I've decided to attend Cold Wars, up in Lancaster PA this weekend, and thought it would be fun to complete at Soviet force for Bolt Action. A while ago Steve and I painted the Warlord Games starter set for a friends 30th birthday. For my army, I wanted to see if I could paint the entire force in two days. That force consists of over 120 troops, one tank, and two artillery pieces. Unlike Owen's force, I decided to give Plastic Soldier Company a go, purchasing their troops. The only Warlord piece in the army is the T34.
What you see here is the result. After realizing the PSC miniatures were sub-par, I decide to just paint fast and loose. I figured that if I did not paint them all at once, that virtually any other miniature on my painting backlog would take priority. This was a paint or eBay moment! The models only cost ~$70 for 3 boxes, so it certainly an economical way to build an army.
Almost all of this force was painted by airbrush. I used the experiment to practice my skills. At the end I did use oils to blend the colors together. That was hit and miss based on the softness of the detail. In the end, all 120+ troops were completed in under 24 hours of painting time. I had to wait for the artillery pieces and the tank to come in, but those took an additional 8 hours of work. I met my goal. An entire Soviet Bolt action force painted in under 48 hours. Given that I had 6 of every pose, and the models themselves were not that good, I used a little trick to spice them up. The brightest spots on the models are the white and yellow flowers. I did this to draw the eye away from the unseemly models themselves. I think it might have worked. Normally I would want to highlight the model's face, but here I wanted the model to slip into the background.
So, you've seen the models, these will never win a painting award, or even come close. They will look good massed on the table top preparing to assault German forces. The will provide hours of fun for our gaming groups.
For all the warts, I am pretty pleased with the experiment. Ironically I now have a larger Soviet force than my DAK force. I'll have to solve that problem right after I complete my 101st airborne.
That is quite the speed job John! When I first saw this post, I was saying to myself...John! Why you paint so much then throw models in a bin! You aren't an ork player!
ReplyDeleteGreat job using base elements to control the viewers eye. That's a great technique. I try to get the judges drunk as mine.