Samuli sends in this great unit of riflemen portraying his own nation's history, 'The Winter War'.
From Samuli:
For my next entry I have a squad of Finnish Riflemen from the Baker Company Kickstarter. Just in time for the first snows to finally grace the ground here after months of misery caused by continuous rain and darkness.
These are some of the minis from the highly successful Baker Company Kickstarter that ended up exceeding the expectations of everyone. It's nice to have someone make minis of Finns, too bad that the quality isn't always up to nowadays standards. It seems that Baker Company was bit of a victim of their own success as they have had to sculpt massive amounts of new minis to fill all the stretch goal unlocks etc.
And boy does it show on the minis as there are just massive quality differences between them with some having good proportions and having nicely sculpted faces etc. and then some with ridiculously thick or thin arms and legs and faces that are more in the likeness of an ape than a human :) Also some equipment like most of the shoes doesn't look like anything used in the war. And don't get me even started about the huge amount of flash that the castings had...
Not much to paint as most of the minis are covered with a snow suit so I tried to put some extra effort on that. Starting out from Khaki I tried to achieve a slightly dirtier look on it. 5 layers of highlights later it may have ended a bit too light, but I guess they present a unit at the start of the war then!
The snow is a combination of Noch snow paste and snow flock. A new material for me as I was actually supposed to buy another kind of snow flock from them, but only realized at home that they do numerous different ones and I managed to pick the wrong type. Too lazy to go back to the shop I decided to give it a try. It ended up looking quite a lot like fresh snow on a really cold day so I guess it achieved it's goal well enough.
I was part of this Kickstarter as well but I bailed when I decided to go with 15mm for this period and started seeing their later sculpts (which, as you say, seemed rather uninspired). Nonetheless they look very nice under your hand, Samuli, and makes me rethink my decision not to have stuck it out. Oh well...
These ten riflemen will give Samuli 50 points. Well done!
Nicely painted Samuli. Shame that some of the sculpts/castings weren't up to standard.
ReplyDeleteSad to hear a successful kickstarter didn't deliver on quality. But they've still come out nicely here
ReplyDeleteCan't tell you how happy Iam not to have backed this project. I had my eye on it also but as Curt I jumped off after having seen the first shots. I think you did the best job possible with these rather crappy figures. Especially the guy on the left of your last picture looks like one of his ancestors was exposed to high radiation for quite some time. The others look ok but not overly great. So hats of for your great painting.
ReplyDeleteVery well painted Samuli, especially considering what you had to work with.
ReplyDeleteI must admit to never having backed a Kickstarter and I'm unlikely to do so. What you've outlined here is one of my main reasons. There are so many of these things going around now and only so many decent sculptors. Even the best of them might have an off day when overly pushed for a deadline.
Thanks guys! Not the best minis to work with and I was thinking of skipping the Kickstarter too, but hey when they are the only ones portraying what is pretty much the most important war in your nations history you just have to go with it :D
ReplyDeleteAnyways I think in the end the price per mini is just ridiculously low when you count in all the free stretch goals, so it's not that bad even if they are just tabletop quality and not useful for anything fancier. Around 100 pounds got me 6 vehicles, numerous guns, around 150 minis etc. (at least if they deliver on all the promises) At least the vehicles looks splendid as they were designed on a computer and the master's were 3D printed. They are yet to be cast though so hard to say what the real quality will be when delivered to us.
Bastard! Not only did he get his figs and I am still waiting but he did a freeking amazing job at that to rub my face in the yellow snow! Serious, great work, pumped for when my stuff my show.
ReplyDeleteI think you made a great job on the figures, even if like you said some look like monkeys!!
ReplyDeleteI like how you have done these. I too am waiting for mine (should have them in three weeks)
ReplyDeleteShame about the reports that they are not all great but as you say the price per figure makes up for this
Ian
Nicely painted figures.
ReplyDelete