Consistency discussion

You’ll have seen Col Winterbourne’s post on consistency of finishacross the collection.  Quite an article, which does have links back to where I spoke about “army photos”, IMHO.  Do please disagree, or just tell me that I’m being self-aggrandising.

So; when I started my guard army it was DKK and Valhallans.  These guys, possibly still the lions share of my infantry (although only just) are guys in brown greatcoats.  I was aiming for total consistency of theme and colour from the outset.

But then I added some Cadians.  Still in brown uniforms, but with green armour and Cadian Gate transfers.  Still a reasonable level of cohesion.

But then I added another few units – the penal unit in orange jumpsuits, the Kasarkin in the funky dark camo, some Vostroyans in red coats with green trim and then ASL in their GW colourscheme as well.

The late additions; Mordian 7^th, Blue DKK and Woodland camo “Cadians/Corbanians” add further diversity, which some commenters (commentators ?) have pointed out, nicely describes the fluff of a large, necessarily diverse, Imperial Guard Army Group. 

So this diversion from my brown greatcoat army is not necessarily a bad thing; I could play a >2000 point game with either brown greatcoats, Blue Krieg, Camo dudes or multi coloured allsorts.

Consistency of quality of finish is why I outsource nearly all of the mini painting – I’m happy batching working on the vehicle fleets on the odd occasion, but I look at my infantry and generally prefer other people’s work.  They look more ‘finished’ than my efforts.  I just don’t have the inclination to make the time to improve my painting, paying for my idleness by having having to pay for my armies to be painted, but the pay-off is an army which doesn’t look unfinished.

Another consistency point is that all of the armies (including the forces of freedom/chaos, who I haven’t really considered whilst drafting this) are all supposed to be based on grey rubble.  Plain grey rubble.  Thus matching my grey tables and urban terrain.   Some figures (Black Templars, I’m looking at you) have come back with brown sand and the odd tuft of grass, but I did send these back once to be corrected and they came back untouched.  Maybe some-day I’ll run a black marker pen around the bases and slop some grey over the sand, but at the minute there are more pressing things to be finished.

So yes, consistency is important, but I’m not going to get too excited whilst there is still so much to be done.