Slitherine

I have never tried to paint a figure this small before but I really liked it in some weird way

I bought this off ebay a while back and it was such a horrible sculpt I bunged it in a box and forgot about it. I was reading about some nicer 15mm figures today and dug it out just to see if I could paint it.







So who makes REALLY nice 15mm figures ?

That's a pretty darned fantastic paint job for 15mm! As good as me in 25mm I've never bothered trying for that level of quality on this scale. How long did it take?

I reckon you'd like xyston for 15mm, they are very nicely sculpted, and a great canvas for that kind of work.

Thanks for the comment and the suggestion. I painted it inbetween other things but I would guess it took somewhere between 40 mins and an hour

Great paint job for a 15mm fig. Makes me want to rethink my current production line method and get back to basics, but I doubt I could paint that well.

40 minutes to an hour!?!

I've been painting miniatures for nearly 30 years, and never got my speed up to anything decent. For that level of detail, I reckon I'd be looking at about 3 hours!

plewis66 wrote:40 minutes to an hour!?!

I've been painting miniatures for nearly 30 years, and never got my speed up to anything decent. For that level of detail, I reckon I'd be looking at about 3 hours!

Painting from black to color offers to paint quickly.
Unfortunately I'm so used to paint with white primer that I'm unable to change my technic now.

For sure it would have taken a lot longer to do it properly from a white undercoat rather than black.

I am no expert but I have also found that careful selection of colours can speed the process up to. if you can find some colours that react well to washes and glazes and you can find a premixed highlight for those colours you can be a LOT quicker.

So who makes REALLY nice 15mm figures ?

As this kind of thing is a matter of taste, your best bet would be to go to a wargames show and look at all the figures on offer from different manufacturers.

Thats a bit tricky Lawrence

I live in Bulgaria now and the only wargaming at all (fantasy) is just over 200 miles away. Certainly no shops here or shows.

I've found both Mirliton and Corvus Belli to make very nice miniatures to paint up. However, your example miniature is far from "a horrible sculpt" compared to the average 15mm models. Sorry to burst your bubble, but if you really want to show of your painting, 15mm is not a good choice. *points towards 54, 75 and 90mm*

15mm usually look good because of the entire army looking good all together in their massed glory, not on an individual basis.

Probert wrote:Great paint job for a 15mm fig. Makes me want to rethink my current production line method and get back to basics, but I doubt I could paint that well.

That makes two of us... Very impressive. Thanks for sharing the photo.

RobF wrote:Thats a bit tricky Lawrence

I live in Bulgaria now and the only wargaming at all (fantasy) is just over 200 miles away. Certainly no shops here or shows.

I can see how that might be a problem

While companies like Xyston do indeed make very nice figures they also have a rather limited range. Which army(s) are you looking to build, that way it is more likely we can provide better recommendations and possibly even photos.

Great paint job BTW. Much better than anything I can do and fast with it.

Hi
nice paint job , I think you would like Xyston given the painting style. Corvus Belli are nice, the Mirliton that I've seen are good and some Khurasan are good but very small. I also like some essex though not as much.

I used to paint from white and changed to a black primer, I find that it gives a more defined finish and is quicker.

The Xyston range has been very static for many years, but they have started pumping out new figures on a regular basis recently and it looks like they are going to do a full range and hopefully finish the ones they have started. Almost an entire range of Gauls have come out since the new year.........just waiting for chariots.

Unfortunately I probably won't be getting any of them as it takes me somewhere between 1 & 2 hours or more to paint each figure, so when sized up to an army thats many hours to fit between family and work.

This is my Wiki, with pics of some stuff from all those manufacturers apart from Mirliton.
http://littlearmies.pbwiki.com/

Here are the manufacturers:
http://www.xyston.com/
http://www.corvusbelli.com/en/02_tiendacorvus.asp
http://www.mirliton.it/product_info.php ... ed-rampant
http://khurasanminiatures.tripod.com/
http://www.essexminiatures.co.uk/

Also I have never seen these in the flesh, but they look great if you are into dark ages
http://www.splinteredlightminis.com/rb.html
And these
http://www.legio-heroica.com/index-en.html

Will

Hi Will

Thanks for the post - I think you are right - the Xyston stuff does appeal to me, I like those.

Now which armies ????

I switched to a "rust red" primer of the "economy" variety. Any decent quality automotive spray primer will hide all the fine details, but some of the "generic" ones go on so thin that they work just about as well as the expensive "miniatures" primers. The rusty color works great as a starting point for barbarian or peasant type armies, where the overall color scheme is on the drab side and a hint of brown showing through the seams looks natural; not so well for "noble" type troops where you want brighter colors.