And Then Suddenly The Figure Came Alive

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I decided that I should get on with painting that last unit even though the size of it daunts me, so here is where I am after a quick bit of skin work on the front row.








But then during the process something occurred to me.

Just like all the models, they get filed, and prepped, and primed, and I start with the face, cos if the face ain't right then the whole figure ain't right.

But every now and then once the face is done the figure suddenly turns from just a guy in the unit into a person.
Suddenly once the face is done I can imagine this persons life.






Suddenly Wilhelm appeared to me.



Having not painted anything but oldhammer models in 25mm is this unique to these old sculpts where they each had their own faces, they were not generic heads, but the faces have character, big noses, broken noses, big mouths, yelling, smiling, facial hair, scars, strong jaws, weak jaws, they all seem as if they could have easily be based on real people.

Do you find this with your own figures, once you do the face they suddenly become more than just a soldier in the unit?





Comments

  1. Ian22 June 2025 at 18:57

    The older models were full of character something helped by the heroic scale of their faces. I'd recommend painting only a couple at a time but I hate batch painting.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mike22 June 2025 at 19:02

      They really were, not just the faces too, the whole model had details that leant to the persona.
      When GW stopped sculpting individual models with their own published names, they went from sculpts of people you could believe had lives, to becoming just commercial playing pieces for a game.

      5 is the most I can manage at a time.

      Delete

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