From PhilH: Historical Drama feat. 'Slapchop' (100 Points)

 Well, what's more historical drama than 'the shot heard around the world', and all the kerfuffle that followed? Plucky settlers taking up arms against the 'tyranny' of their King and heavens forbid, taxes to of course replace it with republican  Democracy and....taxes. Alas, American Revolution movies seem to be lacking in bringing this fascinating era to the silver screen: looking at you, Mel Gibson and The Patriot. 

One of my aims this challenge was to try some new approaches to paint quicker, and thus get more done. Especially after last challenge, which was a bit of a damp squib in terms of output. One of those I wanted to try was 'slapchop', the stupid name for a drybrushed variant of the old masters' 'grisaille' method of underpainting, then highly pigmented washes to try to skip time-consuming highlighting. Dreamed up with catchy slogans like 'slay the grey', and the subject of many excitable/raging YouTube videos late last year, debating whether its the best thing since sliced bread, or a load of old cobblers. 

Anyway, because I'm a hobby madlad at times, here's me seeing if it works on historicals: in this case Perry Continental plastics. These are two groups for Sharp Practice of the brown coated, red faced 4th Connecticut regiment (or Pennsylvania Associators/12th Mass. at a stretch). Why this regiment? Errrr, I fancied some brown-coated continentals, I already had Wyldwood and Blood Angels Red Contrast paints, red facings are natty and I'd stuck these together with round hats rather than tricornes. Squinting at the ever-useful Perry uniform guide from that opening position, 4th Connecticut it is. 

These aren't true Slapchop, there's a fair bit of traditional method on them after the Contrast were applied: faces, turnbacks, stockings, a highlight on the muskets, metallics, piping on the hats etc.

Is this the method for me to cruise though the pile of potential? Mmmmmm, I’m not convinced, while the test mini went well and was finished in an evening, with this a sizeable batch, I rapidly came to dislike the process. So much so that I started them on 21 December, parked them in mid-January completely, before the end of the Challenge became pressing enough for me to dig them out to finish off. 

Alas, I've a firmly established method, where I lay down basecoats, then tidy up the mess I make as I highlight them up. Making a mess with Contrast puts me in a right pickle. I feel my work on the WWII French - also rapid, using drybrushing to save work and time - was much more enjoyable approach, and came out with a better finish (though in fairness, a much simpler colour scheme)

Don't get me wrong, it's horses for courses and if approaches like Slap-chopping help hobbyists get stuff on their paint desk, that's awesome in my book. For me, Contrast paints still have their uses, like picking out little details that would be barely noticed, like boots.

Sixteen 28mm miniatures, as the leader was the test model and painted before the Challenge. 20 points for the Studio bonus is another 100 for my tally (two 100-pointers in one Challenge, look at me go!) Over 600 now and cruising towards what I suspect might be an all-time high score for me.

So this is weird, I've posted this and then it reverted to draft. Will try again. Love the figures by the way