. This clearly helps me get units on the table, they look pretty good and it is fun so it ticks all my boxes! It is a great tool and I wish I was using it from the moment I started my Naps. Plus it helped my brother build a great looking 28mm French army, something he couldn't imagine doing. If it's good enough for the Saxon Dog it's good enough for us ;0)
Best Paul

Paulalba said...

Hi Giles and Rodger,
Thanks you very much for your kind comments. Hopefully I will get more done soon.
Best regards
Paul

MrLee said...

Wow.. I have some 15mm Russians to do up also from HaT, but they don't look half as good model wise as these do.. Plus they don't paint up half as good as they guys do either!

Where did you get these? And the dip method you have going for you is looking great!

DaveD said...

They are looking good. Look forward to seeing afull unit of the Hussars

See on TV said...

Those look superb keep em comimg

Paulalba said...

Hi Mr Lee,
The figures are AB 15mm (18mm) and I had been buying them from fighting15's in uk but more recently pick them up from friends or from ebay as the price has went pretty high in recent years. The AB figures are lovely to paint.

Hi Dave, Thanks, I will hopefully get stuck into the hussars sooner rather than later!

Cheers
Paul

Paulalba said...

Hi See on TV, Thanks!!!

Scotsgrey said...

more good looking Russians for me to thrash the French with

dwilde said...

Amazing work, Paul


http://generalwildescivilwarinminiature.blogspot.com/

Paulalba said...

Ahh Des, Good to see you online again!!! After the last game using Prussians as Russians I had to get more done! I am working on a Kutuzov command base also and it should be finished next week (conversion work is finshied so just need to paint them). Did you get the terrain I sent you via JonB?

Hi DWilde, Thanks very much!

Schrumpfkopf said...

Schrumpf is impressed as always.
Sometimes too much!

You've won and I bought my first battalion of 15mm Miniatures. Gah!

Can't wait to paint them up and fool around with tight basing and such.

Thanks for getting me into that really.

Curt said...

Beautiful work as always, Paul. Bravo!

Curt

Captain Richard's miniature Civil War said...

Excellent work, Paul

Paulalba said...

Sorry didn't notice more comments
Thanks guys!!!

Hi Schrumpf, What 15mm Naps did you go for? look forward to seeing them on yer blog. ind not ove to far away from yer excellent 28m Prussians!!!

Hi Curt,
Thank a million, sorr yI put in a poor showing in the comp, don't get much time to paint to be honest.

Hi Captain, Thanks your encouragment is always very much appreciated!!!!

My very best
Paul