The fact is, this hobby requires some work before you get to the painting part. Metal and single-piece plastics may require less time prepping than with wood (multi-part plastics often require more), but generally speaking, painting wooden figures requires less time than with metals and plastics.
Even so, it is possible to take a pretty minimalist approach to wooden figure building. Here are the parts to a minimalist WWII soldier.
It is not hard to see that when you have the basic pieces glued together, you can really see it take shape.
Maybe if you are not a WWII fan, the following figure would not be clear to you. Is it a English soldier? It is a Soviet?
Most looking at the next figure can guess: it is a German soldier. Grey helmet and trousers with green-grey jacket.
Sometimes I want to build a small force – say for a skirmish game that I want to try out – and what usually blocks me from completing the project is my quest for "perfection". Looking at the figures below sort of shows that. You start with a simple build, you make a viable gaming figure, then you keep adding details and the next thing you know the project seems both overwhelming in the time it will take to complete, and underwhelming in your attempt at perfection.
As you can see, the right two figures look somewhat the same. I have always maintained that the most iconic part of the figure is the hat or helmet. You cannot use the figure on the left as a French Napoleonic infantry man wearing a shako. It just doesn't register in the mind, no matter what colors they are painted in. But for a WWII British helmet? It looks pretty good.
What it lacks, of course, is the flared out rim. Now, I have turned a button plug into this style of helmet before, in a smaller scale. A little dimensional adhesive paint on the rim does the job.
In this larger scale, it would take a little more effort and a little more time, but is it worth it? Okay, so you might give the British helmet a pass, but what about the German helmet?
Clearly the shape is vastly different and the unmodified button plug fails. Or does it? Going back to my earlier statement, that the most iconic part of a miniature figure is the hat or helmet – because that is what we the player see the most, given our God-like position above and behind our wooden warriors – is it not the color of the two helmet that really signals to us which troops belong on which side?
Mind you, this rant is about when you want to get a project up and running quickly, because you have an idea you want to try out or an inch to scratch, but you actually want to complete the project. Just because you cannot find the perfect wooden piece to represent the helmet exactly, and your modification process to get it "just so" takes too much time and effort, does not mean you should give up. You just need to realize that sometime using color, rather than shape, is "good enough".
From our commanding position on high, would I really be able to tell that the flared sides of the two helmets is not accurate?
By the way, if you were wondering why the German figure had eyes, ears, and hair painted, but the British figure did not, the above picture also illustrates that point. They are details that matter when you are showing off your figure, when displaying it, but it has no bearing on identifying the figure or even, from a gaming viewpoint, which direction the figure is facing.
Some details are easily painted on the figure at a later time (as these are singly based figures), after you have the project "completed" and the figures are on the gaming table.
Very good points, Dale, about the contemporary figures. Even with metal single pieced miniatures, the flash removal takes considerable time (and is so boring) and also the figures are now so detailed that painting time is increased if you want to paint all the details provided by the modern sculptors. There is a funny youtube video I will post a link to below about the Heroquest game where he makes a point about how complicated modern figures are to assemble and paint. Because they guy is really funny, it's a funny video even if you have no interest in the old Heroquest game, but his point about modern fantasy figures is right in line with your point. Here is the link.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cx8sl2uC46A
If the link doesn't work just go to youtube and search on "why heroquest is so great" and it will come up.
Although those figures are more in the minimalistic style as you say, that is one boss SMG that German soldier is carrying. Very nice job on that! Also, the two different weapons is another easy way to distiguish the Brit from the German figure, in addition to the coloring for the uniforms and helmet.
I also think the minimalist approach focused the viewer's attention on what matters in terms of identifying the figure. There is no "Golden Demon Award" for painting wooden warriors, so fretting over details that do not help us to tell the difference between the figures on the table top is just not necessary.
I also like the puff balls for terrain in the picture. I hadn't thought of that, but they look great with the figures.
Hello there Dale! Really pleased to have stumbled across your blog as I am just starting to make 'peg doll' soldiers myself. Although these are slightly different to you wooden soldiers the philosophy is broadly the same and it's really great to read about how someone else goes about making their models. You've given me plenty of ideas! Cheers, Steve. Link to my work: http://molatero.blogspot.co.uk/2018/02/wooden-toy-soldier-part-1.html
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