Magyar redemption | 09 Apr 2018 7:04 a.m. PST |
Have had a long term 28mm project going, and am struck by the amount of tedium needed to bring figures to an acceptable level to paint. Even worse can be horses, as mold lines running down the head and metal between reins, legs and hooves can require major efforts to clean up. Happily, I have figured out how to attack each manufacturer in the most expeditious way (and each company has different foibles). Almost to my surprise, because of how ornate they are, Old Glory hussars were a champ to clean up and I almost always love working with Essex sculpts. It seems that shortcuts in the prep are hardly worthwhile if you are going to spend hours painting, so I personally won't acquire figures of a certain type if it takes me more than five minutes to tune them up. Your standards are? |
Dynaman8789 | 09 Apr 2018 7:23 a.m. PST |
More than a couple of second of prep work is a no go. Partly why I stick with GHQ 6mm stuff. Snip off the little metal stringers and your set. |
Winston Smith | 09 Apr 2018 7:36 a.m. PST |
Well. You should have been an Ancients player back in the 70s and 80s. Crapped out molds were the norm. I had a nice large Macedonian army, which required drilling out the space between pikes and chest. Ditto musket men. Half hour prep time per figure was average. I ran through a lot of drill bits and Xacto blades back then. Which makes me cheer Fife and Drum and Kings Mountain figures. And makes me really grumble over how much work goes into prepping Perry figures. Not as bad as ********** or ******** from my Earlies, but still annoying with all those vent spurs etc. |
Dexter Ward | 09 Apr 2018 8:13 a.m. PST |
If you are going to be spending hours painting each figure (really? Surely 15 minutes per figure is easily enough), then a couple of extra minutes on prep isn't going to add much, is it? |
Ragbones | 09 Apr 2018 9:05 a.m. PST |
The older I've gotten the less patience I have for spending a lot of time ‘prepping' figures. I'm with you, Magyar, find and stick with manufacturers (as much as possible) whose figures require minimum effort to get into the painting queue. I enjoy painting. I don't enjoy the prep work. So I'll buy minis that maximize the enjoyment. Like you, I find Old Glory 25's to be pretty quick to get ready to paint. |
wrgmr1 | 09 Apr 2018 9:46 a.m. PST |
One of the reasons I like Front Rank and Calpe very little prep time. |
Murphy | 09 Apr 2018 10:07 a.m. PST |
Like you, I find Old Glory 25's to be pretty quick to get ready to paint. If only Blue Moon was the same way…. |
laptot | 09 Apr 2018 10:09 a.m. PST |
I'm a remodeler. When I paint a room it's 80% prep and 20% painting. Paint reveals (not hides) imperfections. |
Dynaman8789 | 09 Apr 2018 11:15 a.m. PST |
Dexter – I generally like painting though there are some drudgery bits I don't like. I DON'T like prep work, except for plastics – for some reason it is not a chore with those. Maybe it is due to my dislike for metal filings – they make my fingers feel weird after a bit. |
Darrell B D Day | 09 Apr 2018 11:45 a.m. PST |
You should have been an Ancients player back in the 70s and 80s. Crapped out molds were the norm. You should have been a Napoleonics player in the late sixties. Mass armies of Hinton Hunt figures, each one of which needed to be exhumed from an overcoat of flash. Until you're confronted with 1000 20mm French fusiliers that need to be carved out of their flash cocoon, you haven't experienced prepping. DBDD |
Winston Smith | 09 Apr 2018 3:50 p.m. PST |
Darrell. Didn't you feel like you were sculpting each individual figure back in those days? Ah. Kids today. |
evilgong | 09 Apr 2018 5:00 p.m. PST |
Time spent on figure prep is never wasted. I don't mind an extensive prep on the odd figure or two of a unit, if too many require effectively a re-build I might look for a new manufacturer for that unit. I keep an extensive lead pile and can find substitutes for many badly-cast items. David F Brown |
Oberlindes Sol LIC | 09 Apr 2018 7:42 p.m. PST |
I agree with evilgong. Preparation time teaches me a lot about how the figure is shaped and what painting issues I might not have noticed. There are diminishing returns, I suppose, but I have never encountered large problems with preparation work. On the other hand, I don' think that I've ever painted more than 50 men at once. |
goragrad | 09 Apr 2018 10:03 p.m. PST |
I would prefer not to have to repair figures just received from the manufacturer. Just got a couple bags of figures from a manufacturer purchased during a sale – presumably cast to order. While removing a bit of flash noticed I had twisted the base 45 degrees. On examining the figure more closely noted that one leg of the figure had had a break just above the ankle. On examining the other figures I noted that 5 more (out of 72 total) also had breaks on one leg. Flash is one thing, but actual repair is asking a bit much. As to the old timers, when Minifigs US went to pewter they used a particularly hard alloy and cleaning up the bases from the excess sprue was a major task. Far more than with lead castings (I have quite a bit of lead from that cleanup). |
Darrell B D Day | 10 Apr 2018 12:07 p.m. PST |
Darrell. Didn't you feel like you were sculpting each individual figure back in those days? Ah. Kids today. Winston – you are so right. As for kids today. I don't want to overload your anxiety index (we old timers have to be careful) but some of them can't even conjugate the verb transgress. I despair. DBDD |