Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Progress in Painting

I didn't get much painting done during the first several months of the year, but recently there has been an uptick in my output. I've also noticed that the quality of my work continues to improve. Below (on the left) are a pair of minis that I painted a few years ago and a pair (on the right) that I finished a few weeks ago. In both cases the marching figure is a Freikorps mini (at least I think so, they are from a lot I picked up on eBay), and the charging figure is by Minifigs. The more recent figures show better detail because I'm not applying the paint as thickly as I used to. This especially helps when it comes to bringing out facial detail. I'm also getting better at creating softer, more natural appearing colors through color mixing.

At a distance, the difference in quality is not particularly noticeable...

... but up close (click to enlarge) the difference is considerable.

Here are some other recent creations (click to enlarge). On the left are two American officers by Essex. On the right are two American officers by Musket Miniatures. The uniformed officer at far right is with the Green Mountain Boys, a unit that I'm currently working to complete.

4 comments:

  1. Looks great as always, they are always a great touch in your work!!!

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  2. I enjoy your blogs. Do you have any plans on the Battle of Blackstocks? Robert Bass has a map of the battle in his book on Gen Sumter, but I don't know how accurate it is. He also shows the Fishdam Ford battle taking place on the east side of Broad River, which is questioned by some. I did an article on Lord Cornwallis's march down the Cape Fear River which is found by doing a google search. K.R. Haynes

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  3. Robert Bass is the expert in SC on Marion and Sumter. However I have found in doing research that some of his locations were more based on folk lore tahn on site research. Rememeber the book on the Gamecock was really just a side note after he did his books on Tarleston and Marion. If you read all of them you will see what I mean each repeats the previus. Also he is not a big fan of Sumter in his work so keep that in mind also.

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  4. Thanks for the kind comments.

    @ khaynes:

    I found your article. Thanks for the tip. It so happens that I plan on getting into some of the events in Rev. War North Carolina in the weeks and months ahead. Sumter's second campaign (including Fishdam Ford and Blackstocks) interests me a good deal, and I will write about it in time.

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