After much slacking, I've decided to pick up one of Andrea's knight figures and I will try my hand at painting it. My questions are, is there any one of htese figures that may be easier/less frustrating for a newbie? Are the fancy crests on shields supplied decals or the artist's own rendition? Also, where is it cheapest to get these kits in the US?

Finally, I really don't have much in the way of brushable paints (most of mine is Tamiya), how is the Andrea paints? Do they cover well, and are they good about going on thin without brush strokes being visible?

Thanks for the guidance!

Hi Jeff,

The beauty of medieval figures is that you pretty much have an open colour palette when painting surcoats, shields and heraldry.
The thing about Andrea figures is that they tend to be more inexpensive than other brands, so in that respect they are nice for beginners.
The heraldry you refer to is probably decals from the Andrea range of dry decals. These are not supplied with the figures, but are available seperately.
You can try Colorado Miniatures or The Red Lancer for Andrea figures stateside.
Andrea paints are not bad at all, in fact they are designed for figure painting. They are very similar to Vallejo. If you want an alternative to Andrea or Vallejo, I believe LifeColour are also excellent.

BTW, have you checked out Armorama's figure modelling sister site Historicus Forma?

Rudi

Thanks for the response Rudi! I haven't done a whole lot of poking around on the other site, but from my quick scan of it, it looks like I need to.

Jeff, the Andrea paints are actually Vallejo - they came to an agreement with Vallejo to market them. In that respect, you might find it easier to purchase the Vallejo range.

As to quality and ease of use, there are few better on the market, with the proviso, that for metals, you'd be better using enamels..Jim