Favourite Periods

[Minimus Maximus]

I am a keen figure painter of 15 mm figures mainly to DBx format, and I regularly put my "works of art" up for auction on Ebay - thus the hobby becomes self funding.[URL=http://photos.yahoo.com/badger_studios] Which brings me on to the purpose of the post ... to help mr plan future projects, which period or troops do you guys out there think would be the most popular in the gaming world??

[philistinejim]

Quite a dificult question to answer.

First I suggest you ask Chris Brantley to set up a future Poll with favorite type armies such as:

Biblicals
Hoplite period
Alexander & Successors
Punic Wars
Far East China, Korea etc..
Imperial Rome & Enemies

Well you get the idea.

My personal Favorites are.
Biblicals, Hoplites, Early Italy Hellenistic and Punic. But I already have armies in these, and you are looking at future buys, so?
Could care less about anything R*m*n.
I am looking at getting in to some other areas such as the Crusades, and maybe late Medievals.

Also suggest if you want to do your own research into folks favorite armies check out the DBAOL profiles and most players have posted some of their favorite armies.

Hope this helps a little.

[Timurilank]

MM,

I would sell a successful army; an ever victorious army no matter how odd does have a certain appeal. An army that has been graced would be seen to bring luck to its new owner.

cheers,

[bigalwams]

I have sold a few to help fund my hobby...but each time I do it's like selling a child...although I haven't actually sold my child.

NKE have been pretty regular movers for me. Don't know exactly why. It's a fairly easy army to paint up and I guess the troop mix is appealing.

[bigalwams]

For what it's worth, I plan on selling a Sea-Peoples army, Essex figures all-options, very soon.

[Darren Buxbaum]

MM,
I would first suggest painting what you enjoy painting. Intrests flow and ebb and with DBA the number of figures needed for an army is realtively low. With that in mind, a painter (and player) can skip through history and regions easily by whatever catches his fancy. But to paint something that is merely marketable makes painting a job. That is my opinion. But if painting is your job, then I would suggest morphable armies. Look at lists that might use many 3Ax/3Wb/3Bd or 4Sp/4Wb elements (Dark Ages have many), since these use the same number of figures and use the same base size. This way a player can morph these armies into others and get more use out of them. With Medievals you can get away with this too (gasp). Very few people really care about proper heraldry for their Medieval armies. Others are impressed by those who do, but those who are into that kind of thing (myself included) will tend to paint COAs themselves. Generic medievals do well mostly due to the high number of Kn and its respectful killing power (very numerous at competitions). After all, in competitions players rarely play against their historical opponents anyway! The infantry basically determines the type of army anyway in DBA terms for this period. As with generic Kn, eastern Cv could fall in the same category. In the late medieval period (Timurid especially) for the Middle East, 8x3Cv could make Islamic Persian, Mamaluk, Timurid, B/W Sheep Turcoman, Ottomans, Muslim Indian, etc... Then sell additional elements to round out the various armies (El, Bw, Sp, Ax, Hd, Art, Ps etc...). I have bumped into people so many times that only need a few elements and not an entire army. When watching ebay myself, I have noticed people selling either small lots of similar elements or singles and getting a decent price due to a bid fight. Oh well, that is my long-winded 2 cents. Good luck with whatever you chose to do.

Cheers,
Darren

[ March 31, 2006, 22:52: Message edited by: Darren Buxbaum ]

[Minimus Maximus]

Thanks for the input. I am working on a non-eBay commission of 48 Cuman Light horse at present. Once thats's done I have a Late Hoplite Greek DBA and Scots Common DBA, also I may well have a full DBM Hittite Army going on.

I think from my own observations, early Medieval Generic troops, Roman and Greek all seem to go well, I just find Romans so boooorrriiinngg!!!

[Little Caesar]

I just find Romans so boooorrriiinngg!!! You know, last year I painted up 300AP of Late Imperial Romans. At first I was afraid of the boredom factor too, but after doing some research I found that since most soldiers paid for a lot of their own equipment, there was a certain amount of diversity. So, I began slighlty altering small elements of their uniforms, a few different colored combs for their helms, a different tunic here and there and even one shield that was different to denote a new transfer into the unit. As someone else described, it is like looking at at group of school children in their uniforms; from far away they all look the same, but when you get up close you see all the little differences.

Anyway, I started to enjoy painting the little nuances that differentiated each soldier, even going so far as to decide whether someone had the 'good stuff' or not. In the end it really helped with what otherwise could have been really monotonous.

Hope this helps,
Steve