French Line Lancer - a change of scale

It's been a productive Easter break - mainly with the weather being bad I have been able to focus on clearing off the table with a number of items coming to completion.

I showed you the 18mm AB trumpeters last time , well they have now be joined by their mates. I have been really impressed with the quality of the casting - really makes the painters job easier.

Basically exactly the same colour mix for the greens as the Chasseurs - Vallejo Military Green , and Flat Green. The horses were done in oils bar the trumpeter and the officers. I undercoated the bays in Humbrol 62 Leather and painted on the furniture in black Vallejo - I highlighted some of the flanks with a little Dark Flesh or Ochre , just to give a little variation as well. After 24 hours they were given an oil rub using Burnt Umber , Burnt Sienna , and mixing some black in on some. I did use my more expensive better quality oils for this as the pigment is finer and given the actual size of the figure it was needed to give a fine finish.

For the basing I used Minatur moss tufts due to size required - these were fairly dark so i gave them a light drybrush of a yellow ochre just to lighten them slightly while they were still attached to sticky sheet.

Time for a bit of something not green based i think.

Chasseurs à Cheval - Work Completed

After what seems like an age , these two regiments are now complete as far as I am taking them - looking forward to seeing them based & flagged. Very happy with the end results. The "Elite" miniatures give some real life to a unit. I think you have to remember these are designed to be fielded as large units en masse , all mixed in with a load of their mates. They are not hyper detailed, super anatomically correct - and i love them all the more for that. I see loads of Perry Napoleonics,all beautifully sculpted and individually well painted  yet very few have really struck me as delivering units that really look the business - but maybe it is my "old school" goggles that cause that.

One thing for sure is that these two units are truly individual with the extra conversion work done, so no other collector or gamer will have ones quite like them.

 24th CaC

 

 24th CaC

24th & 23rd CaC

Work progresses on the 18mm AB miniatures French Line Lancers - very nice they are too. So here are the trumpeters as a little taster.

Also next up is a Connoisseur British Line battalion - proper old school miniatures. 

 Also taken delivery of some Fireforge Mounted Teutonic Knights , and some Testudo Personalities (from PD Miniatures in the UK) to go with them.

Also got my eye on the Great Escape type Stalag Luft set by E-BOB - you gotta love the personalities. Sometimes you just have to paint for the fun of it.

Personality set picture taken from the EBOB website

Doug C will be pleased to hear his AWI Highlanders are about to get a serious looking at too ...

And less than 2 weeks to Salute - who knows what goodies that will turn up..

Chasseurs à Cheval - Work in Progress part 3

The first regiment - the 23rd has now been completed as far as I am taking taking them apart from a further coat of varnish and I will wait and do both units together to ensure a consistent finish. I will get a photo back of them based and flagged.

The 23rd Chasseurs were commanded by a certain Major Marbot in 1812 and i was asked to do some conversions on the unit commander. His head was replaced with one with a a Colpack and plume on (from the spares box), A sword was made to and placed in hand as the original is just waving , add  loose sword knots from wire, and a flying scabbard was added. A rather nice individual creation.

I have had a few queries on the greens to be used. The main colour is Vallejo Model Colour Military Green (975) as the overall base, this is then highlighted with VMC Flat Green (968), and VMC Light Green (942), with some mixing between them . It gives a pleasing result to eye I think.

Of course the other fun with these is that French colour "aurore" , which seems to vary from a yellow to scarlet - although can be orange to salmon pink! So in the end I went with a VMC scarlet base mixed with a little VGC 028 Orange Fire and highlighted with a touch of the pure orange.

Also been doing something a little smaller - some AB miniatures French Lancers are on table once the 24th chasseurs are done.

so a little taster - and just to put things in scale

These AB are 18mm - but they seem a lot smaller than that. However the casting quality and detail is superb making them a real joy to paint. more next time.