Introducing 2nd Generation Painting (1 Viewer)

[King & Country]

Hi Guys,

In this year of K&C’s 40[SUP]th[/SUP] Anniversary as I’ve been working on our diorama book “Every Picture Tells A story” it has given me the ideal opportunity to look back at many of the amazing figures we have produced during this time.

At the same time I’ve seen the evolution of King & Country figures both in sculpting and painting.

When we began, in the early years, our painting style echoed the norm of the period i.e. traditionally gloss finish.

Then as K&C began to develop WW2 subject matter i.e. “ARNHEM ‘44” we moved to a larger scale, 1:30 and importantly, a matt-painting finish.

Over the years we progressed and refined our painting and sculpting style to the point when in 2018 we introduced our second ‘VIETNAM’ range depicting the TET Offensive of 1968. I’ve come to call this particular painting style as ‘Documentary Realism’ using in my view, a more authentic, more muted style of matt-painting that really does help to tell a war story in miniature.

K&C has taken this approach and painting method and applied it to other series including the 1967/73 Arab Israeli conflicts… The 1982 Falklands War… the more recent Kokoda Campaign and, of course, Vietnam.

While working on some new German WW2 figures a few months back I pondered on the idea of taking a few of our very best sculpts from more than a decade ago and long-retired to see how our recent ‘Documentary Realism’ approach would look on them.

Here is the first small batch which we will release in a few months time…
Two sets of 2 x figures plus a walking Waffen SS officer.

With best wishes and, as ever, happy collecting!
Andy

 

[Mark IV]

Andy,

You needed to show the originals. These are the very first K&C Figures I got from the WS series and still a treasured part of my collection

 

[villagehorse]

Painting is essential to the overall look and your current techniques are keeping K&C as a front runner in this hobby. Something to be very proud of, but at the same time never resting on your laurels I am sure. Keep on keeping on. Robin.

 

[Desertkiwi]

This is an interesting development and I commend Andy for exploring this option.

As Mark quite rightly points out we need to compare with the 'originals', which were some of the first K&C Germans I ever purchased and still treasure.

I do like the look of these 'new' ones though.

I'm more into quality these days, opposed to quantity and while I still truly enjoy the 'older' sets these new chaps are very attractive.

Just my 5 cents worth. :salute::

 

[cantinetozzo]

I'm more the Tommies' buyer type (i have more than 50 of them and growing), i'm not fascinated by the Germans (maybe is why they shot three times at my father during the war and fortunately they had Star Wars stormtroopers' aim or i wouldn't be here tellling the story), but i have the Officer and plan to buy some of the new SS. I noticed by the way that apart from the more realistic painting they have now better engineered and proportionated weapons, do you plan to exchange them? It's possible?

 

[joesgis]

I do prefer the way K & C paints most skin tones in general better now than they have in the past. But as for the rest of the figure, the current painting style is not my preference. They come off as speed painted to me, as in base coat, light dry brush, done. I really enjoy the newer sculptures though, but find the overall painting to be a step back and significantly behind the competition.