15mm metal is great fun. Cheap, great detail, sturdy, and with an appropriate heft of weight that lasts a lifetime.
I have about 50 photo essays up at the moment on little 15mm units, painted to a reasonable wargames standard. Here are the Napoleonic French :
link
(Click on other links to other nationalities to see more if you like)
Nothing pro, but good enough for me. There are plenty of places where I have cut corners and even got major details quite wrong – but the overall effect works OK. As long as I can knock out 'A regiment a Day', I am more than satisfied.
There is lots of advice out there on painting tips … I would suggest that you start with a small unit, take your time and do the best job you can within reason.
After you have knocked a few units out, worry about ramping up the speed and volume later. You will soon work out what corners are worth cutting at this scale, and what details are worth the extra time.
Hobby Paint technology has come a huge way since 20mm airfix days .. eg, things like vallejo acrylics – great primers, highly opaque thinned paints that are a joy to use, and glazes that do a lot of the hard work for you.
Laser cut MDF bases are a brilliant time saver, as are some of the new pre-textured paints for basing, and the huge variety of cheap basing details available online. A well done base can make up for slack miniature painting sometimes.
In short – the technology has made it possible to very quickly produce decent units that look almost competition standard from a gaming distance. Make the technology work for you !
Some tips :
1) Best advice I can offer is to play often. Dont stress out if you haven't enough figures painted to do the entire Russian line at Borodino … just take what you have and get em on the table regularly. It helps stay focused on the plan over the longer term. The best paint job in the world is of no use to anyone if it's still sitting in the cupboard un-finished.
2) The other advice is don't form too much of an opinion of your own work until its finished and based and on the table. Some of my better units looked absolutely awful whilst there were a work in progress. More than good enough though once they were finished.
3) Cheat, and get some hi magnification reading glasses and good strong lights on the painting desk. It turns those little 15mm guys into 25's whilst you are painting them. Useful !
Hope that helps.
