Last week, I wrote about sending Orcs to Sri Lanka. This week, it's U.S. Marines to the Ukraine!
These two cases are almost polar opposites. With the Orcs, there were ornate painting schemes that I had been procrastinating - so sending the 16 figures to a professional artist seemed like a wise investment.
In this instance, however, it's 15mm scale WWII Marines that we're talking about. It's not a complex paint scheme, it's a scale I'm comfortable in, and if I had the time, I'd be perfectly happy to paint them up myself. However, after surveying the number of projects already on my workbench, and realizing that we're talking about 350 Marines (7 packs)... it makes sense to consider farming this out!
Which is where my old friend Vladimir Zhilko comes in, of Old Guard Painters. You may remember their previous TMP Workbench project - Painting Hobby Products' Dwarven Crossbowmen. I was quite pleased with their earlier work, and Vladimir has been eager to show what he can do on a larger project... and so my Marines are off to the Ukraine!
I've asked for Wargame Quality on this project, which according to the price sheet should run me $1.30 USD per figure - or about $455 USD for all 350 figures. (Perhaps more - some of the machinegun figures are more complex than standard "foot.")
The box has been mailed... 2 lbs, 5 ozs., $20.10 USD for airmail (half that for surface mail, but it would have taken up to 2 months to get there...)