The Start of a Spending Spree & Finally Doing What I Promised.

I recently sold some ASL related stuff netting some money into my Wargames Neutral bag which has allowed me to go on a spending spree without any guilt attached. This makes it all the more enjoyable. I will report each item as it is received but it's enough to say they will supply a few posts all by themselves, though one will have to wait till Partizan as I will pick up the Baccus reinforcements then.

So through he letter box yesterday was one of the last purchases, this being some new paintbrushes. a fair few months ago a lot of talk about brushes was going the rounds with GW getting a bit of a hammering and such as Windsor & Newton getting big thumbs up. Well my style of painting and brush care immediately said no to the Rolls Royce of brushes but another brand got good press and whats more a price tag that is well below the average you would spend on brushes. This being Rosemary & Co. a British Company that still makes their brushes by hand and here in the UK. They are a Artist Supplier and their range is massive, most of which are useless to the figure painter. For my first order I selected 4 sizes of their Red Sable Blend which have been recommended on their website by a figure painter. I really don't expect these to stand up to my style of painting but I will be very happy if they do. I also ordered a single Pure Kolinsky Sable  (2-0) brush to see how that stands up in comparison to the Blended brushes.

I ordered 1 x 3-0, 2 x 2-0, 1 x 0 and 1 x 1 size brushes in Blended and the single 2-0 Pure, so the damage was £12.80 including postage. The Pure running at £3.60 whilst the the others were between £1.60 and £1.80 As you can see the order arrived in a sealed bag so no loose brush can get lost, damaged or the plastic covers can not come off so the bristles are well protected. This was also inside a padded envelope and a total cost of postage of £1

Well as I said I only got them yesterday (ordered Sunday night!) so only have a limited painting experience so far of about 2-3 hours. I just used the Blended 3-0 and a 2-0 but both brushes held their tip well and I think they hold more paint and apply it better than the Creative Models Red Sable Kolinsky that I have used to this point. Time will tell how well they hold up to use though. The CM brushes are solid work horses that can still keep a good tip even when worn down to far smaller points than they start with!

So what did I paint with this first outing? I had been given at Triples 13 figures all Aide de Camps in 10mm for a Napoleonic project that is being done by the original wargames holiday centre owner. He plans to put on massed Nap battles but to do so he wants a hand in painting the figures. I got lumbered given a bunch of ADC's. I have waited for some illustrations to paint them by, finally getting them about a month ago so it was high time I got on with fulfilling the promise.

I have started with painting up 4 of them, the rest all have their horses painted and I expect to get them all done over the next week or two between painting my own stuff which I have queueing up. Each one is a copy of a illustration so I hope they will be exactly what is expected. I will not be basing them as that needs to match the rest of the army.

You can see the size from just looking at the pop bottle lids they are sitting on. All four and indeed all thirteen are Hussar figures, Lee my mate has a mixed pose and type set of ADC's to do. I'm thinking I got the better deal.

The figures seem to be a mix of great detail such as the braid work on the jackets and hazy detail such as the infernal tack (not my favourite thing in the world to paint).

So far I have three base colours to work with but these buggers are colourful chaps so I will be using a very wide palette. I have found it easier to almost paint a figure at a time, very little work was done at the same time on any of the figures.

All of them carry muskets. I did consider filing them off but close inspection showed that some of them carried them so they stay.

These last two figures were painted together the most as the basic colour and much of the rest are the same. All figures received a wash of Nut Brown ink as I would 6mm. I could have used a standard wash and may yet try that on some more of them. Once I have done all of them I may well see if some infantry need doing and if so offer to help out some more. Just painting these thirteen would allow me free access to a game when he gets them started though I am not sure I will get to go. So if you want in on the act watch this space as I will be asking the state of play and if he needs or wants more hands on the project. Now I have started I am rather enjoying these guys, a different kind of challenge but it affirms we were right to go 6mm rather than 10mm for the ECW. For me 10mm is most of the work of a 15mm figure, sure it's faster but not enough to make me want to paint up a whole army!