I have finally finished my first attempt at painting a metal minature.
This is the NCO from the English FIW series of Grenadiers. I apologise for the dusty TV top where I shot these. I tried so many photos in better locations which kept coming out awful.
It was painted entirely with Tamiya acrylic. The only non-matt paint was the white and of course the gloss. I had the paints already left over from Military plastic models and plastic 1/72s from a decade ago. The only paint I bought was the gloss white and gloss finish.
I hadn't cleaned the metal before painting so I don't know what implications this will have in the future.
My biggest struggles were just keeping a straight brush. I admire the style and detail of Britains Redcoats but it is a detail I couldn't achieve. Up close in the photo it actually looks a bit shoddier than what I thought but am not too disappointed for a first go. Having said that I enjoyed the experience. It was really relaxing (kind of like gardening) and I can't wait (baby's permission pending) to start another.
Thanks for the encouragement guys. I am now starting on a second grenadier. Actually my wife is joining me and doing another at the same time. She watched me do the first one and figured it was similar to putting on nail polish. So far she isn't doing too badly either.
Thanks for the encouragement guys. I am now starting on a second grenadier. Actually my wife is joining me and doing another at the same time. She watched me do the first one and figured it was similar to putting on nail polish. So far she isn't doing too badly either.
We have finally finished a few more. We are reasonably pleased. Some good lessons were learnt during gloss application by brush. Move quickly. Try to gloss the darker colours seperately from the light ones. Also check your brush that it isn't collecting colour as the gloss tends to pick up a thin film of paint during the application. The grenadier on the left was a real learning ground. I ended up smearing his face and mitre cap. I ended up removing much paint and re-doing it. I was quite annoyed as I had done a really good job of his face but wrecked it all in a few strokes.
My wife painted the grenadier loading second from left. I believe she had fun and is looking forward to the next (Robert Rogers and Indian). Also I am stll working on the flag bearer.