Looking at my Teutonic collection I realised that I had no
non-order troop types. I therefore ordered 2 packs (12 figures) of Town Militia
produced by Fireforge. I did not appreciate that the figures would be cast in
resin rather than the usual hard plastic. I have only painted resin buildings,
not figures, so this would be new to me. The resin is more flexible than
plastic and felt rather ‘greasy’, so I washed the sprues in soapy water and
allowed to dry. Assembly was a pain because the usual polystyrene glue would
not work, so I had to use super-glue instead. However hard I try I always
manage to get super-glue on extraneous surfaces (including my fingers), and the
flexible nature of the resin meant the joins were not as firm as I would like
(much swearing was involved!). Next I tried priming the figures black and
immediately found the primer would not take; it just ‘puddled’ on the surfaces.
After some head-scratching I decided to pre-prime the figures with thinned PVA
glue, which I hoped would provide an adherent surface (and strengthen the glue
joints). Once dry, I used primer again and there was still some ‘puddling’. I
was now getting annoyed! So, I added some PVA to my primer and carried on.
Finally I finished prepping the figures; most surfaces were reasonably covered
but not to the standard I would normally aim for. Overall, I hated the process
of getting these resin figures ready for painting, and I will strenuously avoid
buying any more figures cast in resin (unless someone out there can provide a
better way of working with such material).
The figures actually painted up OK. I used muted tones, with
little decoration on the tunics etc. I felt this gave a better militia-look,
and I left the shields as plain wood with no heraldic devises (although I could
easily ‘pimp-up’ the shields at a future date).
In parallel to painting the militia figures, I painted a
pack of metal Warlord Games farmyard animals to add to my collection. These
models quickly add ‘feel’ to any terrain set up, and subtly make battlefields
more visually appealing. I am also tempted to play some Border Reiver scenarios
where the livestock will play a significant role.
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