What a conundrum.
I know that group memory has it that all toy soldiers painted in the 1960s and 1970s were all preserved in an amber of thick yacht varnish. But... were they? Or at least, were they all?
I have been looking at my various picture books about old toy soldiers, and it seems very apparent to me that that shiny was not always the norm at all. It may well have been for certain very famous painters like Messers Gilder and Mason, but I think this was not the norm, yet looking at the visual record I see a lot of matt enamel paint. I'll follow up with some images over the next day or so.
I have a small project going on whereby I need to justify some of my decisions to myself.... Entirely self serving of course.
