Creating an 'Army' of the 'dirty dozen'

Last year I bought a bag of (probably) the worst Army men ever made, in a local toy store. They looked so bad that I did not know what to do with them or use them for, or to use them at all.

Among these 'sub level quality' figures the grenade-throwers, originally originating from Matchbox American Infantry but now cloned to the unrecognizable, were probably the 'least poor' in the bag. They were still looking so bad that it was difficult to take good photo of them:

This pose is not so useful in general wargaming, but they can be used as 'snowball fighters' as I did in another wargame I played last year. Ironically the grenade-throwers I made back then in 1:87 scale looked better than these thin strange looking 40mm-ish clones. Mark man of Tin has also converted similar figures into 'snowball fighters'. So I decided to try convert these to civilian 'snowball fighters' by adding 'bobbles' or 'pom poms' (to their helmets, making it look like a bobble hat), scarfs  and snowballs made of Miliput. Their 'mittens' will just be painted later on:

Then they were primed:

At this point I thought I should ask ChatGPT for a suggestion how to easily convert these figures into civilian snowball fighters. Except for my reference photos and being more 'well proportioned' the suggestion was almost similar to the conversions I've made to them already:

Due to these figures semi-flat bodies, thin limbs and bad proportions I kind of got a 'tin- or lead figure' feeling. Inspired by Mark Man of Tin's 'Faking lead' conversions of plastic figures, I decided to paint my figures in silver to see if it would give such a resemblance:

Beside an original semiflat tin figure in 40mm from Prince August I casted with my oldest son many years ago, it looks pretty 'close' I think:

I have a (bad) habit of 'overdoing' things when coming to modelling, so even if this 'faking leads' were pretty close to an original tin-miniature as is, I decided to blackwash them as well just to suggest some oxide and dirt:

It would be tempting to just keep them like this, but as I plan to use them for snowball-fight wargaming, it would be nice to tell them apart. Keeping them to this 'vintage' and 'faking lead' style calls for solid colors without any washes or drybrushing and a glossy finish. This will be the very first miniatures I paint this year:

Note to self; don't choose opaque paint for solid colors unless you're very patient.

Since I plan to use them for snowball-fight wargaming I painted them to give a hint of 2 different teams. Team Blue:

-And Team Red:

I haven't painted miniatures in a glossy finish since I was a young kid, back when I didn't know the difference between 'Matt' and 'Gloss' from the local 'Humbrol rack'. I think these turned out just fine in 'Gloss' giving them a hint of a 'vintage style-ish' look. I considered 'drybrushing' silver just to give a hint of wear and the 'faking lead' underneath, but I was happy with them as they were. Actually I think these figures justified buying the bag of these bad looking soldiers in the first place. 

I was very intrigued by Mark at Man of Tin when he made a blogpost on 'What-if' Airfix snowball fighters, so I wanted to make one for these figures as well:

I guess they're about ready for the tabletop, or even better, outdoor wargaming now. We've had snow and it's interesting conditions outside. Please follow this blog (if you don't already does) and get updates as soon as I post them.

Blog PostScript 

Last month we arranged the first scale model builders meeting in the city where I live, Moss. Yesterday afternoon/evening the second meeting was held with a small secondhand market and a small 'competition'. Most of the 'members' are also IPMS members, but I brought my RC Combat Boat 90.