Current Projects For July And The Rationale For painting Old Figures
This month I am in the process of repainting Hilco kneeling colonial Highlanders. I am painting them as Gordon Highlanders. When I repaint old hollowcast the question always comes up if I should try to replicate the original paint job or a more realistic one or a bit of both. As you saw in an earlier post I went for replication in my evzone repair. Usually, though I go for a mixture. With these resolute warriors I initially painted the kilts like the original - a cheerful bright green with some rudimentary yellow hatching. In the end I repainted the kilts dark blue and I am going to add green cross hatching over black and lastly thin yellow hatching. I just couldn't stand looking at the hit and miss basic paint jobs on the kilts. I'm not going to replicate every fine detail (which you couldn't see at this scale anyway) but I am going, now for a slightly more realistic finish.
To those who fret about repainting old Britains etc I reply that my guide is the following: Have the figures been significantly damaged? Have they lost much of their paint? Are they worth a lot of money? Did they look like crap to begin with anyway?
The fact is that, with the exception of mint figures, especially in boxes and especially unusual and scarce figures, a lot of old hollowcast and also old plastics can be acquired for a couple of dollars (or less) from Ebay and elsewhere, especially if they are notably scruffy. In that case I'm not really 'reducing their value' by painting them, especially as I am not a bad hand with brush! And a good paint job is worth a few bucks anyway.
I do compromise in some cases; when I have figures that are basically intact and have some collectable value I might simply base them so they don't fall over and that is it. But the day I want to actually remove those bases and sell them is, most likely, going to be pretty close to my death bed and what good is money to me then?
In any case I am not collecting figures as an 'investment'. If I wanted to do that I'd pump more money into my Super Fund. I collect the figures to admire them but especially to play with them. That's 'what God intended'. They were created so we can play war with little men who don't bleed and leave
widows.
The other thing I am doing is selecting and finishing random figures that I started painting aeons ago and put on a shelf or in a box. One of these was the ACW Highlander. I also put the finishing touches on my Texan lancers.
Future projects are finishing off a unit of Call To Arms Romans and also a couple of Napoleonic units - British Riflemen and marching Airfix British line infantry. Then there are the other hollowcast repair and paint jobs to do. I still have about ten boxes of Expeditionary Force colonial figures as yet untouched by the paint brush but one day, hopefully this year...
At the same time I'm working on my cartoons, this time homemade zines rather than a full comic with shiny cover. One will feature Mick and Hoppa and others will be my sketches of Gippsland and Melbourne.
The other thing that has happened is I recently receive the new Osprey book, 'Latin American Wars 1900 - 1941 "Banana Wars", Border Wars and Revolutions' by P S Jowett and illustrated by Stephen Walsh.
In Mexico there were a number of large scale revolts following THE Mexican Revolution. Honduras had 17 wars. Others nations experiencing wars included Brazil, Ecuador Nicaragua. Peru, Columbia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Venezuela and Cuba. American and others served as mercenaries and there was direct US involvement in some conflicts. Wars were primariy civil wars but also border wars and incursions.
One thing that struck me from the illustrations was that some, especially the Brazilian gauchos, looked almost exactly like US cowboys. That brings to mind a new use for all those cowboy 'toy soldiers'.
I also have the Osprey books on the Mexican Revolution, the Chaco War and various 19th century Latin American wars. It strikes me that all of these wars are rich sources of inspiration for modelling and wargaming but they are majorly neglected compared to the ACW, American Revolution and major European wars.
When I get around to it I'll write some more on this in my book review page which I haven't written in for some time and I have not stopped reading books so I guess I should update it.
I almost forgot, my regular wargaming friend, Matt and I will be playing another wargame based on Glorietta Pass in the ACW and another account will follow.
To those who fret about repainting old Britains etc I reply that my guide is the following: Have the figures been significantly damaged? Have they lost much of their paint? Are they worth a lot of money? Did they look like crap to begin with anyway?
The fact is that, with the exception of mint figures, especially in boxes and especially unusual and scarce figures, a lot of old hollowcast and also old plastics can be acquired for a couple of dollars (or less) from Ebay and elsewhere, especially if they are notably scruffy. In that case I'm not really 'reducing their value' by painting them, especially as I am not a bad hand with brush! And a good paint job is worth a few bucks anyway.
I do compromise in some cases; when I have figures that are basically intact and have some collectable value I might simply base them so they don't fall over and that is it. But the day I want to actually remove those bases and sell them is, most likely, going to be pretty close to my death bed and what good is money to me then?
In any case I am not collecting figures as an 'investment'. If I wanted to do that I'd pump more money into my Super Fund. I collect the figures to admire them but especially to play with them. That's 'what God intended'. They were created so we can play war with little men who don't bleed and leave
widows.
The other thing I am doing is selecting and finishing random figures that I started painting aeons ago and put on a shelf or in a box. One of these was the ACW Highlander. I also put the finishing touches on my Texan lancers.
Future projects are finishing off a unit of Call To Arms Romans and also a couple of Napoleonic units - British Riflemen and marching Airfix British line infantry. Then there are the other hollowcast repair and paint jobs to do. I still have about ten boxes of Expeditionary Force colonial figures as yet untouched by the paint brush but one day, hopefully this year...
At the same time I'm working on my cartoons, this time homemade zines rather than a full comic with shiny cover. One will feature Mick and Hoppa and others will be my sketches of Gippsland and Melbourne.
The other thing that has happened is I recently receive the new Osprey book, 'Latin American Wars 1900 - 1941 "Banana Wars", Border Wars and Revolutions' by P S Jowett and illustrated by Stephen Walsh.
In Mexico there were a number of large scale revolts following THE Mexican Revolution. Honduras had 17 wars. Others nations experiencing wars included Brazil, Ecuador Nicaragua. Peru, Columbia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Venezuela and Cuba. American and others served as mercenaries and there was direct US involvement in some conflicts. Wars were primariy civil wars but also border wars and incursions.
One thing that struck me from the illustrations was that some, especially the Brazilian gauchos, looked almost exactly like US cowboys. That brings to mind a new use for all those cowboy 'toy soldiers'.
I also have the Osprey books on the Mexican Revolution, the Chaco War and various 19th century Latin American wars. It strikes me that all of these wars are rich sources of inspiration for modelling and wargaming but they are majorly neglected compared to the ACW, American Revolution and major European wars.
When I get around to it I'll write some more on this in my book review page which I haven't written in for some time and I have not stopped reading books so I guess I should update it.
I almost forgot, my regular wargaming friend, Matt and I will be playing another wargame based on Glorietta Pass in the ACW and another account will follow.
James
ReplyDeleteI think you are right in what you say about careful repaint and restoration adding fresh gaming value to otherwise commercially almost worthless tatty Broken figures.
The amount of repaint depends on the figures condition and new use, or return to their old use as creative playthings.
Enjoy them now! By the time we all die off I wonder if any but the very best boxed Museum quality examples (a.k.a. poor game deprived figures sewn into their boxes and entombed in glass display cases) will have any value to the next generations (usually an argument known as W(h)I ther the Hobby?) whilst the 50s-70s plastics will have crumbled.
Who would have thought that you and I and many others will still in 2018 be happily repairing and repurposing figures that are at last 50 to possibly 100 / 120 + years old in order to play and game with them? Try that with a Playstation / X Box from 1893!