Over the years I had placed several obstacles to painting my 1/32 guys, even though I've been painting my 1/72 guys for over twenty-five years.
At first there was the idea of paint chipping and peeling off the plastic. That's been overcome with new acrylics and paints, learning about sealants, as well as new types of plastics that seem to hold the paint better.
One objection prevails (though I admit, it doesn't seem as great as perhaps it once was) was the sheer imagination of playing with the little plastic guys. Growing up before we had all this variety of sets I remember "making do" with what we had.
I remember making a makeshift Alamo church out of an empty shoe box and using my Civil War guys and cowboys as defenders and attackers. My ACW guys with kepis were the Mexicans and my guys with floppy or felt hats were the Texians. It worked in my imagination.
I suppose this goes today as well, I could use any of my blue colored shakoed Napoleonic figures be they French or Prussian to reinforce Santa Anna's Army with a little imagination they work. But once painted realism intrudes its ugly head. A French Line Infantryman is a French Line Infantryman, the facings and epaulets - not to mention colors of pants and other items are all wrong.
This even goes within a conflict and the same army. How about early war US GIs in their khaki drab/brown uniforms as opposed to later war uniforms? Unpainted who cares if the other details are all right (no M-16s, please)? Even unit patches. My World War II paratroopers can serve as any airborne unit in the war, if I paint them, they will have to become either 82nd, 101st, or even 17th Airborne. Then I wont be able to use them in a Pacific battle unless I give them the 11th Airborne patch. Of course, the solution is to buy more figures so I have enough guys to fill all needs, right?
But what say you all? True, painting can enhance the realism of our little guys, but is the price the joy and wonder we used to have playing with our unpainted guys and imagining them to be whatever it was we wanted them to be?
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7 comments:
I love painting my little guys.
Yes I does fix them to a unit and time zone. I sometimes ignore that whenever I like.I cannot play with an unpainted soldier ( he has no soul lol)
Ditto what Anth said
Alex
I also love the painted figures, but my early painted figures aren't much better than the unpainted ones...
But even when they are painted, I Don't care to have one army be used for another army figures if it is to have the right number of figures for a battle, so imagination is always needed. Also a great number of figures I use are painted in different uniforms as orginaly intended.
So a great number of my figures are not 100% in correct uniforms, but I have some exotic armies. Also who could say that even after a week of campaigning there was much of corrected uniforms present.
Bottom line is, if the playing is fun, who cares what figures you use, but when fielding figures you painted yourself with much care and detail, pride comes in also.
Hello
Projet napoleonnic batle , médiéval 1/32
John
I am old enough to remember the original release of the Herald Robin Hood set, based on the Richard Greene TV series. Beautiful figures but alas no follow up, so I had a couple of Lone Star Robin Hood figures as Merry Men boosted by all of American Indians I had. The mounted Sherriff of Nottingham, surely one of the best plastic figures ever produced, had a motley entourage of Crescent and Lone Star knights, the Lone Star Norman battering ram and catapult crews with Lonestar German infantry, because they were almost the same colour as the knights. Guys with riles were crossbow men and any one else was considered to have swords. These two rough and ready armies had some epic battles over and about my Lines Brothers castle, which also served as a western fort, an Arab village and French Foreign Legion fort for my Timpo and Cherilea French Foreign Legion and Arab figures. THese were all supported by a few surving Timpo Metal knights of the Round table, (how I wish I still had all of them, there might be a couple of the riders in a box somewhere.)
We had a privet hedge around the house and my dad made me a decent Sherwood Forest by drilling holes in some wood blocks and sticking offcuts from the hedge in them.
As Seneschal rightly says a little knowledge can go a long way to spoiling some innocent fun. It is like wtaching Zulu and Zulu Dawn, I love Zulu even though the the uniforms are wrong in detail because the Martini Henrys just look so good and right. Zulu Dawn did a somewhat better job of the uniforms but I cringe when I see the Infantry firing carbines and some even operating the bolts of SMLE rifles. When I was 10 both would have been "jolly good fun". I used to create the ambush scene from the Sabu movie, the "Drum". You know the one where the Highlanders are invited to dinner and then hidden machine guns open fire on them, with any Herald (They may even have been Zang figures as some of them had that peculiar squarish logo on the base)red plastic figures, Guardsmen, Highlanders, Sikhs as the British and American Indians, cowboys Arabs and, eventually, Lone Star Afghans as the attackers. Great fun. Now I won't play with figures unless they are painted, though I am tempted to go home tonight and throw the hundreds of AIP guys waiting to be painted onto the table and have a free for all. I also have dozens painted so they could be the elites, ah the vision could become a reality tonight.
I have to admit that one of the things I miss since I started painting is the joy of taking the guys home and playing with them straight out of the box. I can still do it with most 1/32 guys, but for the troops that come on the sprues it's problematic.
Wayne
Growing older demands bigger things from our little men. Alot of joy comes from researching uniforms as well as battles. Getting that painted look just right cannot be beaten for the enjoyment it will bring!
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