"Forward March 2mm - First Impressions" Topic

Just received a test order of some of Forward March 2mm 3D printed figures. Wow, they look nice. Of the 7 various codes I ordered, only one horse, out of almost 500, was misprinted. Everything else looks fine.
I need to think of the best way to mount and paint these.
One final note, the buildings are fantastic. I put them next to some 3mm bases and they look great. I'm part of the Bruce Weigle school that more smaller scale buildings the better.
I'll try and paint some up as soon as i finish some 1/1 scale work I'm doing around the house.
Dale

Glad to hear it : )

You might try dying them with a wash of the basic color. Afterwards, let them dry (put them in direct sunlight for 30 minutes or else it'll take 8+ hours for them to dry. It's a weird material). After they dry, hit them with a light black wash with some dish detergent in it. Let that dry, then paint the detail over top of that. It gives a nice shadow/chiaroscuro effect. Then just pick out the base with a grass-green or whatever ground color you want. For command strips or artillery, a watered down green works well as the base coat, because it creates a pleasant, not-quite uniform ground color. I'll be posting a how-to on painting these this weekend on my blog.

Or, you could just spray paint them like normal figures- I've tried that and it worked fine.

Pics or it didn't happen!

Here are some new pics : )

link

Almost all of my figures now have painted pictures posted. These are all done using the dying technique described above. I also published a new calvary model: 104 figure generic cavalry. It can be used for Napoleonic shako cavalry, reiters, Franco Prussian cuirassiers, Carlist cavalry… the list goes on.

Now that I've finally got my sprue drama settled I can move on to much more rewarding tasks, like AARs, how-to's, and of course, designing new units and buildings. As far as how-to's are concerned, this past weekend I took pictures of every stage of dyeing the models, so as soon as I get a chance I'll be putting some stuff up at my new blog about it.

My favorite H&M unit so far is probably my Highlander battalion:

Design-wise, next up are tricorne and kepi generals, then tricorne, bicorne and kepi limbers and caissons, and tricorne cavalry and artillery. I have some lancers that I'm debating whether or not I should just use as the production model, or re-work. It's going to be a close call.

I might try to tweak them a little bit…

What I may do is have them lower their lances to 45 degree angles, and extend the base out in front of the lead rank a bit. Kind of like Old Glory 10mm. That might work better. We shall see. I feel like these guys aren't quite there yet. But, they were worthwhile because the lance effect lent itself very nicely to the pikes, which are my greatest design victory so far (IMHO).

Anyway, updates as they come. Once I get the major H&M period stuff done I'll do a grand opening, or whatever the internet version is. I wish I was able to go to HCON this year;I can't. Maybe Fall-In though. We'll see. I will be dropping by whatever West Coast cons that I can. Definitely Pacificon, and the upcoming South Bay Wargamers Clubs weekend, although I'll just have samples, not putting on a game. This time…

In looking at your shop, it doesn't seem clear to me how many bases you get in a pack for the price. The "What's in the box" doesn't state this info.

Also, the flags are unrealistically thick. Can they possibly be made thinner by the manufacturing process?

The nylon material doesn't take regular hobby/miniatures paint very well? Can you change the material to something that would be more "paint frieldly"?

You might consider doing a you tube video showing some of the minis up close and how you paint them up. I assume that there is no "flash" on the blocks that need to be removed before painting like is always the case with metal castings?

Thanks,
Clay

Hi Clay-
The actual model is always shown by the white render under the main picture. I'll be adding detailed written descriptions soon. I'm a one man show and I work full time right now, so I have to take one thing at a time.
That said, there are ten bases per model for all of my basic infantry sprues. The two models at the end of the store have 20 companies per model, and you can cut them up as you see fit. There are 4 bases per cavaly model.

The nylon takes paint pretty well in my experience. The other materials are so expensive that the project wouldn't be viable. It takes a bit of getting used to, but once you do its quite easy to paint.

The flags thickness is not something I can do anything about- they won't print any thinner. They are very strong at the thickness they're at, so broken flags shouldn't ever be an issue. That said, you might try printing off colored flags from warflag and gluing those onto the no-flag versions of the models. I've started doing this myself and it looks quite good. It is also a bit cheaper, since the no-flag models are all cheaper due to the reduced print volume.

There is no flash whatsoever.

I would like to do some youtube videos; once people see how easy it is to paint these figures I think they'll be more tempted to try them. You can paint up a Black Powder army in an afternoon, for very little investment.

Clay:

FYI, I use Vallejo & Tamiya paints with no problems on the minis.

Dale

Dale- Glad to hear they're coming along well. Did you decide on a basing system?

Here's my church:
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And here's the wooden bridge. Still need so more weathering.
[URL=http://s1220.photobucket.com/user/MooseDontBounce/media/0A7EC36D-DC76-4AC5-9A28-0A3AB62F5765.jpg.html]

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Dale

Thanks Dale.