Having given up painting full units recently, I have had a few figures painted by those lovely lads at the Dayton Painting Consortium over in the US of A. A couple of small cavalry units, an Austrian Grenz battalion and some Prussian grenadiers. Not exactly a massive order by some people's standards, but including the cost of the figures, painting, postage and customs fees, it still came to £122.65. Counting the cavalry as 2 figures, that's around £3.23 per figure, all in.
Even taking into account that the style is my favoured block painting that may not satisfy some gamers, that's still very reasonable. But think how much you'd need to spend to get off the ground with a few hundred figures! I think this is the next big challenge for the wargames industry - providing ready painted figures at cheap prices. I know a lot of you love your painting, but what a boost to the hobby that would be. As I don't particularly want to benefit from the output of some foreign sweatshop, maybe technology will one day present the answer - how about pre-coloured plastic figures?
Anyway, a few photos for you. I kept the figures unbased in the photos for the Old Schoolers amongst you:
Carlstadt Grenz Regiment Oguliner. |
Grenadiers from 3 separate Prussian regiments. These will make up the rest of my Grenadier units from 16 figures to 20. |
I have a few artillery guns and crews to add, and then that will be about that for my SYW armies. I think it will soon be a time for an 'all toys on the table' battle so I can get the whole collection out at once.
7 comments:
The Lads at RSM95 are tops with whom to work. Their prices are very reasonable and they will work with you to get the numbers of figures you need with little or no wastage.
Much of my 28 mm 7YW collection comes from them and the slender look matches nicely with the basic design style of the Minden range.
best wishes and much enjoyment with your new purchases.
Jerry
They look very good.
As for pre-coloured plastic figures, those have been around for ages, in the form of such as the old Britain's figures, and more recently in other gaming lines (D&D, and many others), as well as numerous toy figures (dinosaurs, etc.). I don't know much about scales or costs though.
Interesting to see how much a painted figure costs. I still prefer to paint my own, but sadly struggle to find the time these days.
I vaguely remember that there was an ACW game released in the past few years that came with pre-painted figures. Maybe we will see more of this in the future...
Very nice Keith. I sometimes wish I could afford to have my figures painted but do still get a little satisfaction from my own work.
I look forward to seeing all your toys in a battle.
Best wishes.
Jim
Dayton really are very reasonable - at source they charge $3.00 (say £2.00) for a painted figure including the cost of the miniature. It's the extras over which they have no control that add up.
I'm sure that is perfectly reasonable when one considers the work involved and the skill required. A Puritan streak in my psyche would make me feel vaguely guilty if I did not paint my own figures, but I can't afford such luxuries any way!
Luckily, I can get away with painting my 10mm figures in a very basic style; if questioned, I say my style (lack thereof) is an homage to that of the 'penny plain, tuppence coloured' aquatints of the early 1800s by William Heath et al.!
Great looking minis, love the brown hussars!
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