FINAL SESSION: THIRTY MINUTES

Beginning Status: -6 Minutes

I have often heard it said that nice basing can improve the paint job. So I decide to try wedge in a little basic flocking. Nothing fancy, just something to jazz the figures up a little. I decide to gamble and try a new technique. I have read of other painters who paint the base of the figure and then dip it in static grass, letting the paint act as glue.

For the base color I select Howard Hues GeoHex Brown. It is a good color for summer soil, so if the flocking is patchy the base will still look fine. For the flocking I mix four different kinds of Woodland Scenics. I prefer a more yellow, parched base than the verdant green on so many bases. Mixing the flocking only takes two minutes.

I paint each base then dip it generously. I pause five seconds then gently tap off the excess. This takes far less time than I would have though, and looks fairly nice. A great effort-to-output ratio. Here are  two pictures of what the individual figures look like at this point.

To base the unit, I cut a piece of 1” by 1/8” thick balsa wood, coat it in white glue (undiluted) and plop my figures down. I wait about three minutes, just so the glue can begin to set, then I dunk the entire unit in the flocking. To ensure good coverage, I sprinkle the entire unit as well, to get in between figures. I have used white glue so I can easily pop the figures off the base later if I decide to upgrade the unit (fat chance of that , but still...). And now, the completed unit:

CONCLUSION

As I hope my little experiment has demonstrated, painting and flocking a regiment in four hours is certainly an attainable goal. It does not yield a beautiful unit. And this one certainly shows that. Nor does it have a wealth of detail, of which so much of this hobby is constituted. For example, the soldiers’ plumes are plain white. The drummers coat in reversed colors is actually inaccurate (regiments with blue facings were all Royal regiments who did not have reversed colors for their drummers). Most fine detail has been skipped - such as canteen straps, the brass on the scabbard, fine musket detail. Owing to my ink wash disaster the shading is much less than I had hoped for.

However, for every painter out there who has ever thought of being a brush-for-hire, consider this. Not including expenses, four hours work yielded a single unit of 15 mm soldiers. Given the basic nature of the paint job, I think $1.50 per figure would be a very good price. That would mean a grand price of $36 for the figures (assuming a full 24 figures) and, say, $4 for the basing. Grand total: $40. Net of expenses, such as paint, flocking, brushes, marketing, taxes, and any other overhead. Assuming you could keep up that pace full time, and average 40 hours per week of production time, your gross income would be $400 per week times 50 weeks = $20,000 per year. Now you know why so many of these services are based overseas...

Still, all in all, I’m please with the outcome. In a short time, using figures that would otherwise simply gather dust in my basement, I quickly produced a regiment that could appear on a battlefield with better-dressed allies and not feel ashamed. While they would not be the pride of the army - until they lead the decisive charge and carry the day - they would not be a disgrace either. And considering you could, if you had an understanding spouse, repeat this three times in a week, you could put together a sizable couple regiments in two weeks time in preparation for an upcoming battle.

Or, you could host a painting party with six of your friends and get an entire division of troops ready in a single afternoon.

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