Having finally painted some 15mm, I like them!

[imported_Grant Dyck]

Well, for the first time, I started painting some 15mm minis. I decided to begin with my Blood Axe Hawaiians - not the greatest sculpts in the world, but lots of poses.

I am very surprised at how quickly they have painted up. I have a few odds and ends to do, but for two days work, I have an army!

Now I am on fire to paint the rest of my 15mm armies!

[Ivan]

15mm is the way to go!!!!

It is a perfect compromise between affordability, nice sculpting and detail (especially on the really good newer lines that are coming out now) and speed of painting.

Most people don't realize that the smaller the figure scale, the quicker and easier it is to paint. 6mm is actually the easiest of the major scales to paint. Go read the essay on Baccus' site to see this explained in detail, but basically, bigger figures take longer and are more difficult because they have so many more fiddly details to get right.

Although figure-for-figure, 25/28's cleary look the nicest, they are quite expensive, and take forever to paint decently.

I like 6mm a lot, but even very nice one's like Baccus can't quite match the level of individual personality that even 10mm figures can have. They are usually very cheap though. And I mean it, they are a breeze to paint!

15mm is my favorite because each figure is large enough to be an individual with its own character, enough detail to be interesting to look at and to paint, but not so much that they take too long to paint. Add to that the fact that they are fairly inexpensive (even Xyston or Two Dragons are cheap relative to comparable 28mm figs) and for me at least, they work out to be the optimal scale.

10mm can also be very nice (check out GW's Empire range, they are better than many 15's) but there are so few manufacturers, and most aren't that good.

I would add the further bonus that 15mm is apparently the most popular scale for DBA, but given the small size of DBA armies, and how easy it is to collect matched opponents as a result, having figs the same scale as your local opponents is less important for this rules set than it is for all nearly all others.

[Paul A. Hannah]

Grant, what sources / info did you find on how to paint your Hawaiians? Maybe I haven't looked very hard, but I haven't found anything yet.

Some in my family are actually heading to the islands for a nephew's wedding next month, but I think it would be kinda cheesy for me to ask them to scout about for info on the dress of Hawaiian warriors. :rolleyes:

I can't dither too long, though, since you and I are on for the "Hula Hoop Wars" :D at FALL-CON, Calgary this summer.

[imported_Lee Shackelford]

What's the matter with just renting/buying a Magnum P.I. flick and having fun?


Lee Shackelford

[xeswop]

What I dislike about 6mm, is converting the soft lead spears and pikes to piano wire. Just too fiddley to drill out their hands.

[imported_Grant Dyck]

Sources for Hawaiians:

http://www.hawaiiantrading.com/stock/index.html

Great pics, loads of story, and it seems to be accurate - one of the books is endorsed by the head of the Ancient Hawaiian history department at, I think, Oahu.

The warriors look like the Blood Axe minis, with the basket helmets, feather capes (used to deflect stabbing thrusts), and the wooden weapons with stone/shell.

The outrigger canoe is in a few paintings as well.

Hope this helps! "Ohana!"