Not Enough Hours In the Day

I have had to come to terms with an ugly fact in my life: I will never get painted all the armies I want. So I have begun to use some painting services. I recently decided to take the plunge and send a large batch of 6 mm, along with a few 15 mm figures, to the Philgreg Painting Service, located in Sri Lanka. Here are the results.

I sent several hundred 6 mm Napoleonic figures, as well as a handful of 15 mm figures. I followed the packing instructions carefully. Everything was carefully sorted and labeled, and detailed instructions were provided. I sent reference by putting images and scans on a CD. The package was sent in January 21, 2005. The painted figures were back in my hands on March 26, 2005.

I suppose I could have sent some test figures, but having read good things about the service on The Miniatures Page and elsewhere, I decided to leap in. Besides, I’m not s uniform Nazi. Frankly, in 6 mm, I’d use ACW Union for Prussians in a pinch! So if a color is off here or there, its not going to bother me!

How Can You Paint Something That Small?

In 6 mm the goal is to create the effect of seeing a battlefield from a distance. So “dab-n-go” is my order of the day. The Philgreg painters went beyond that as you can see.

The eagle should be gold or brass instead of steel, but that will be easy enough to touch up. I would have liked black left between the legs and arms to get a little depth, but otherwise they look nice.

These Austrians might come across a little bit monochromatic but remember, in 6 mm, and at any distance they’ll look really nice. I did lose a few flagpoles in the process (and some bayonets) but nothing an evening of work won’t fix.

I did provide instruction to do one quarter of the infantry in each of the company pom-pom colors - which Philgreg did exactly. The color here is pretty bright, which I like. If it were at all a realistic dark blue it would essentially look black on the table. I want my French to be blue and my British to be red!

And here they are. Very red! I suppose I could touch up the plumes with a bit of red, but this is 6 mm. Who am I kidding?

Here we begin to see some 15 mm work. The horse is a bit roughly done. Not award winning work, but certainly more than worthy to grace a wargaming table.

This is General Bagration, and the next figure is his aide. Finding good digital reference for these figures was quite difficult. As a result I’m not wild about these figures, but that’s a function of the process, not the service.

Finally, here are two foot figures. The first is a Spanish militia figure. I’m quite pleased with how he came out.

The final figure is a German Fusilier, in red coat faced blue, from the Peninsular War.

Overall, I am very pleased with service. The price can’t be beat, but more important the results are worth waiting for.

I would make one suggestion - if you’re at all picky about specific colors, paint up a sample. I have heard that if you send one done the way you like, they will copy it quite exactly.

Review posted March 30, 2005

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