Euromilitaire inspiration.

I've never been to the show but the standard of work on display and published in magazines over the years and more recently the web has always inspired me. I've always had a love for figure painting as it was one of the first things I did when starting this modelling lark MANY years ago and although I'm nowhere near the standard of what's out there it's an aspect of modelling I do enjoy.
So this leads me to a 90mm British Hussar figure I painted years ago and last year deciding to strip the paint off and redo it (see my earlier blog post about it here), only to get as far as painting the Dolman and Pelisse in blue and watching the Vallejo paint dry with a glossy sheen. This absolutely kills a model figure so after trying to matt down the blue and repainting it still did'nt work so in frustration I put the figure away. Later last year I bought some Lifecolour paint which for me was awful stuff (I know some modeller swear by the stuff, I just swore AT it) so that was that until I saw the Euromilitaire pics last month and had the inspiration to paint a figure.
I bought the Andrea Blue Paint Set last week, got the Hussar figure out of it's hiding place and FINALLY I have a nice and matt blue uniform;

Obviously this is the basic uniform as I've got a LOT of gold braiding to paint but I'm pleased the Andrea stuff has worked AND it's nice to paint with too, so much so I've ordered a couple of more colours to try.
Funnily enough I'm contemplating going back to enamel paint for figures now that Humbrol have brought production back the UK as these were the paints I used long before acrylics took over. The only reason I stopped using them was that the quality had deteriorated and it was like painting with treacle, this was due to the fact Humbrol had switched production to China a few years ago having closed the old Hull factory to cut costs.
I do paint aircraft and tanks in acrylic (usually Tamiya or Mr Hobby) but for the life of me I cannot paint a face with the stuff and have the utmost respect for those that can so I prefer to paint faces in oils, using acrylic for the uniforms and detail. However now that Humbrol paint is back I have a few of the new tins to try as for me blending the paint for shadows and highlights was FAR easier with enamel due to the longer drying time plus I used to use Sepia oil colour for deep shadows and it just does'nt work with acrylic (an oil and water thing see).