Its interesting how as one gets older you regress into a childlike state. Im not talking about dementia but nostalgia, a hankering for some reassuring time from the past. My reassurance or comfort blanket appears to be locating and then buying, old, badly painted figures that I collected when I was young, ie 15ish.
I was a great lover of Bill Lamming figures. Yes they had stumpy legs and yes the horses could look a tad strange, but imperfections made them interesting. Hence these Republican Romans. I bought these, badly painted and very unloved, on top of that they had no pilum. John rectified that by giving me some of his trusty bendy plastic brush heads. They are very effective and dont ping all over the show.Yes they look basic but they will do for me.
Warlord Games bought out decent range of Achemenid Persians, but then whilst advertising them simply failed to actually produce any. I located these on E Bay. Id never seen any in the flesh but I am impressed with the life created by the sculptor. Not my best paint job, but still a good addition to my burgeoning Persian horde.
Again figures kindly provided by Iain Macmillan. Firstly a beautiful Stadden figure for my renaissance armies. I found this figure a pleasure to paint and far better than my original one who poses as Cesare.
Iain also provided this cracking Stadden cavalier. Again a joy to paint and ideal for my nostalgic ECW army.
And finally a beautiful Les Higgins figure.I didnt go overboard with the colours and think he looks the better for it.
So will I stop buying and painting newer figure ranges? I doubt it, but I have enjoyed painting some really old ranges and currently sat on my paint table are some vintage Garrison ancient Egyptians. They were advertised as Lamming but I recognised them straight away. In fact I used to have the figure in my original Ancient Persian army from the late 1970's. So totally unhistorical but I like them so my rule applies.
So if anyone wants to offload any old figures, especially ancients or Civil War that they dont want Im your man. Fair prices paid. Well fairly, fair prices.
