Rebel Minis Scourge - review and work-in-progress

[clkeagle]

All,

I know most of you will see this at TMP anyway, but here's a link to my review and test shots of Rebel Minis excellent Scourge models.

http://basementgamingbunker.blogspot.com/2010/02/rebel-minis-scourge.html

Let me know what you think!
-Chris-

[earthad]

I think these are awesome (iv said so on tmp as well). Tell me as i am uninitiated with painting 15mm. I've painted 6mm which is my favourite scale (easy to paint cause they are so small) and I've painted 28mm (harder in my opinion cause of the level of detail needed). What's it like painting 15mm - id imagine its harder cause they still have lots of detail but not the size?

[clkeagle]

My experience is still fairly limited, but so far I'd compare 15mm painting to 6mm, not to 28mm.  While there is enough individual detail on each model that one could spend hours on each figure, it really isn't necessary to present a clean appearance.  I think I have a total of six hours invested in the thirty-odd Scourge models you see here.  I also knocked out about a dozen zombies and a handful of Mall Cops in a two-hour sitting; I just need to add those to the blog once I finish their bases.

Here's my basic process, since I really don't have a tremendous amount of time to spend on the hobby with a toddler in the house.  Once the little one goes to bed, we usually pop a movie or TV series into the DVD player and relax for the evening.  While that's playing, I'll break out a tray table and some minis.  I'm finding 20-30 figs is a good batch size in 15mm, so that's the increment I've been doing.

The first evening is spent cleaning mold lines and basing.  Nothing fancy here - an Xacto knife, a few micro files, some super glue, and some loose pennies for bases.  If the figures are repetitive and have outstretched arms or unbased legs, I'll usually reposition a few during this stage (just for variety).  By bedtime, I will usually have the entire batch cleaned and based. 

The next decent day (it's been a rough winter!), I'll prime the figures.  I use old shoeboxes with one panel sliced off, and do 15-20 at once.  Position in one box - spray - set it down.  By the time I position the rest of the batch into a second box and hit them with the spray, the first box is usually dry enough to spin around and respray.  Two light coats of primer have worked fine for me so far.  I usually let them dry an hour or two outdoors, then overnight inside the house (I can do fine-cleaning or touching up at this point, if the primer reveals any problems). 

Then two more post-toddler evenings to get figures to the tabletop.  One evening is all it takes me to basecoat 20-30 of these (the Scourge were very quick; zombies have a little more detail and use more colors so I can't do quite as many).  Once I have all the colors I need on the figs, I'll paint their bases.  All of my bases and terrain use the cheap Wal-mart paint (Apple Valley or something like that).  It gets the job done, but takes far longer to dry than miniature paint.  So the bases are my final step for that evening, and they can dry overnight.

The final evening is for finishing the bases and any detail painting/touching-up on the figs.  I have two tables right now - urban and desert.  For desert basing I simply use some sand pilfered from a local playground.  I haven't figured out exactly how I'm going to do 15mm urban basing yet, but I will update the blog once that has been completed. 

[MiniatureReview]

Fantastic Review.  Keep em coming.

[earthad]

thanks fo that- i definately give it a go

[Kelroy was here]

I think these are awesome (iv said so on tmp as well). Tell me as i am uninitiated with painting 15mm. I've painted 6mm which is my favourite scale (easy to paint cause they are so small) and I've painted 28mm (harder in my opinion cause of the level of detail needed). What's it like painting 15mm - id imagine its harder cause they still have lots of detail but not the size?

I'm pretty new to 15mm Sci-fi too, but I have painted some 15mm stuff before.  I think it's as hard as you want it to be.  If you're a get-em-on-the-table type of painter/player, then a quick two-color job with maybe a dip/wash at the end is all that's needed.  Me, I really enjoy painting, and what I struggle against is that the 15mm stuff suffers from not having enough detail!  It will look like it should have the detail, but the maybe the mold messed up or something.  Although the new stuff coming from Khurasan, GZG, Rebel minis et al is very clean and very nice.

I tend to take a long time to paint my armies, but I figure I only want to paint them once, so why not do as good a job as I can.

For examples of my painted 15mm British and Zulu, see:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/kelroy/sets/72157611688559338/
I don't have painted 15mm SF yet on my blog, but it will be coming soon:  http://orbitalbarrage.blogspot.com/

[KJ]

15mm SciFi minis are marginally more difficult to paint than 6mm (infantry are a little easier to make look good, since you're not squinting for the details; 15mm tanks take a little more work than 6mm to make them stand out on the tabletop). Be glad they're not 15mm Napoleonics - I burned out on painting any 15mm for over 10 years after painting a couple thousand Naps/7YW figs. Never gonna do that again (and how many times have I said that, I wonder...). 

[wminsing]

Looking good!  I'm a marginal painter myself, and I like that 15mm models give me the chance to get a decent looking model without a lot of very tedious (for me) work.  I will try the drybrush the whole model idea on my Spugs- they are currently a nice rust color but need a little something else to stand out.

-Will

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