French Imperial Guard Cavalry, part 2 (Dragoons, Lancers, Honor Guards)

The first unit of Guard cavalry formed without antecedents dating back to at least the Consulate was the Empress' Dragoons, formed by decree in April, 1806, with the troopers drawn from each of the line Dragoon regiments on the recommendation of their colonels. The regiment initially had 2 very large squadrons plus one of velites; 2 more squadrons were added after the Battle of Friedland in 1807.

This side view shows the attractive uniforms of the regiment, officially renamed the Regiment des Dragons de L'Imperatrice, and presented by Napoleon to his wife, Josephine, in 1807. The men of the regiment formed a deep attachment to the Empress and her cause, and were very distraught, as were many in the Army, over the Imperial divorce in 1810. Josephine was allowed to retain the title of "Empress" even after the divorce, and I have little doubt that the Dragoons continued to see themselves as "her" regiment, rather than that of her replacement, the former Hapsburg princess, Marie-Louise!

A rear view of the regiment; which wore a somewhat more elaborate version of the helmet worn by their line counterparts, adorned with an imitation leopard skin fur turban. Chestnut mounts were used for this regiment whenever possible, aside from the trumpeters, who were mounted on grey or white horses as usual.

A side view showing the regiment's standard (by GMB designs once again), and the officer's substitution of gold for all the aurore items of the troopers (aiguillette and saddle blanket edging, mostly). 

This frontal view shows that the full dress habit coat was very similar to that of the Grenadiers a Cheval, aside from substituting dark green for the dark blue of the Grenadiers. These are Foundy figures once again; one of their best, in my opinion. I painted this unit about 4 years ago, using staining techniques and some black lining, and was very happy with the result; thus no Magic Wash seemed necessary, so I spared this unit the indignity!  

    The next regiment of cavalry added to the Imperial Guard was the Polish Light Horse (Chevau-Legers Polonais de la Guard), organized in 4 squadrons in April 1807. In 1809, they became the Regiment de Chevau-Legers Lanciers de la Garde, following the Battle of Wagram. With the addition of the Dutch Lancers (see below), the regiment was renamed the 1er Regiment de Chevau-Legers Lanciers de la Garde. In 1811, the regiment added first a 5th squadron, and then  2nd regiment (mostly recruited in Lithuania), named the 3eme Regiment de Chevau-Legers de la Garde, was raised. As a result of the disaster in Russia, in 1813 the 2nd regiment was disbanded, but the original 1st regiment added first a 6th and then a 7th squadron; ultimately the first three squadrons were designated Old Guard, the next three Middle Guard, and the last, Young Guard; by the end of that year the regiment was back down to four squadrons once again. 

A rear view of the Polish Lancers of the Guard; note the crimson portemanteau and the blackened wood of the lances; the lance pennons were always crimson over white.

This side view shows many details of what I think is arguably the most elegant uniform of the entire Napoleonic Wars; the blue is considerably darker than it appears in the pictures. Once again, an application of Magic Wash to these figures, which I originally painted more than a decade ago, really brought out the details, especially on the white cords and plumes.

The opposite side view shows the uniform of the trumpeter well; a white jacket with crimson facings, crimson pants with white stripes, and the top of the czapska white with crimson cords, and a white over crimson plume, as contrasted to the troopers who have crimson tops to their czapskas, with white cords and plumes.

The frontal view shows additional details; the aiguillette was moved from the left shoulder to the right when the lance was adopted. These are Foundry figures with a GMB flag once again. The short lived 3rd Chevau-Leger Lanciers (Polish/Lithuanian) regiment evidently wore an identical uniform to the first, except with yellow lace/piping and yellow metal buttons in place of the white ones of the 1st regiment.

    The next unit to join the Cavalry of the Guard came by a rather circuitous route; the Grand Duchy  of Cleves-Berg was bestowed upon Marshal Murat in 1806; inn 1807, Murat ordered the formation  of a cavalry unit, the Hussars of the Grand Duke of Berg. Having three squadrons plus an elite company of Garde du Corps, the unit underwent a further series of name changes including Regiment du Grand-Duc de Cleves, Chevau-Legers de la Grand Duchesse, and then Regiment de Chevau-Legers du Grand Duc de Berg. In 1808, a fourth squadron was added, and the first squadron entered the Imperial Guard. Two squadrons of the regiment were transferred to the newly formed Chassers a Cheval du Grand Duc de Berg. In January 1809, the Chevau-Leger regiment was disbanded, and the men sent to the Chasseurs a Cheval of Berg and the Guard Cavalry regiments. The unit adopted the lance in late 1809, and joined the Imperial Guard in December, 1809. In March of 1812, a second regiment was raised; both regiments were disbanded at the end of 1813, when their territory was over run by the allies and the Confederation of the Rhine dissolved. 

    The evolution of the uniforms of this unit was equally complex, but it always featured facings in amarante ( a light purplish pink hue), Murat's favorite color. This is nicely detailed on the Histofig site, including 2 plates illustrating the various changes. Suffice it to say that the original unit wore white (cream for the elite company), with amaranth facings and pants, but the uniform changed to a dark green jacket and pants with amaranth distinctions when it was transformed into Chasseurs a Cheval, and when the lance was adopted, a czapska with an amaranth top (and amaranth over white lance pennons) was adopted. The Lancers of Berg spent most of their existence fighting in Spain, but the second regiment participated in the 1812 invasion of Russia, and both regiments fought in Germany in 1813.

    With the dissolution of the Kingdom of Holland in 1810, and the incorporation of its territories into metropolitan France, the former Dutch Royal Guard Hussars became the 2eme Regiment de Chevau-Lager Lanciers de la Garde Imperiale in September, 1810. The regiment had 4 squadrons at its creation, with a 5th squadron added in 1812. In January, 1813, the regiment was increased to 8 squadrons, and then 10 squadrons in March of that year; at that point the first five squadrons were designated as Old Guard, and the second five as Young Guard. 

A rear view of the 2nd Light Horse Lancers of the Guard, often referred to as the "Dutch" or "Red" Lancers.; note the czapska of the trumpeter on the left; white top with scarlet piping and cords. Foundry figures.

A lateral view of the regiment shows the light blue jacket and pants (faced red) of the trumpeter, adorned with  mixed red and yellow cords, aiguillette, etc.  Standard once again is by GMB designs; Foundry figures. 

A view from the other side highlights the contrast between the dark blue saddle blankets with yellow edging, and the red uniform faced dark blue. This unit has also benefited from delayed application of the Magic Wash. ** 8/1/14:  Deadhead on TMP kindly pointed out that the lance pennons for the Red Lancers should be white over scarlet, the opposite of that pictured above. I'm not sure why thaty is, buit I checked several sources and he is inded correct. 

The head on view captures the full splendor of this magnificently attired unit; the "sunburst" brass plaque on the front of the czapska has a white center with a brass "N" in the center.

    A relatively obscure unit of the Imperial Guard were the Lithuanian Tartars of the Guard, raised in July 1812. Although a regiment was planned, only a single squadron was ever raised. There is a decent brief (if nationalistic) history and illustrations here. The remaining men were absorbed into the 3rd Scout Lancers of the Guard in 1813 (see below).

   Faced with the desperate need to rebuild his cavalry after the debacle of the Russian invasion, and yet severely short of both horses and funds, in 1813 Napoleon ordered the formation of four regiments of Gardes d"Honneur. These were to be raised from the sons of noblemen and the wealthy, and were to equip and mount themselves at their own expense; in return they would receive Guard pay and guaranteed promotion to 2nd Lieutenant after a year's service. "In the Guard, but not of the Guard", they were resented by the other guardsmen, and many were unwilling soldiers, deserting at the first opportunity, although they evidently fought well enough upon encountering the enemy. The Army reportedly nick-named them "The Hostages"! The four regiments wore an identical hussar style uniform, with a dark green dolman (faced scarlet) and pelisse (trimmed with black fur), and scarlet pants. The buttons, cords, and lace on the pelisse and dolman were white, as were the decorative knots on the front and the piping on the outer seam of the pants. The shako was scarlet with white upper and lower bands, cords and tassels, and white metal chin scales. The sole distinction between the four regiments was their plumes; all were dark green on the bottom, with the color of the tip varying by regiment: red for the 1st, blue for the 2nd, yellow for the 3rd, and white for the 4th regiment. Trumpeter's dress was uncertain; reversed colors, Imperial Livery, and also sky blue pelisses and dolmans (sky blue uniforms being common to most of the trumpeters of the Guard, see examples above) with scarlet pants and black fur colpacks all being possible - perhaps all three variations may have existed, especially with the men equipping themselves!

   In late 1813, three regiments of Scout Lancers were added to the Guard, named the 1er, 2e, and 3e Regiments d’Eclaireurs de la Garde Imperiale. These were a deliberate attempt to counter the marauding Cossack hordes. The First regiment was attached to the Grenadiers a Cheval, the Second to the Empress Dragoons, and the the Third regiment to the 1st (Polish) lancers of the Guard. Each unit's uniform was quite different from the others.

   On might also briefly mention the Gendarmerie d' Elite of the Guard, which had a mounted arm. The police of the Guard, these men seldom saw combat on the battlefield. This earned them the nickname of "The Immortals"! There uniform was reminiscent of that of the Grenadiers a Cheval.

This concludes our whirlwind tour of the Cavalry of Napoleon's Imperial Guard; see part 1 for the Chasseurs a Cheval, Grenadiers a Cheval, and Mamelukes of the Guard.

Peter

French Imperial Guard Cavalry -Part 1 (Chasseurs and Grenadiers a Cheval, Mamelukes)

   Napoleon's Imperial Guard was of course the direct descendant of the Consular Guard, which was established only 18 days after the coup d' etat of 18 Brumaire (November 10, 1799)  which resulted in General. Bonaparte ultimately becoming 1st Consul (December 24, 1799); it was regularized by decree on January 3, 1800. The cavalry complement of the initial formation of the Garde Consulaire was 2 squadrons of  "light cavalry", and a company of Chasseurs a Cheval. The Chassuers a Cheval were themselves descended from the Guides of the Army of Italy (later, the Guides of the Army of Egypt).

    The Chasseurs a Cheval were increased to full squadron Jan 13, 1800, then 2 squadrons August 6th, 1801, and 4 squadrons October 1, 1802. They officially became the Chasseurs a Cheval of the Imperial Guard on May  18, 1804. The regiment continued to grow, adding velite companies and later Young Guard companies to reach 8 squadrons by 1813. Probably the most famous regiment of the Imperial Guard cavalry, it ordinarily supplied the personal escort for the Emperor and his immediate entourage. Napoleon's often depicted green coat was the undress uniform of a Colonel of the regiment.

Here is the famous regiment of Chasseurs a Cheval of the Guard in full dress uniform. Note the white fur trim to the officer's pelisse, his leopardskin shabraque, and the green leather boots.Being an officer in the Guard was an expensive proposition!

Rear view of the Chasseurs a Cheval de la Garde Imperiale. Note the trumpeter, mounted on a grey horse (the troopers were all supposed to be mounted on dark bays). The trumpeter, instead of reversed  colors, wears a sky blue dolman dark red/maroon pelisse, a white colpack with a dark red over sky blue plume; the trumpeter's lace and cords are all red mixed with yellow. 

This side view shows the shabraque better (dark green, edged with aurore, with a red border) as well as the red trimmed aurore bag or flamme of the Chasseur's fur colpacks.

A frontal view of this elite regiment. Note the sumptuous trumpet banner; figures are Foundry, flag by GMB.

    In 1799, General Kleber, left behind in Egypt by Bonaparte, formed a company of Syrian Janissaries to which were later added Mamelukes; they later became the Mamelukes of the Republic in July, 1800. A Squadron was ordered added to the Consular Guard in 1801, later reduced to a company, and attached to the Chasseurs a Cheval. The officers were French, and over time, more and more of the troopers were as well. The fashion conscious Parisians loved their exotic costume, and along with the passion for Egyptian themes spurred by collections and writings of the savants returning from Egypt, costumes inspired by the Mamelukes became the rage among the women of the capitol. 

Here's the small unit of Mamelukes that form part of my guard cavalry. The specifications for their uniforms were much looser than for standard European cavalry. Originally, the "cahouk" or cap that the turban is wrapped around was supposed to be green, "the color of the prophet", but by 1805 and later it was most commonly bright red or crimson. 

The sleeved chemise shirt could be in a variety of colors including shades of blue, green, red, yellow, and/or white, and was usually worn with a sleeve less waistcoat, heavily embroidered with decorations and piping, which could themselves be in a variety of colors, including black.

The baggy pants were invariably either red or amaranth. Note the color and design of the saddle blankets; these were fringed, rather reminiscent of an oriental rug.

In addition to a standard, the Mamelukes had four troopers bearing horse tail queues, two black, one red , and one yellow. The figures are Minifigs.

    The  "2 Squadrons of Light Cavalry" established at the formation of the Consular Guard in 1799 were swiftly transformed into the Grenadiers a Cheval de la Garde des Consuls in December, 1800, and then the Grenadiers a Cheval de la Garde Imperiale in May 1804, at which time the regiment had 4 squadrons and a strength of a little over 1,000 men of all ranks. At various times squadrons of velites and later Young Guard squadrons were added, but the regiment never had more than 6 squadrons total

.

We start with a rear view of the Grenadiers a Cheval; this shows the red patch on the back of the bearskin headdress, which bears an aurore cross, as well as the cords of the aiguillette, worn on the right shoulder, in common with all of the remaining French Guard Cavalry regiments. 

This side view nicely displays the uniform of the trumpeter, resplendent in sky blue jacket faced crimson, white bearskin with gold mixed with crimson cords and sky blue over white plume; note also the saddle blanket in crimson trimmed with gold, and the officer, whose uniform has gold items where those of the troopers were aurore.Their standard had a somewhat unique design (flag by GMB once again). 

A head on view of the Grenadiers a Cheval of the Guard; the trumpeters aside, all the men were mounted on black horses. NCO's (not shown) had the cords on the bearskin, sword knot, trefoil epaulette and the aiguillette all with mixed scarlet (2/3) and gold (1/3), similar to their foot guard equivalents.

    I painted all of these units more than 10 years ago, and my painting has improved considerably since then. A few months ago, I applied Magic Wash to these figures, and it really improved them a lot, nicely picking out the detail in the cords and especially the white bearskin and colpack of the trumpeters. The Grenadiers a Cheval also have black lining of the saddle blankets, which was done when they were originally painted. Together, they are much closer to doing justice to these very fine figures.

   Part 2 will cover the later additions to the Cavalry of  the Imperial Guard, including the various Lancer regiments, as well a a few odds and ends in passing. Until then... shout "Vive l'Empereur!"

Peter

The Portuguese Legion in French service

    The French conquered the Kingdom of Portugal without significant resistance in November 1807. The result was that the French occupying force co-existed with the Royal army of Portugal, numbering roughly 30,000 men. In order to defuse this threat (and use the manpower else where), General Junot discharged all soldiers with eight or more years of service in December 1807. The remaining men were reorganized, on paper at least, into six infantry regiments, a light infantry battalion, an artillery battery, and three cavalry regiments. In March, these troops were directed to Valladoid in Spain, for incorporation into the French army. Since many deserted en route, out of a planned strength of 10,000 men, by the time of their arrival in Frace, in May, 1808, there were only about 4,00 infantry and 700 cavalry left under arms. Ultimately, five infantry regiments and two cavalry regiments were formed under the title of the Légion Portugaise.


    For the 1809 campaign in Austria, the elite companies of the Portuguese infantry regiments were organized into the 13th demi-brigade and served in Oudinot's Corps, and fought at Wagram; similarly, a select force of Portuguese cavalry was organized into the provisional regiment of Portuguese Chasseurs a Cheval. In 1811, the Portuguese Legion was reorganized into 3 regiments of infantry and one of cavalry; only the first regiment continued to be of almost exclusively Portuguese in origin and was considered an elite formation. The remaining two regiments were largely made up of Spanish prisoners of war recruited to serve in the Legion. All three regiments served in Russia in 1812, the first and second  regiments in different Divisions of Marshal Ney's 3rd Corps, and the 3rd regiment in Oudinot's 2nd Corps.  Soldiers of the Légion Portugaise fought at Smolensk, Valentina -Gora, Borodino, 1st and 2nd Polotsk, and the Beresina; the remaining 800 or so soldiers were transformed into the battalion of Portuguese Pioneers in November, 1813. There is excellent information about the Légion Portugaise here at Histofig, and also in Guy Dempsey's book, Napoleon's Mercenaries, previously reviewed on this blog. The Portuguese Legion seems to have a had a reasonable combat record, particularly considering their origin, especially the "elite" 1st regiment.

Here is my version of the infantry of the Portuguese Legion. I did up a banner for the halberd holding NCO using MS Paint; it actually says "Legion Portugaise" in white on the red background! There is no evidence that any of the units of the Legion ever received official flags or an Eagle from Napoleon. I deliberately used "dark flesh" as the base color instead of my usual "medium flesh", to represent the relatively swarthy complexion of these Portuguese men.

Another shot of the Legion; the Portguese army was originally uniformed in blue, but a shortage of Indigo dye meant that a different color uniform was needed. Sky Blue, Grey-Brown, and Red-Brown were proposed, and Napoleon chose the later. Properly, these men should be wearing the "Barentina" style shako (same as worn by the Portuguese troops that served under Wellington, and later adopted by the British themselves as well. As this is a small unit "raised" from spare figures, I've used French Line wearing ordinary French shakos instead. I'm sure that things like that *never* happened in real life either... ahem!

A shot of the Legion infantry showing the turnbacks, which were red piped in white, just like the cuffs, collars, and lapels. Silver buttons, silver ornamentation for the officers. 

. 

Another shot of the back of these 25/28mm Sash and Saber figures. This unit is one that we needed for Borodino; as it probably won't see action too often, I built it as a four-stand, 12 figure unit, which is all we need for Field of Battle. This is much the same as I did for my Austrian Landwehr and Russian Opolchenie units, and for similar reasons. My usual infantry unit organization is 18 figures, on six stands of three each.

This unit was part of my second round of trials using the acrylic "Magic Wash". This is a picture before the wash - no shading or dry brushing was done at all, except on the faces and hands. 

Materials used in the Magic Wash process.

Following feedback from the originator of the formula I based my first trials on, I used Distilled water instead of tap water in the wash, prevarnished the finished figures with the Kamar Varnish (my usual), before re-reading the instructions which called for gloss *acrylic* varnish, so I sprayed over that with the Krylon Clear Coat, a gloss acrylic varnish. I then applied the magic wash. Unfortunately, I still couldn't find any of the "cheap acrylic drawing ink" the recipe calls for at the nearby Michaels or a local art store, so I used a fresh bottle of cheap India ink. I knew from my previous trials to use the India ink very sparingly.

So my final composition for this wash was 60ml Distilled Water, 60ml Future, 2,5ml Jet Dry (which is a surfactant made for Dishwashing Machines), and 5 drops of cheap India ink. Once again, once mixed up in the bottle, this mix looks dark as midnight, but is almost colorless on the brush. Given the dark nature of these uniforms, I used this mix on the Fusilier and Voltiguer stands, and a darker formula (Mixture "C" from my earlier trials) on the Grenadier and command stand. On these rather dark uniforms, I think I actually prefer the darker wash on these particular uniforms, which isn't surprising. Neither seemed to significantly grey the white piping this time out! After allowing the wash to dry overnight, I applied the relatively glossy Kamar varnish again (I happen to like a medium to high gloss finish). Later this month I'll be posting 2 more units where I used the current "Magic Wash" formula. 

Anyway, my Portuguese Legion is now all ready for our next Borodino playtest (the Fleches and the Utitsa sector) this weekend!

Peter

Painting, and Doing "The Dip"

More properly, this post involves more the "Magic Wash" than the dip, the Magic Wash basically being clear Future acrylic Floor polish (see the last post, "Prime Time", as well), diluted or not with anywhere from a little to a lot of water, tinted with ink and or acrylic paint, and possibly including a surfactant of one kind or another. There seem to be at least as many recipes for "The Dip" as there are painters, although the original dip was Minwax Tudor Polyurethane wood stain, a ? more sophisticated version of which is marketed as the Army painter line. I really didn't want to get into using any product involving volatile, flammable, malodorous and toxic solvents, so the Acrylic version is what I have decided to experiment with.

The Volunteers for this experiment are two regiments of 28mm Sash and Saber Russian Grenadiers... weren't you warned never to volunteer in the army, son? Anyway, I'm going to really belabor this thing by taking them through the process from start to finish, so bear with me. I have no delusions about being more than a fairly good hobby painter as best - I'd never even dream of  entering a painting competition, but I like my figures to look good, and to put lots of them on the table, so they can't take forever to finish! 

After being trimmed of flash etc, the figures were glued (using plain white "Elmer's" PVA glue)  in groups of three to tongue blades (aka tongue depressors - new ones, I'm a physician in private practice so I have plenty of these around - very cheap, and I have yet to finish the box of hundreds I ordered just for hobby use 10+ years ago). They are the spray primed white with Krylon spray primer (flammable noxious fumes warning!). Once that has dried thoroughly (in the garage!), I applied the first, very sloppy coat of dark green (I use mostly Delta Ceramcoat craft paints, this was a mixture of semi-opaque Pine green and opaque Christmas Green with a drop or two of Color Float (water with surfactant to slow drying and encourage settling of pigment into the lower spots of the castings) added.

Next, the pants are painted white, taking care at the join with the green coats but otherwise sloping it on with a big brush. 

Next the shakos and pack were painted Delta Charcoal, a very dark grey. I don't usually use that for these items, but rather pure black instead , but I figured it might give some play for the Magic Wash to bring out the details in these items later.

Next the overcoats, which the Russian Infantry characteristically wore slung across their chests when not otherwise needed, thus acting as some protection form sword cuts, etc, were painted a greyish brown color, Delta Toffee Brown, IIRC.

Then I used Delta Terra Cotta with a bit of Color float added to paint the hands and faces and orange-bron color, with some shading effects happening from the surfactant/drying delay action. I've seen many expert painters recommend painting the faces *first*; this doesn't work for me as they get too much paint slopped on them from the other items if I do it that way. Don't worry, I won't leave them with this unnatural color!

Next I have painted the black items - the tall Grenadier plumes (except the musician), shoes, sword scabbards, etc - with pure black this time. 

Yep, the cartridge boxes were painted black too; and here I've painted the metal canteens that were standard Russian issue with Valejo "Oily Steel"; I do love the Vallejo acrylic metallics, and especially this color, which is great for medieval armor, among other things. 

Bright red, Delta "Fire Red", I believe, for the collars, cuffs, turnbacks... and the tall plume of the Fifer!

Rear view of the officer, Standard Bearer, and drummer at this stage. Still look pretty crude, eh?

Now I've added the finer details in white - the cords on the shakos, straps on the coat, and the lace on the fifer's uniform... starting to look like they  just might come out OK after all!

Rear view after the white details are added... oops, missed the cords on the NCO on the left - we'll have to fix that later!

Muskets painted Burnt Umber with a bit of Color Float added - this paint is semi opaque, and with the thinner added it gives a bit of a wood grain look to the guns. I admit that I hate spending time painting muskets, so I don't paint the metal bands, etc on them - do the minimum I can there!

Rear view after painting the muskets brown... and now adding the brass metal elements to the cartridge boxes.

and (Vallejo acrylic) Brass to the shako ornaments, sword hilts, and buttons... I have also gone back and painted a dark green stripe over the cuff flaps just before painting the buttons there as well. 

Next the tall plumes were dry brushed with Delta Hippo grey, a medium grey shade.  This regiment has "straw colored flagpoles, drumsticks, NCO crops, etc, painted with Delta... "Straw", a somewhat muddied yellow. Noted also the (Vallego acrylic) gold trim to the collar and cuffs of the NCO on the left. The hands and faces were dry brushed with Delta Medium Flesh, and mustaches and hair painted with Delta Brown Iron Oxide.

Silver (again Vallejo acrylic) is painted onto the bayonets, as well as the officer's sashes, swords, etc. 

The musicians tall red plumes were dry brushed with some Delta "Pumpkin" a bright "Halloween" orange; this works well for highlighting bright red.  The same color is also used to paint the fine orange stripes of the Russian Officer's sash. This is the other regiment, which had black flagpoles, drumsticks, etc.

Delta Opaque Yellow for the shoulderstraps; although yellow didn't become universal for the Grenadier regiments until very late in then Napoleonic, I like restricting it to the Grenadier regts; they also had the initials of the regiment's title (in Cyrillic) embroidered on them in red - no way I'm attempting that in 28mm, LOL!

OK, the figures are done, so now it's time to mix up some Dip (or, once again, more properly, Magic Wash). Some recipes recommend the use of Jet Dry as a surfactant or "wetting agent", so I got some. Also India ink is recommended by many, so here's a bottle of black ink as well. The beaker above (as will become evident shortly, my undergrad major was in chemistry, so I have a graduated beaker lying around the house, LOL) is actually the final, most dilute version I made. It looks very dark in the beaker, but it appears almost colorless as a drop on the brush! 

Some painters write that spraying the figures with gloss varnish (or applying a coat of straight acrylic future) to the figures before using the Magic Wash is an essential step, others ignore it. It seemed suspect to me, but I decided to spray one regiment with the varnish and not the other one to see if I could detect any effect from that upon the eventual magic Wash. Thus, I had two regiments of 18 figures each, which in turn had six stands/tongue depressors of three figures each. My plan was to use a succession of different recipes to see which effects I liked best. I start with Mixture "A", based upon a recent post on TMP, although that dealt with  6-15mm figures; still, it seemed like a good starting point, although I suspected the amount of ink was on the high side for my tastes:

I just wanted to share the perfect recipe-after much trial and error- to make an easy to use, mistake free black wash to bring out detail superbly on 6-15mm figures (only tested on these)
No colour dulling,easy to use + a time saver was the sought formulae.

To make 8 oz wash:

scant 4oz Future acrylic finish
scant 4oz distilled or boiled water
1 teaspoon "jet dry" (or other liquid diswasher spot remover)
50 drops opaque black acrylic ink
shake!
pigment stays suspended really well and requires the mildest of agitation to be ready to use.

Prime and paint figures any method, oil or acrylics.
spray with Krylon acrylic coating #1305 (a gloss finish)and let dry to touch (in low humidity, only about 10 min. max!)
brush on miracle wash and let dry to touch (as above 20-30 min max)
Spray with Krylon matte acrylic finish #1311 if you want a matte finish, otherwise spray again with the 1305 and you are done.
Comes out excellent every time!
Indestructable to general handling!
Wont "grey out" white uniforms!

So, I approximated this with 20ml tap water (the heck with distilling it or boiling it!), 20ml of Future, 2 drops of Jet Dry, and six drops of black india ink (not acrylic, which certainly might make a difference). Wow, that was really, really, black!

So, I brushed it liberally onto a bridge that I had semi-finished; looked OK there., not as dark as I feared.

Then I tried it on two figures of Opolchenie I had left over, being reserved for a future Militia Command stand; actually looked pretty good on their drab uniforms, settling nicely into the folds and seams. 

So, I took a deep breath and applied mixture A to my first pair of Volunteers; regiment "1", which will be the Life Grenadier Regiment is in the front,. and was not pre-varnished, Regiment "2", which will be the Petersburg Grenadiers, and was pre-varnished, is in the rear. At least the Russian uniforms are pretty dark to begin with! Looked darker than I wanted on the pants, but I wanted to let it dry to be sure I gave this mix a fair shake, and here's the result - definitely brings out the details in the cords well, and the settling in around the collar and low parts of the chistraps, hands etc works well... but the pants - really a dirtier, darker look that I really like. How about you?

So, I created mixture "B" by adding 10ml each of water and Future to the prior batch, thus effectively reducing the concentration of ink by about 1/3, and applied it liberally to my next set of "volunteers". After drying, the result is above. I like this better, but still a bit dark on the white pants for my taste, and I really don't want to fuss with going back and dry brushing them after the Wash!

So, I created mixture "C" by adding another 10ml each of water and Future to "B", thus decreasing the pigment by roughly half from the original starting  mixture "A". There is still detail being brought out in the cords and flounders, and elsewhere, and he pants look much more acceptable. By the way, I can't detect any difference at all between 1C and 2C, or any of the other pairs, so the pre-varnish seems a waste of time and fumes to me so far! Also, the finish is only very slightly glossy; I like a semi gloss finish on my figures, and this is actually less than there generally is after varnishing them. 

My next trials switched to using undiluted future... Mixture "D" consisted of 40ml of Future and 3 drips of ink, so effectively the same concentration of ink as "C", but no water (or jet dry). Not surprisingly, the results are similar to that seem with C, except the finish is notably glossier than that seen with the first three trials. I think this still may be a bit heavy on the ink, having seen John Leahey, who paints for $ and has posted a number of times to TMP on the subject, recommend very small amounts of ink in pure Future.

This lead to mixture "E", diluting "D" 50% by adding another 40ml of Future. This gave the more subtle results above, which I was fairly happy with. Still no difference I can discern between 1E and 2E, (no varnish vs. pre-varnished). 

Finally, I was curious to see if there would be any effect on the coloration or gloss by adding Jet Dry to the pure future and ink mixture of "E", thus creating mixture "F", which was applied liberally (removing obvious, unwanted pooling, as in prior all cases) to the final volunteers, the command stand figures. Looks pretty good, although I'm not sure the Jet Dry changed anything. That's not too surprising as the water content of pure Future is supposedly fairly low. The gloss of the finish also seems about the same, although not displeasing to me. I like the fact that no final spray varnish is required; trying to find a day warm enough to do that in the garage in Winter in New England is a hit or miss proposition! Similarly, it seems that pre-varnishing is pointless, at least with the mixtures tried to date, again a plus in my book. Future also has a rather mild, fairly pleasant scent, especially compared with solvents, and requires no ventilation!

Here's a table with the compositions of the various washes standardized to a 4 ounce (120 ml) volume:

Mixture	Future	Water	India Ink	Jet Dry
A	60ml	60ml	18 drops	6 drops
B	60ml	60ml	12 drops	4 drops
C	60ml	60ml	9 drops	3 drops
D	120ml	none	9 drops	none
E	120ml	none	4.5 drops	none
F	120ml	none	4.5 drops	3 drops

Based upon the above, I'm inclined to try "G" next time - 60ml Future, 60ml water, 4 or 5 drops ink and 3-6 drops Jet Dry; that will give a satin type finish with similar results to "E" and "F" otherwise... or so it would seem!  Maybe compare without the Jet Dry as well. We'll see. The darker version may still be good for horses and drab uniforms/ancient/medieval types.

I'll present the finished units  (I didn't touch them up at all after the Magic Washes above) in the next post!

Thanks for bearing with my pseudo-scientific methods!

Peter