The Principate Army Project at this point involves taking the original figures - painted by Minidragon - and sending them to Ukraine, where Old Guard Painters are painting an army of figures to match!
Above, you see the Duke and the original Spearman. So we sent the painted Spearman, plus 45 of his unpainted brethren (in two poses) to Ukraine!
The figures have just returned, and all I've done is to slap some bases on them and put a random sample in front of the camera. The figure on the left is the original; the one on the right is the Ukrainian-painted figure.
Differences that I've noticed: the armor on the new figures is slightly darker; you can see the eyes on the original, while the new figures are more heavily shaded behind the visor; the skintone is slightly brighter; the leather highlights are slightly brighter; the spear shaft and black shadows throughout are slightly darker. Some of the spear shafts and tips could have been filed better before painting.
Those figures are the "back row" spearmen - now here is the "front rank" spearman, painted by Old Guard Painters following the pattern set by the other pose:
Total cost from Old Guard Painters was $377.93 USD (including assembly - one pose is a two-part model - and shipping), which works out to about $8.40 USD per figure.
More pictures when I get these figures properly based!
These Crucible figures are available from Ral Partha Europe individually as 02-323a and 02-323b; they are also probably available from Iron Wind Metals, but might require special ordering.