Wednesday 26 June 2019

Thrifty git strikes again!!


Give 'Candy Apple Grey' a go too!.

  So the last few weeks have flown past but i have not been (completely) idle. You see, since i have got back into painting i have been 'borrowing' the Amazing Mrs Sprinks craft paints to get the job done. No point in buying miniature paints if i'm not convinced i will keep up with the splodging. Now this has not been a problem so far and has pushed my 'thrifty gaming' buttons but i have been noticing a sort of dry and grainy finish on the minis i have thus far produced. So i thought i would look into getting some mini paints to fix the issue.
 The mystical paint brands of Mrs Sprinks.

So i had a delve on line.......and had a ruddy heart attack!!, GAMES WORKSHOP WANT £4 FOR A BLOODY THIMBLE SIZED POT OF THE PISSING STUFF, THE CHEAPEST, ARMY PAINTER, WANT £20 AND CHANGE FOR A STARTER SET!!. WHATS IN THIS STUFF ANYWAY? FAIRY TEARS AND UNICORN FARTS??!!!!....ehum, yes well, you get my point. So i dug further as to why i should use mini paints at all when i had a fairly complete set of paints just lying around the house where i could swipe it any time. I mean, the Amazing Mrs Sprinks is managing to turn out work like this with the cheap stuff:

 So it must be good enough for a total pleb like me. Apparently mini paints have a finer pigment or something but many folks on line use the craft stuff for minis with very little problem. This was what i wanted to hear but did not solve the issue of the finish.......then some further digging on the subject turned up these vids:







 LOOKS LIKE I'M MAKING A PAINT SET OF MY VERY OWN!!!!!!!!!.

 So a few ebay orders later and i had the following:

It took a few attempts to get the mix of paint to medium right but not too much work (and there is a real nack to decanting thick paint into the thin neck of a dropper bottle). In an evening i had a paint set ready to go at a fraction of the price of the manufacturers stuff!!. I know what your thinking: 'Yeah but Sprinks, is it any good?'. Well glad you asked because oddly i have been using the stuff and i have to say it is great. As soon as you have a good viscosity nailed the paint becomes easy to work with and it covers really well. The 'chalky' finish has gone, replaced with a slight gloss sheen which is kind of old school and has a charm i rather like. And dropper bottles are the bloody nuts, so much control over how much paint you use, especially when mixing. Want the proof, here are the latest batch of minis for the £30 challenge thing:

Black Rat Co bows.
The wrong 'uns practicing for their next line up.

I also did a few units of Skirmishers:
Sneeky feckers.

As with the rest of the army these are 12mm troops from the rather fine kallistra miniatures.

 So thats the missile lobbers for the army done as well as all the foot, just some mounted troopers to chuck paint on and i should be done. Here's a group shot of the army so far:

The Black Rat Co assemble to conduct some form of prickishness or other (boo!! hiss!!).

So far the cost of the army is:  1.5 packs of Kallistra Scottish pike @ £9.00
                                                  1 Pack of Kallistra 100 years war Bowmen @ £6.00
                                                  4 Dark alliance army of the dead 1/72 (as 'ogres') @ 80p
                                                  1 Kallistra command stand @ nowt, they were free samples!.
                                                                                                                          £15.80 spent so far!.

.......'till next time.......

13 comments:

  1. All hail the Thrifty Git!

    Some points:
    I haven't heard Husker Du since 1997. This was a welcome noise in my head.

    People keep saying that GW is a business and so they have to charge high prices. AHHA...this is where we catch them. They charge high prices since they are a monopoly. They are a monopoly since they have sued every f**ker who tried to do what they did in the last 30 years. They screw money out of the younglings at the expense of their parents believing that this expensive new hobby thingy will keep their kids out of the pub - business model complete...

    I too enjoy getting my paints etc. elsewhere and sticking my archer's fingers up at the evil empire - mind you I haven't bought their figures since 1987 (that'd be 10 years before listening to Husker Du).

    Their business model would never work anywhere else due to competition.

    Your painting is excellent - LONG LIVE THE PAINTED FRUGAL-MINI !

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    1. Hi Sir Duc, indeed G.W. are a bunch of duping bastards!. I cant fathom how they can justify charging so much for so little and actually get away with it the way they continue to do so!. It is personal choice to pay the prices of course but when you look at other cheaper avenues to buy basically the same thing you see what a racket they are running. On a more positive note glad you got to reconnect with the 'Du, i have included them after i listened to them for the first time in several years myself a few days ago!. Great band, some of Bob Moulds solo stuff is great too, i recommend it.

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  2. Just re-listening to all the old stuff on youtube right now mate. I need a new H.D. t-shirt as opposed to the old knackered one that I had in 20th century lol. Now we have Amazon for that of course.
    Thanks for the reminder - and I'll definitely check out Bob's newer stuff.

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  3. Great work Mr Sprinks your army is looking good. Oh and nice work Mrs Sprinks too.

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    1. Ta Jack, it's nice to see it coming together...and the Amazing one says thanks too.

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    2. Hey Mr Sprinks if you still have the freebie 10mm figures going spare I would like them now that I'm going to expand the Oldhammer Project please please… There's an email address in my Profile!

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    3. No probs Jack, email sent.

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  4. That grainy finish from craft paints drives me crazy and is pretty much the only reason I spend my hard earned money on name brand model paints instead of more toy soldiers. Thanks for sharing this!

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    1. Thanks mate, give it a go, it is quite easy to knock up and like you say, less cash spent on paint means more shiny stuff!!.

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  5. Great results Sprinks, I am sorry no more unpainted battles will be ever again accepted..

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    1. Glad you like them Sceavus, the age of colour has arrived!!.

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  6. Looking good, Sprinks. I, too, make good use of the craft paints. I'll have to check out these formulas to get a better finish with them.

    In the meantime, check this link out. It's a guide to use craft paints and mix them in order to get damn-near vallejo colors. I use this guide for any vallejo stuff i dont have and it's a great guide:

    http://wargames.nordalia.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=34&Itemid=60

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    1. Wow that link is a great find, it must have taken a ton of work to suss it all out. Give the lahmian medium a try, it works wonders.

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