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.
6 comments:
Shiny every time. No evidence or discussion necessary. It is the way…
The only person you need to justify it to is yourself - it's a broad church, and all paths to wargaming nirvana are equally valid.
I think airfix paints was the usual way back then
As i remember it Gilder's policy was that ACW and after were matt finished, so it was never that simple.
My toy soldiers from the 50's and 60's, both plastic (Cresecent, Herald etc) and my handful of metals (Britain's and Crescent) were neither high gloss, "see your face in them", shiny, nor were they matte. The same was true even with the smaller 30mm Marx playset figures.
Both factory painted plastics and metals had a slightsheen to them.
That said, your toys, your choice.
I started in the 70s (Napoleonics). Nobody I painted shiny figs. We all used flat enamels.
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