Success at Last!

I've got to be honest. I've really struggled with my umpteenth attempt to make Napoleonic war gaming a viable project.  In the past the idea has been shelved for a number of reasons.  Too many figures I can't afford.  Too many rules to choose from.  Too many rules I don't understand. But most of all, a fear of discovering I'm no good at painting Napoleonics.  

When it comes to painting, I work from a black undercoat.  I paint each part of the miniature with the shade colour first and then blend my paints up to the actual colour.  Highlights are added where appropriate. It's not the fastest option, but it's what works best for me.  This is obviously a problem when it comes to a system that requires me to paint between 120 and 150 models.  

Now, I've tried other methods.  I've undercoated models white and applied successive washes to paint a model.  I've block painted and applied washes.  But no matter what happens, I keep returning to my wet blending method.  If that name even really exists at all...

Add to this the irregular opportunities I have to paint.  Put all this together and you have a problem.  Days went by between each painting session, and each painting session was a slow, laborious affair which always ended before I had achieved a satisfactory result.  I find this can be really discouraging to my painting.  I look at the half-finished model and begin thinking i can't paint any more.  And to quote Hamlet, there's the rub.  Because it's normally at this point that I put down my Rattledagger and go all Why Don't You and go and do something less boring instead...
 But today I didn't.  I decided to finish what I had started.  So I put down my ECW ruleboks and returned to the first of my French Grenadiers.  Fighting off the urge to give up, I decided to persevere.  And as a result, I finished the model, and flocked the base.
 This you will understand is a very big thing for me.
 And most importantly, I'm really pleased with the result!
 What I have to do is learn that there's no way with my painting method that I can hope to paint a Naploeonic figure anywhere as quickly as I can paint most other periods.  I need to be aware it's gong to get left looking awful between painting sessions.
 But now, with a finished and based model sitting on my pant station, I can be confident that I can achieve a good result.
 One down, a lot more to go!

Comments