"My 'feeble' attempts at 28mm" Topic

I have the interest but not, I feel, the necessary skills to paint 28mm's well.
My interests are standard bearers, sapeurs, drummers and some artillery.
I have figures from, in no particular order, Calpe, Front Rank, Foundry, Perry, Steve Barber, Murawski.
I am attempting a wide sweep of figures from all the Napoleonic period armies I can.
Couple of pictures, not very good, as I only have a simple point and press camera to my name.
Group of Duchy of Warsaw [Murawski] plus Anhalt sapeur [Perry]
A part of a display cabinet

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Well I love your display cabinet and the contents. Modern 28mm figures are collector's pieces in their own right, perfect for those of us who have never thrown a dice in our lives. Collecting to a theme is satisfying as you can indeed work your way through the various companies' products.

I do not have a single infantryman yet. Loads of cavalry and artillery figures though. I like the Irish flag bearer!

The camera work. Even the cheapest fire and forget camera these days has a macro facility. A tiny tripod can be bought for peanuts. Failing that use the timer and just leave the camera sitting on a level stable surface. Use available light and a long exposure. You will do more justice to your pioneer close ups

Great concept. It is obviously a labour of love. Your plinths are inspiring me to build a couple of chess sets using 40mm or 28mm figures. I agree with deadhead that today's miniatures are often works of art and collectors' pieces.

Don't look feeble to me!

Great work – where did you get the plinths?

Indeed. Fine work. You should be proud.

Bob

Your work looks acceptable to me, don't give up. The more figures you paint, the better you get at it. Most of us are too critical of our own work, so keep that in mind.

Thanks for comments. Appreciated.

Plinths I now use are from modeldisplayproducts.co.uk. Display Discs – Stepped Display Discs – 25mm high at 50 pence each.
Some of the taller ones were from Games Workshop.

Looks good to me. As for photos, a tripod is your friend. I use one 6" high. I have an old point and shoot. When in focus, the shots look fine. Always take at least two from each angle, trying to focus each time.

Some Historical periods seem to fill painters with more dread than others and by their very nature, Napoleonics are intricate.
I always to to visualise how I want the finished article to look and then think about the best way to achieve this. More than any other Historical period that I can think of, colour theory plays an important role in presenting a pleasing looking figure so perhaps invest a little time in understanding the nature of colour before you apply it. Experimentation is your greatest tool. Try different approaches, different priming colours maybe, different brands of paint, different makes, shapes or sizes of brush can make a lot of difference too and not everyone likes the same ones. As has already been said, you will find that your results improve the more familiar you become with the practices that work for you and most of all be inspired and enjoy what it is you are creating :)

Fizzypickles
I can assure you I do experiment quite a lot!! My wife will vouch for sudden pockets of noise from my study, as things have not worked out as I had hoped.
I did find watching the tutorials by Toby on Artmaster Studios very informative and have developed a slightly different style now.
Additionally I am doing a large amount of research into what I plan to paint. Many of my posts on here are seeking guidance as to the 'correct' colour to use in a particular application.
Practice will make 'perfect' I hope.

Do you have access to any version of photoshop?

Fizzypickles
Yes I do have CS2 Photoshop.

Ok, here is a site regarding colour you might find of some use but be careful, you can get extremely anal over colour. I speak from long suffering experience. This site allows you to take a hexcode of a reference colour, maybe from a print or Historical painting using the dropper tool in PS and input it. If you then click on 'Related Paint Colours' top right of site page it gives you a list of paints by different manufacturers that are the closest match. I know Revell, Humbrol, model master and Vallejo are there. Don't know what paints you use but give it a whirl. It might help.

encycolorpedia.com

Thank you for that link, will investigate further.