At the end of our last episode we left our hero, the fearless Grognard54, headed to paint some 54mm AWI British and Continental Cavalry...well, as the say, the best laid plans go out the window when the battle starts...or something to that effect!
So too it was with my plan to paint some 54mm AWI Cavalry. As I had much to base coat laying around, I figured I would kill two or five birds at one time. Grabbing my trusty Krylon plastics gray primer, I lined up my Cavalry, some high elves, human archers, dark elves, frost giants and winter wolves for a primer firing squad.
Now, here is the important part...listen to manufacturers when they say that their minis need no primer, don't use primer and begin brushing on your acrylics without needing primer. There is something to be said about following directions...
Yours truly, being the salty old Grognard, decided that the trusty gray primer for plastics had not failed him up to this point, so I threw caution to the wind (or selectively ignored the instructions) and fired away!
Let's just say that all but the Reaper Frost Giants came out of the primer application unscathed, even the Reaper Winter wolves! The Frost Giants took on a tacky finish. Knowing full well, I didn't follow the strong advice of Reaper, I went to their help contact e-mail and groveled for assistance.
Surprisingly, the Reaper Rep only gently slapped me on the hand and then recommended a few things to see if it would help "save" the models. The word "save" was not something I had wanted to hear, as throwing away around $50 worth models was not on my "to do" list.
In the end, I started painting my acrylics over the tacky base and all appears to be well. No cracking, chipping or tackiness! For those interested in Reaper's recommendations, besides tossing the models, they suggested hitting them with their matte finish and then seeing what happened or stripping them down.
So, having gone that far, I decided to hold off on painting the Cavalry and see what would happen to the Reaper Frost Giants. Below are the results and the points I would use them for in Dragon Rampant as they are a warband unto themselves.
Frost Giant Warband (24 pts.)
Frost Giant King (Elite Foot/ Single Model Unit) ....6pts.
Frost Giant Queen (Heavy Foot+Wizardling/ Single Model Unit)....6pts.
Spell 1: Almighty Prod!
Spell 2: Heal Thee!
Spell 3: Power Bolt
Frost Giant Bodyguard (Elite Foot/ Single Model Unit)....6pts.
Frost Giant Bodyguard (Elite Foot/ Single Model Unit)....6pts.
Additionally, for a larger army or an alternate unit....
Winter Wolves (Lesser Warbeasts/ 6 model unit)...4pts.
Skill: Cunning...2pts.
Frost Giant King and Queen:
So, that does check off one of my 2021 projects; Dragon Rampant - Frost Giant Warband.
Unfortunately, I added to my totals of unpainted troops with the purchase of a Perry Miniatures Battle in a Box Set and some additional old school Bretonnian Bowmen off of eBay.
2021 Painted Miniatures Scoreboard:
Unpainted: 1602
Painted: 156
Frost Giant Warband Project....Complete (for now...I have my eyes on some Frostgrave Barbarians!)
Fear not true believers...I will be putting up some real numbers on the painted side soon! Very soon! Unless of course something new comes up on ebay...ooooh shinny....
NEXT UP: (for real) 54mm AWI British Cavalry
Well they came out looking great!!!
ReplyDeleteGreat job saving them