A couple of painting and modelling questions

[Mr. Burning]

Rather than spam this fine forum with my questions I thought I should just lump them together in one topic, since they are closely related.

I'm starting to get into VSF and pulp gaming, having mostly spent my life with the wonders of sci fi and futuristic gaming.

What I need is:

1. A source of cheap VSF style or inspired figures for test painting, in plastic. I like the look of Wargames Factory Wars in the Empire range of British empire soldiers, plenty of bang for my buck but would like to know of any other suggestions, basically plenty of minis for my money.

2. reference materials, am I on the right track using Osprey guides to get ideas on colourways/ uniform markings and decoration? Are there any alternatives for reference This goes for VSF as well as Pulp.

Thanks in advance for your help.

[JollyBob]

Hi

Do you mind me asking why they have to be plastic? Is it just for ease of conversion?

If that's the case then you may be restricted to the WF figs, but I personally would stay away from them as they may be cheap, but they sure ain't pretty. Also, the conversions I've seen of them make it obvious that they don't scale well with any other manufacturer's products.

This is just my opinion, of course, and I wouldn't expect anyone to pay too much attention to it, but I thought it only fair to warn that you may be disappointed when you open the box.

Maybe the Warzone plastics would be a better start (for Pulp, anyway), very WW1 in feel and easily convertable I believe. 

Ospreys are a good place to start for uniforms, but since its going to be VSF, you can pretty much make up anything you want regarding regiments etc. The basic, recognisable colours (red for brits, blue for French etc) will all be in there though.


Sorry, I'm aware that this sounds a bit negative, I don't mean it to. I'm just a grumpy old git.

[Mr. Burning]

Thanks,

I just need some minis to test paint schemes and to get back into the habit of painting uniforms etc. Need them to be cheap and cheerful so I can start using them but not worry when I add to my collection and get rid of them or if I do a foul paint job on them.

[nickinsomerset]

A useful post thread on here had some of the plastic British with Ramshackle heads - pith helmet and gasmasks. My British are all metal Foundry, Redoubt, Ironclad and HLBSc - generic home service/Zulu war uniforms but inspired by the thread have ordered some plastic British and gas mask heads.

[JollyBob]

I just need some minis to test paint schemes and to get back into the habit of painting uniforms etc. Need them to be cheap and cheerful so I can start using them but not worry when I add to my collection and get rid of them or if I do a foul paint job on them.

Oh, right, well, go for your life then mate. 

[Red Orc]

Ha, Jollybob ninja'd me, with a much pithier answer, but here goes anyway.

It depends on what you want to do, and how you see yourself progressing, but...

Warzone minis, as Jollybob suggests, are pretty cheap and have a certain cross-genre potential. You can pick them up on ebay and sometimes in our very own Bazaar of Obscurities pretty easily. I don't see any reason why you can't paint them up as British redcoats and Prussian blackjackets easily enough. But on the whole they have a more early 20th century feel than 19th. Perfect for 'Weird World War One' really, up to the Alternative '30s - I'm going to be using mine (for a while at least) for A Very (Weird) British Civil War, where they look a bit 'retro' to be honest.

Osprey (and similar historical reference bboks) are great, but depend on getting 'accurate' minis - as this is VSF, there are no uniform guides for Ruritanian Dinosaur Cavalry, British Steam-Bicyclists, French Chasseurs de Vaporesse, Prussian Aetheric Uhlans, Norwegian Aero-marines or Greek Galvanic Artillery.

You can get some pointers - my British 'Royal Aeronautical Corps' will have standard 1890s British Line Infantry uniforms with blue jackets instead of red; otherwise, they'll look like 'real' British. My projected 'Combined Atlantean Rifle Brigade' (composed of Orcs and Dwarves in Pith Helmets and British tunics) will be painted as straight redcoats. To that extent, they're 'just' another infantry regiment.

But odder units (aeronef marines, electric artillery) will have to have very different uniforms, because I'll be using non-standard figures. So the use of any Osprey guides rather depends on how 'straight' your figures are. The more you depart from actually existing units, the less use any real guides will be, except as inspiration.

Hope some of this helps.

[OSHIROmodels]

If you get a chance, go to a bring and buy (or flea market, not sure where you're from) and pick up a couple of cheapy figures to practise on.

Osprey are fine for uniforms but as Red Orc says, use them for inspiration more than anything.

I've painted my Japanese infantry in their proper uniform colours as I am going to use them for the Boxer Rebellion, so you could do the same with normal infantry. Paint them historically and you have a double use for them. My neffs closly follow the colour schemes for navel ships of the age, ensigns and the like.

cheers

James