I thought I was finished painting French for my War of Spanish Succession but, as I was getting some Allied battalions ready for painting I decided to complete a half finished guards battalion that I started at the start of 2023. It was actually painting these figures that stopped me painting WSS in the first place.
The reason I stopped painting earlier in 2023 is that these figures are just too detailed for 10mm. They're Van Dyck Figurines and whilst they look outstanding and have beautiful detail I find them really hard to paint. You'll often hear people say about the smaller scales: "I could never paint those they're too small!" the usual reply goes along the lines of: "But you don't paint them in detail. It's all about the mass effect."
Unfortunately this doesn't hold true for Van Dyck Figures. They have fantastic detail for 10mm. The level of detail would be great even if they were 15mm and because of this they almost demand detailed painting. This for me is a deal breaker. My recent love of 10mm is that they are easy to paint and I can pump out big battalions and squadrons at a heft pace... But not with these figures.
The first battalion was half done and still took me about 4 days to finish whereas I've been doing 36 figure battalions in about 3 days from scratch. That's two per week (or three squadrons of horse in the same time). The second battalion took me about a week of some pretty solid painting sessions. That's what I'd spend of a 28mm battalion. That's not good!
Also, these figures don't fit with the Pedraken figures very well and that, plus the high detail is why I decided to do them a Gardes-Françaises. The uniforms aren't quite right so I just gave them a perfunctory "paint conversion," to give them a representation of the proper uniform. As it is; they're 10mm and using the 3' Rule they pass muster well enough. Just don't look too close and expect perfection.
One thing I realised as I was taking these photo's is that I forgot to give them a brigadier. I'll have to find a figure and rectify this situation.
They look lovely, but the point on detail is well taken, I found exactly the same when painting Warlord Games Epic figures, the detail is there, which draws you in, but once on the table, much of that disappears and really a faster painting technique is needed.
ReplyDeleteOne problem that bloggers have is that while in real life, most figures at arms length look good, the super sharp images taken by the modern digital camera can cruelly give too much detail and they become critically observed …. The naked eye is much kinder!
Thanks again Norm. I was very aware the detail when I was taking these shots. The figures in the bottom pics are over twice the size of the actual miniatures in the full sized photo and the detail looks shabby when zoomed in. Hence, I tried to keep my distance with the camera.
Delete10mm?? At first glance I thought they were 28mm taken from a distance. They look superb!
ReplyDeleteThanks John. They are beautifully detailed. Having done a lot of sculpting myself, my guess is that they were designed for 3D, shrunk down and printed. Moulds were then made and they were cast in metal. They are just too fine to have been sculpted in any other way.
DeleteJust chiming in to confirm that the Van Dyck figurines have been sculpted by hand by Kris Van Dyck. No 3D software was involved. It's crazy - but it's true... More info can be found on the company website.
ReplyDeleteThat's incredible. They're so well done. I do find them difficult to paint and I like to do them justice so they're taking me a long time to finish. I'll go back and finish the ones I have once I've painted a few more Pendraken battalions.
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