I’ve been busy the last two weeks painting up this 40 figure battalion of Minden Miniatures 1/56 representing the 1st battalion of Prussian IR34. Flags by GMB and finials by Front Rank.
These figures pose a dilemma for me as I absolutely love their poses and their incredible detail but, size-wise, they do not fit in with my 25/28mm WAS/SYW armies, pictures of which you have seen on this blog over the last year or so. So the choice that presented itself was as follows; either sell everything I had already painted and start all over again with Minden or just curse the bad timing of the whole thing and continue with my Front Rank/Crusader/Foundry combinations, which are, in fact, about 50% finished. I was genuinely prepared to go for the first option because I’m a bit of a fanatic about using the ‘best’ available and I thought a good way to resolve this conundrum was to time my painting of this battalion and see how much work was involved.
Given that this battalion had many more figures than I customarily paint in a single unit, the issue for me was painting time per figure. The result was a surprise – each Minden figure took me almost twice as long to paint as a conventional 25/28mm figure. The answer as to why lies in the fact that these figures are very detailed and don’t allow short cuts. You have to focus and concentrate all the way through the painting process and
that’s why I have decided, somewhat sadly, to sell this battalion and plod on with my existing armies.
So if anybody is interested in buying this unit please contact me. I’m looking at £240 for the unit which is a nett painting cost of £5 per figure. I’d also be prepared to add a small number of figures at that individual price if someone wants to make a larger unit or two smaller battalions. If there is no interest via this blog I’ll put them on eBay next week.
RE Savory book.
To update all of you who are interested in the re-printing of this book, it is with the printers as I write this and I expect to be posting out the first orders in May 2009. I’m also working on the website at the moment too. More news in the next couple of weeks.
Beautiful job Nigel, such a shame that you are not going to carry on with them, but of course not everyone can cope with the detail and finer sculpting compared to the chunkier figures out there. Don't forget me for the Savory book :-)
ReplyDeleteFrank
Beautiful painting, I can see you really put a lot of care into these figures. I am always amazed when I see someone who is able to paint the eyes - that is something that I can never pull off, I just leave mine black nowadays!
ReplyDeletePity you cannot continue with Frank's Minden figures as they definitely are "the best"! Anyway I am sure someone will snap up this regiment in no time!
All the best,
Josh
outflanked.blogspot.com
Frank, it looks to me from the photo that Nigel is more than able to cope with such gorgeous figures.
ReplyDeleteBut dealing with limited time available for the hobby is a fact of life that that not many people can escape from, myself included. I understand Nigel's reasoning completely.
And to be honest, any well-painted unit of miniatures- from whatever manufacturer- will in the end look a thousand times better than one languishing in the "to do" pile for want of time to get it done, no matter how well sculpted.
Please to know you are carrying on 25mm figure painting, Nigel!
ReplyDeleteLovely brushwork, Nigel! Your treatment of the faces is some of the best such work I've seen. Too bad you will not carry on with this particular range of figures.
ReplyDeleteBest Regards,
Stokes Schwartz