Forum > VSF Adventures

Just not feeling my paint scheme

(1/6) > >>

Red Orc:
...but this isn't a workbench thread. It's very definitely VSF.

Brigade Games 'Steampunk: British Empire Troopers in Rebreathing Apparatus'. And their officer.

http://brigadegames.3dcartstores.com/Steampunk-British-Empire-Troopers-in-Rebreathing-Apparatus-5_p_3355.html

You know the minis. I think they're cool, I've had them a while but didn't get round to painting them, I've been talking about using them for my 'Aetherines' project for so long, and before that I was going to build my own Aetherines... I first mooted this project probably 8 years ago.

But now I'm actually painting them I'm just thinking 'meh'.

The current scheme is khaki pith-helmet, blue jackets and trousers, khaki puttees, white webbing and brown boots and facemasks, with some brass detailing on the rebreathers. The idea is the Aetherines are a crack-force of aeronef-troopers. Like Marines of the Aether, obviously. That's why the blue jackets - the Royal Aeronef Corps wears blue, I decided way back in the mists of when. But I think the problem is that for the life of me I can't see them as British troops.

The first thing I think I need to do is turn the helmets white. They have a cloth band around them (a puggaree?) which I think should stay khaki, but I think the helmets are going to go white (or maybe, the helmets should stay khaki and the pugarree should be white?). And then I think I'm going to have to paint all of their jackets red. At the moment I think I'm reading them as French or Belgian or something.

Anyone remember the Games Workshop figure-painter things they used to have on their website, where you could try out different colour-schemes on an outline of a Space Marine or Eldar warrior? It would be really handy to have a couple of those to do test paint schemes on (or even one given that 90% of VSF figs are basically Pith-helmet/home service helmet/Pickelhaube, jacket, trousers, puttees and boots).

I dunno. I'm in a funk. The minis I thought were going to look cool painted as Aetherines don't look as cool as I expected. Partly it might be my bad painting, because I can make a silk purse look like a sow's ear, and partly it might be over-anticipation. But partly I think it's because it's now so ingrained to read red coats as being British.

So that's what I'm going to do. So long Aetherines of the Royal Aeronef Corps, hello troops of the Royal Martian Infantry. Or maybe even the Second Battalion of the Royal North Surrey Regiment, in their Martian gear. Redcoats for the win!

(Maybe there will even be photos at some point, if I can remember how to work photobucket.)

Plynkes:
I don't believe the RMLI wore blue until the late 1870s or 1880s. Red was the traditional colour of the Marines, so no reason why they can't still be Marines if you want them to be. You are in an alternative history, after all.

I feel your pain. Sometimes though, all it takes is a break. Go away and come back again and sometimes everything falls into place, even on figures you'd almost given up on. We all have bad days, months, years... But they don't last forever.

Red Orc:
Thanks Plynkes - good point about the date of adoption of the blue Marine uniforms.

The problem really isn't that I need a break, this week is the first time I've picked up a paintbrush in about 2 years! But having done the basic paintjob on Tuesday, I'm distinctly underwhelmed. Not with the figures themselves, they're great, but with the look of them.

I think I just got it wrong. What looked cool in my head didn't look as cool when I'd painted it. There are undoubtedly several reasons for this (I can't paint as well as I can imagine, for starters) but I'm going to give it a go with the different scheme and see if I like it better.

I've been perusing threads and mini-companies for inspiration and I've found some great-looking minis and schemes (Artizan do some Martian Infantry that I somehow missed, and their Colonel is painted in 'trad' red-and-blue and he looks fab). And in the end, I decided that red jackets will probably just look better!

Cubs:
How about this handsome chap, with navy blue puggaree and tunic, khaki helmet and white breeches?

vodkafan:
I was beaten to it by Cubs but I was going to suggest the white helmet and blur puggaree also, honest...

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page