More adventures with Speed Paints

 Over the past few weeks I have been dabbling with painting 25mm figures using Army painter Speed Paints.  Overall I have enjoyed using them, however, I had run into difficulties with the paint bleeding into lighter colours (especially red) and later in applying white.

My solution has been to paint most of the colours in the normal way with Speed Paints, which is very quick.  Once dry, I then give the figures two coats of Army Painter matt varnish.  It is then possible to paint on the detail, such as cross belts and shako cords.

Overall, not brilliant, but acceptable and an easy way of churning out multiple battalions.  Here we see three units, one Portuguese and two British line.  They are a mix of figures.  The Portuguese are mostly Ros British and the British are in the main Minifigs S range.  

Portuguese Cacadores

 I recently bought some Portuguese light infantry from eBay.  The figures are 25mm S Range from Minifigs and were quite well painted, although a little worn.  I touched them and rebased them and they provide a nice little unit of cacadores:

There are enough figures for a second unit, although some have broken bayonets.  I'm not sure whether to repair them, or cut them all down and use them as rifle armed infantry.

However, before I start on them, some 54mm Romans have grabbed my attention!

Peninsular Warriors - Portuguese Cacadores

A friend kindly gave me some British Warrior figures that had been sitting in his stash for years and he felt that he would probably never paint them. They included some British Rifles. I already have one unit of these figures and having two in such a small army seemed excessive. So, after a bit of research and some minor conversion work, I decided to paint them as Portuguese light infantry; rifle armed Cacadores. With their unique brown uniforms and blue facings they looked quite smart. Here is the result:

Next in the production line are French Horse Artillery and British Foot Artillery.