Hello Rob, try again our web site guy has been away for a month or so but if still no joy let me know and I'll sort it

Brian, it's a sad state of affairs really, flats were so popular in the recent past and though I haven't painted any in 10 to 15 years I still don't understand why they have dropped off in popularity. Postage between UK and the continent and the otherway isn't helped by Brezit I suppose and and I wonder just how much impact this has had. Is it the same across other genres of the modelling hobby? A general down turn in the market that will only last as long as there is economic instability, only time will tell I suppose but in the mean time it's not at all helpful for those in production, you have my sympathy. Nice flats though, Asteria & Obelix look like fun.

Cheers Simon

Nice one Brian.
Hope to see you at the club on Saturday.

Malc

Thanks Brian but I am on my 4th attempt with 2 different emails and log in names. I gave up with the IFFS/BFFS and have been contacting various editors in Germany directly and now have a lot of new pieces for several small dioramas and some big display plaques coming my way. Credit where due Zinn Berlin have been really helpful.

Annoyingly for those who vocally blame it for every ill to befall mankind this one is not down to Brexit, it is the idiotic EU VAT reporting regulations that are causing problems within the EU as well as outside. Currently the worst I have know in the 20+ years we have lived out here, ridiculously the only place I can buy models, paints, etc from without any hassle or extra charges is China. The very place that EU regulations should be trying to stop you buying from.

0h!, shows how much attention I pay to what's happening around here. Have you tried Hobby Link Japan https://www.hlj.com/ been a while since I ordered from them, hardest part was working through their vast website.

Cheers Simon

Yes HLJ are a great supplier, I have a lot of Gundam and Macross gaming stuff from them.

My last post sounded like doom and glum
It's not as bad as I said, the flat figure is a great addition to modelling if your a painter or collector there's always something for everyone.
From 30mm sets with over 100 figures to large single figures it is all there !
You will find that if you get bit your collection just grows and grows, you know your never going to get them painted but still you got to have that set or single.
Every other year thousands get to Kulmbach in Germany for the flat figure weekend, tin figures, beer, great food and lots of friends from around the world all in one place for 4 days! it is special
Here is a new figure 110mm of USA paras from Zinnlinge.com

that is looking fantastic, but I have absolute no idea how you must paint that ????

Mario

Flats are painted in acrylics

These are a couple of the 30mm flats I was given to practice on a long time ago. Neither is painted "accurately" to historic standards but hey.
Done in acrylics with NMM. Both from a much bigger diorama set based on the death of the Duke of Brunswick.

I never had the set, these and a few more from other sets were given to me by Dick Jenkins to practice on when I purchased the Sabine set from him (the ones in my other flats thread), these were from his bits box.
The top one has a missing lance and should be a Brunswick Uhlan, part of the Duke's escort. The bottom one was broken from his base.

I tried doing some of the others in oils but gave up when I realised I didn't have the skill or temperament to be an oiler. Sadly they got lost and these 2 were abandoned and stuck away in a box with the Sabines for 25 years or so, they deserved better.

Not bad Rob, especially the cast shadow on the 'should be Brunswicker'. Although the default size 30mm flats aren't that easy to paint, the engravers get so much detail in there it's hard to get to it all. I learnt more about painting with oils in 10 years as a flat painter than I ever did using them on round figures. Keep it up, either medium, flats are lots of fun.

Cheers Simon

Indeed, I find it difficult to grasp how they manage to do it at all, the whole concept of manually engraving a figure backwards, in negative is bewildering. On otherwise excellent figures I can only recall seeing a couple of real errors in my recent searches, both times on finger placement.
I also think the multiple pose option figures are very clever.

I am sure CAD systems could do it now (maybe do already), but as with 3D sculpting, the loss of the personal touch takes something intangible away from the artistry of the end result. However technically proficient it is.

Yes indeed it's mind boggling how they do it, but do it they do and some of them better than others. The holy grail for many collectors was those done by Franz Carl Mohr, the slate moulds still exist in private collections I am sure but being soft stone they don't last, heat stress and erosion mean they only have a finite life and castings coming from the end of that life span are not nice and crisp anymore. Apparently Daniel Lepeltier, a very good French engraver used a similar method to make the moulds for Historex figures, or so I have been told!

Cheers Simon

Looking for downloadable 3D busts I found these on MyMiniFactory (and a couple of others by the same designer "Ogareg")





3D printed flats, or "reliefs" as they are being called, 55-60mm in default sizing.
These look a bit crude compared to traditional Zinnfiguren, but I am sure it will not be very long before they improve, as with anything else in the hobby currently, improvement will be driven by the fantasy painters..
The files are free to download (don't need an account on MMF).

I think I will get these printed when I send my next order to a print farm just to see how they work out.