Lead Adventure Forum
Miniatures Adventure => Colonial Adventures => Topic started by: Keith on May 17, 2008, 11:43:44 AM
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(http://img169.imageshack.us/img169/7694/brits001uo2.jpg)
(http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/4492/brits002hq6.jpg)
Hello Everyone. Just finished painting some Zulu War figures (with a lot more to come).
They are from a new company called Empress Miniatures and I think they are going on sale soon-ish. Very nice figures sculpted by Paul Hicks (Bolt Action, Brigade Games, Anglian Miniatures etc.).
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Lovely stuff, Keith.
I'll be very interested in the rest of this range - especially if the Zulus are as good as these figures! Paul is a great sculptor, so I'm very optimistic ;D
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Great stuff.
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Splendid show - the colours are perfect :) :) 8) 8)
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Excellent paint jobs, very nice looking figures as well. Makes me want to get my Zulu collectionout again and extend it with some of these :)
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Beautiful figures ! and nicely painted , how do they compare size-wise with existing ranges (Foundary-BlackTree etc) ?
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Beautiful figures ! and nicely painted , how do they compare size-wise with existing ranges (Foundary-BlackTree etc) ?
Glad you like them :)
As for size - very typical 28mm. I have one here next to a Foundry NW Frontier tribesman and they fit perfectly. One of the officers is eye-to-eye with a Copplestone gangster. So probably a milimeter or so shorter that Blacktree (which are very tall) and a little taller than the old Foundry ones (which are rather small these days).
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Beautiful figures ! and nicely painted , how do they compare size-wise with existing ranges (Foundary-BlackTree etc) ?
Glad you like them :)
As for size - very typical 28mm. I have one here next to a Foundry NW Frontier tribesman and they fit perfectly. One of the officers is eye-to-eye with a Copplestone gangster. So probably a milimeter or so shorter that Blacktree (which are very tall) and a little taller than the old Foundry ones (which are rather small these days).
You've just made my day :D
I've got BTD and Foundry Zulus [in separate units, but used together on-table] so these sound perfect. Might even be able to mix them in with the foundry and BTD iViyos, for greater flexibility.
Always assuming Zulus will appear, of course ......... lol
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http://www.empressminiatures.com/
Looks like Zulus are going to happen straight away :)
(I've not seen them yet but have heard about them).
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Holy crap! Zulu War figures by Hicksie?! Me wants! Me wants! When?
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http://www.empressminiatures.com/
Looks like Zulus are going to happen straight away :)
(I've not seen them yet but have heard about them).
Splendid! Duly bookmarked and will be checked regularly :)
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Book marked and waiting with bated breath! If these Mins are any enducation of the rest of the range, I am deffantly going to get some :-*
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Beautiful work, as usual, Keith.
You obviously have a foot in the door, as resident painter in chief - so spill the beans... Who's behind Empress Miniatures?
We seem to be in a fascinating phase where there's a new start-up every few weeks.
Which should be a great thing... although you do just wonder how many manufacturers the market will really take. I can't keep up!
There again, I guess it is a market after all, so maybe some of those companies turning out sculpts of a slightly less, er.. contemporary standard, will gradually fall by the wayside, and new suppliers producing top quality figures will thrive.
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Serendipity!!! :o
Just finished reading "Zulu" by Saul David, and was looking around for figs.
Lovely stuff - both sculpting and painting! :D
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Hi Keith,
These figures are beautiful, not just the design by Paul, but your lovely painting style.
Thanks for the heads-up to the company too. I'll certainly pass this onto our folks interested in this period.
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Nicely done. 8)
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:o :o :-* :-*
How do they compare with Perrys?
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can't believe it, a new Africa range! sculpted by one of my favourit sculptors and painted by one of my favourit painters, fantastic job guys, very well done :-*
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:o Must... resist... doing... another... stunning-period-with-lovely-figs... ARGH!
Besides, excellent painting! :)
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Excellent new figures and beautifully painted! :)
Any idea of a release date Keith?
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Great miniatures, GRAND painting! :-* :-* :-*
Looking forward to your first finished regiment ... lol
Great red, would you share the colours used?
Thanks,
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Excellent new figures and beautifully painted! :)
Any idea of a release date Keith?
I believe that the figures will be available in early June.
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I believe that the figures will be available in early June.
Okay, it's early June now..... :D
Any word on a release date, folks?
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Hi There :)
As I understand it the doors should be opening in a week or so ... something certainly seems to be keeping them busy :D
I've just seen the Zulu greens by the way and I'm sure that no-one will mind if I say that they are looking rather wonderful.
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Hi There :)
As I understand it the doors should be opening in a week or so ... something certainly seems to be keeping them busy :D
I've just seen the Zulu greens by the way and I'm sure that no-one will mind if I say that they are looking rather wonderful.
I certainly don't , but I think my wallet does lol
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Hi There :)
As I understand it the doors should be opening in a week or so ... something certainly seems to be keeping them busy :D
I've just seen the Zulu greens by the way and I'm sure that no-one will mind if I say that they are looking rather wonderful.
Good stuff!
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Hi Guys,
I copied and paste here "About Us" story from the Empress Miniatures Website which is really lovely to read!
Welcome prospective customer.
We are a couple of what is probably best described as, long term wargaming widows. Both our husbands seem to have had their lives largely dominated by a fascination for little toy soldiers for more years than we can both care to remember. After years of moaning about such things as metal filings on the floor, paint marks on the dining room table, and asking what we now know to be the stupid question “What do you mean you just had to have the book – figures – vehicle – scenery – other” – (please insert as appropriate.) We realised that enough was enough.
With the old saying “If you can’t beat them, join them” ringing in our ears we found ourselves also indulging in this exciting past time by collecting and painting figures such as Samurai. Of course bringing up children, running a household, as well as holding down jobs does tend to fill ones day. However like all women we are born with the ability to multi task and so as one thing led to another, and spurred on by our husbands, we decided to put something back into the hobby by producing our own ranges of figures.
The result is Empress Miniatures.
Our first range will be the 1879 Zulu Wars and our aim is to cover the war in immense detail. The range will start with British redcoats, quickly followed by Zulus, then back to more redcoats so on and so forth. Ultimately the range will include both regular and irregular infantry and cavalry, as well as artillery, wagons, personality figures, etc, and we are even looking at possibly producing a range of terrain pieces. Of course with what is becoming a crowded market we see quality as the most important pre requisite of our range. It is with this very much in mind that we approached Paul Hicks to sculpt the figures for us. Paul has very quickly become one of the industries most celebrated sculptors and we are thrilled for the opportunity to work with him. Hopefully you, the customer, will appreciate the results.
This is the very beginning of what we hope will be a very successful company and one that goes on to produce a number of ranges that you, the customer enjoy. In the meantime we welcome you to Empress Miniatures and hope that you find any retail therapy that you may indulge in whilst visiting to be both a satisfying and pleasurable experience.
Yours Faithfully,
The Empress’s
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Great! I cant wait for them to open shop
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Well, they are making all the right noises and with Paul as sculptor, I'm really exited about this new range.
I've only ever used my Zulus in Darkest Africa games rather than historical Zulu War, so it will certainly make a nice change to paint some British in red coats. One of the attractions of this war is the number of irregular units raised, so their intention to model all these is very welcome. Also very usefiul in fictional Darkest Africa, of course :D
I'm hoping they will also make some African cattle, as I've just realised I don't have any :(
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Paul Hicks seems to be the most productive sculptor these days apart from the Perrys. When does that man sleep or eat? :o
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Paul Hicks seems to be the most productive sculptor these days apart from the Perrys. When does that man sleep or eat? :o
Shhh! He might read this and realise he needs to do that - then we get less of his lovely figures lol
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Thanks for the kind comments and the best of luck to Empress miniatu zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
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Wake him up, and get him back to work!
Allen
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What a fun back-story. Thanks for sharing!
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Lovely figures, and fantastic brush work!
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more pics from the gallery:
http://www.empressminiatures.com/page2.htm
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Ohhh - that's pretty that is.... :-*
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I'm certain now it's a conspiracy and PAUL is to blame for everything :-)
Great looking figures.
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more pics from the gallery:
http://www.empressminiatures.com/page2.htm
These are becoming progressively harder to resist ;D
Can't wait to see the Zulus
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more pics from the gallery:
http://www.empressminiatures.com/page2.htm
These are becoming progressively harder to resist ;D
Can't wait to see the Zulus
Resist? What's that?
These are lovely and I wants 'em. Enda story.
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When are these coming out again?
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Woooooooooooonderful figures, ;D :-*
I should probably enlarge my Zulu war collection o_o
Shikari Sahib
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Ohh those figures are just lovely Paul! Great job! :)
Thanks for posting the link Helen! I can't wait until they are released! :P
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Thanks guys. Just glad that I work for companies with some imagination and come up with some great ideas for ranges.
I have also delivered 16 Zulus for them as well.
Paul
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I have also delivered 16 Zulus for them as well.
Not quite "thousands", but great news nonetheless!!! :D
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...I have also delivered 16 Zulus for them as well.
Paul
Just out of curiousity...how long did it take you to do that many? What is your average sculpting time for a single figure?
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...I have also delivered 16 Zulus for them as well.
Paul
Just out of curiousity...how long did it take you to do that many? What is your average sculpting time for a single figure?
Based on the number of Paul Hicks sculpts coming onto the market these days, I'd about 4 minutes. Either that or he has a cloning machine somewhere.... :D
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I have also delivered 16 Zulus for them as well.
Not quite "thousands", but great news nonetheless!!! :D
lol lol lol
Brilliant Pat... 'Zulus - sixteen of 'em!'
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I have also delivered 16 Zulus for them as well.
Not quite "thousands", but great news nonetheless!!! :D
lol lol lol
Brilliant Pat... 'Zulus - sixteen of 'em!'
Yeah, you just know some Irish RSM would have gone "Yerrah, take it handy lads, there's only sixteen of 'em and there's six of us. Wait'll there's a few thousand of 'em and we'll make it a fair fight". ;)
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The Zulus took about two weeks to do. I average 1-2 figures a day.
Paul
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With the standard of the result that seems quick.
I look forward to painting a few of these.
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The Zulus took about two weeks to do. I average 1-2 figures a day.
Paul
Blimey! I can't even average painting that many in a day, let alone making the little blighters :(
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The Zulus took about two weeks to do. I average 1-2 figures a day.
Paul
Blimey! I can't even average painting that many in a day, let alone making the little blighters :(
I feel your pain brother... I feel your pain! lol
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I just noticed that the background image in the header for Empress Miniatures is the mountain at Isandlwana. Very cool! 8)
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You didn't hear this from me ... but I think that they might be available form some point this weekend ;)
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You didn't hear this from me ... but I think that they might be available form some point this weekend ;)
Oh Lordy! My heart hopes you're right, but my wallet hopes not lol
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Really looking forward to seeing the Zulus. :) Not to mention the NNC, The NNH, NMP and Natal carbineers. ;D I guess these will be a while off, but still can't wait! >:D
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Really looking forward to seeing the Zulus. :) Not to mention the NNC, The NNH, NMP and Natal carbineers. ;D I guess these will be a while off, but still can't wait! >:D
Well - I'v seen the Zulu greens so they can't be that far off. I'll try to persuade someone to get some pictures up.
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I'll try to persuade someone to get some pictures up.
:) :) :)
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I'm probably telling you all something that you already know but Empress Miniatures is now open for business.
Now where did I put my wallet? :-*
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wifes out so just ordered one of each .
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wifes out so just ordered one of each .
lol The problem will be when they arrive.......
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I'm probably telling you all something that you already know but Empress Miniatures is now open for business.
Now where did I put my wallet? :-*
The race is on, then.
Let's see who is the first to get a painted unit posted here :D
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I have had the shop page open in another tab in my browser all afternoon.
Should I? Should I go "big"? Should I try just a unit? Should I wait for more variety? Should I?
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrgggggggggghhhhhh
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I'm probably telling you all something that you already know but Empress Miniatures is now open for business.
:o
Flight. Bag. Metal detectors. :'(
Lead. :-*
Homeland Security. :'( :'(
Errrrrrmmmmmmmmm.
More lead. >:D
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I'm probably telling you all something that you already know but Empress Miniatures is now open for business.
:o
Flight. Bag. Metal detectors. :'(
Lead. :-*
Homeland Security. :'( :'(
Errrrrrmmmmmmmmm.
More lead. >:D
Hmmm, this coming from a man who advised us in another topic that 'maybe it's time to unload a few' :D
BTW friend of mine owns a small airplane charter company specialising in transatlantic freight.
Shall I give you the adress? lol
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Hmmm, this coming from a man who advised us in another topic that 'maybe it's time to unload a few' :D
Don't give me LOGIC!!!!!!!
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Naahh, you're right. Totally wasted on us... ;)
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Oh well, bought a pack of each... ;)
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Empress now has a workbench section with the zulus on...real ones not a feather in site.
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Empress now has a workbench section with the zulus on...real ones not a feather in site.
They are superb! I love the fact that Paul has done them in "campaign dress". The later releases in "full dress" will be good for the more veteran troops in reserve.
That's my figure buying sorted for the rest of the year then :D
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AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :o :o :o
There's no room left in me bags!!!!! >:(
Oh, well, patience is a virtue. Or something like that.
They're cool. First Zulus I've seen that actually look like they could move as fast as they reportedly did and scrap hard at the end of it.
Great stuff from Paul as always ;)
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Thanks chaps I just do what the ladies tell me to do. All the choices on how they should look have come direct from them. So now my work life has became the same as my home life :'(.
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Thanks chaps I just do what the ladies tell me to do. All the choices on how they should look have come direct from them. So now my work life has became the same as my home life :'(.
:D
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Thanks chaps I just do what the ladies tell me to do. All the choices on how they should look have come direct from them. So now my work life has became the same as my home life :'(.
lol
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You wouldn't have it any other way Paul :D
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Yep, I'm pretty sure I cannot cope for to long on my own. That reminds me wifes away for 4 nights soon, must remember to visit as many family members at dinner time as possible.
Paul
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The zulus are in the shop at last ?
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another four packs of zulus this time a bit more dressed up,and perhaps of interest to the converters out there a pack of british heads in various head gear,not my thing im afraid conversions but will be ordering the zulus.
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The first of a series of articles describing the Zulu regiments has just been posted. Well done, ladies! Thank you!
http://www.empressminiatures.com/page10.htm
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Hi help needed being a modern/world war 2 gamer im used to using dark colours nearest i get to fancy is the odd wild west figure, ive just started painting my empress brits and not doing too well with the jackets, whats best white undercoat im guessing but the scarlet just isnt coming out right?any tips help appreciated,oh im using vallejo paints.
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White undercoat, then a basecoat of brown, either GW Scorched earth or Bestial Brown( Depending on how dark you want your basecoat) then apply a mid red then final highlight coat with scarlet.
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Itchy
My only vaguely useful tip for painting red (see a couple of my pics below) is to use a red and black mix for the base, overlay with just red, then mix increasing amounts of yellow in for the highlights - not white. The 'not white' bit is the crucial thing, otherwise you end up with pink.
When you're mixing in the yellow, it looks horribly orange, but trust me, on the finished item, it usually seems to work - although takes a bit of practice to get it just right...
Bon chance!
(http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x69/pantomaniac/redcoatscomp.jpg)
(http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x69/pantomaniac/redguard2.jpg)
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Thanks I will try both ways today and let you know the results i have and which one works for me,thanks again.
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If you like Vallejos try my standard recipe. I use (over black basecoat, but I'm sure white would work as well) burnt cadmium red, then cavalry brown (actually a nice brick red) topped off with flat red. I use scarlet and/or crimson for officers since they usually had better kit.
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I use two reds and an orange (did on the Brits anyway).
Use a dark browny one first, then Vallejo 'Red' (that's the description on the bottle anyway - quite scarlet). Then mix a little orange for the upper highlights and things. Building up layers makes for stronger colour than a thick coat - I paint each layer at least twice but in quite a milky consistency.
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While using this technique I also find that it matters *which* yellow you use and base colour you use. In Bloods examples I think you'll agree they draws towards brick red, which is probably the result of the black undercoat and a sort of golden yellow in the hilites (unless it is due to the camera or Photoshop). For a firetruck red you probably want to use slighly more blue in your reds which can be achieved by a blue black UC and more lemon yellow in the hilites (lemon yellow havingmore white and blue in its mix).
All this said, you still need to experiment. There are no ready made formulas unless you use paints directly from the jar (which hues still can vary even within the same brand, but that's another can of worms).
Itchy
My only vaguely useful tip for painting red (see a couple of my pics below) is to use a red and black mix for the base, overlay with just red, then mix increasing amounts of yellow in for the highlights - not white. The 'not white' bit is the crucial thing, otherwise you end up with pink.
When you're mixing in the yellow, it looks horribly orange, but trust me, on the finished item, it usually seems to work - although takes a bit of practice to get it just right...
Bon chance!
(http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x69/pantomaniac/redcoatscomp.jpg)
(http://i184.photobucket.com/albums/x69/pantomaniac/redguard2.jpg)
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Love how everyone spells out their colour schemes around here! :)
Those Zulus came on quick, Im not trying to insult Empress, love their work and will purchase the lines, but are those Zulu new sculpts or were they purchased from another line?
...and Im PRAYING they make heads for Zulus like they did with the Brits! I like a little variety!
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They're all Pauls sculpts as far as I'm aware. Believe me Mr. Hicks can really turn out the figures. The zulu's are very nice figures, I'm intending to mix the ones with cowtail adornments and the ones without in the same unit.
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They're all Pauls sculpts as far as I'm aware. Believe me Mr. Hicks can really turn out the figures. The zulu's are very nice figures, I'm intending to mix the ones with cowtail adornments and the ones without in the same unit.
I think "prolific" and "outstanding" sum his work up nicely ;)
I don't think it matters too much about mixing figuresin different dress, so long as "married" and "unmarried" stay in separate iViyos.
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Im definitely excited about the line!
I hope we see Zulu heads too!, swapping unmarried/married to flesh out units would be cool.
uSuthu!
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I don't think it matters too much about mixing figuresin different dress, so long as "married" and "unmarried" stay in separate iViyos.
Most definitely. I was intending to keep both 'married' and 'unmarried' in separate units still. :)
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the new post from empress themselves this morning proves that Paul is sculpting them all and prolific is an understatement, im going to mix the different dress zulus keeping them in married and happy (unmarried) regiments without any conversions you have 16 different figures for each regiment at the moment and with the new greens loads to paint before i even think about converting.