1/10 Le Cimier Polish Lancer, finished

Here is Polish Lancer bust finished.

The scarlet part of the czapska was finished in the same way as the turnbacks but with fewer highlights and shadows. The brass part of the plate was first base coated Graveyard Earth followed by Brazen Brass and finally Burnished Gold. The plume was based with Skull White then washed with a mix of Kommando Khaki and Bleached Bone then highlighted with progressively lighter shades of Bleached Bone + Skull White unitl finally pure white. The white cords and ornaments were based with Fortess Grey a tiny bit of Chaos Black was added for deep shadows and highlights were done by adding Skull White until finally just pure white.

The chin strap was a little fussy to get on. While bending it to the right shape I ended up breaking it in two but a little super glue got it back together and as long as no one looks to close it turned out ok.

Here's a recap of the colours I used with some Vallejo Model Colour approximate equivalents.

The face:
Snakebite Leather = 912 Tan Yellow
Elf Flesh = 815 Basic Skintone
Terracotta (Dark Flesh) = 940 Saddle Brown
Chaos Black = 950 Black

Crimson:
Mechite Red (Foundation) = ?
Imperial Purple (Warlock Purple) = 945 Magenta
Blood Red = 910 Orange Red
Skull White = 951 Flat White
Scab Red = 926 Red
Chaos Black = 950 Black

Tunic:
Nightworld Blue (Midnight Blue) = 930 Dark Blue
Ultramarines Blue = 839 Ultramarine
Electric Blue (Ice Blue) = 844 Deep Sky Blue
Chaos Black = 950 Black

Plate:
Graveyard Earth = ?
Brazen Brass = 801 Brass
Burnished Gold = 996 Gold
Chaimail = 864 Natural Steel
Mithiril Silver = 997 Silver
Chaos Black = 950 Black

Cords/Lace:
Fortess Grey = 990 Light Grey
Skull White = 951 Flat White
Chaos Black = 950 Black

GB

Link Updates

I went through the Air and Armour links to make sure they are all working and ended up taking a few out. I also added a Figure links section and a collection of useful uniform reference sites. I have a lot more (mostly Napoleonic) which I will eventually add but for now I've put up some of the more interesting ones.

GB

120mm Verlinden 5th Hussar Sapper, pt2

Well, I put a hit counter on this blog a couple of days ago and to my pleasant surprise, I'm not the only one who looks at this page. So thank you for stopping by and I hope you're finding this blog useful/entertaining.

This past week I've been working on the breeches/overalls. My first attempt did not work out so hot - they looked more like blue jeans. So I overpainted the breeches with a thin coat of Electric Blue and limited my pallet to Ultramarines Blue, Electric Blue and Skull White

Starting with Ultramarines Blue in the deepest shadows I gently blended it out in thin layers. Following this I mixed Ultramarines and Electric Blue making a subtle tonal change and blended this in. I like to work with the paint fairly thinned. I call it wet brushing, where I thin the paint down to a milky consistancy then dab off the access on a cloth. I'll often use the index finger of my opposite hand too. What I don't want is a wash but the paint still flows so you're still in control of where it goes. In this way I keep adding Electric Blue until I have a gradual change. Often during this process I have to work back and forth from shadow to light and light to shadow until I get the look I want. For the final highlights I added a touch of Skull White to Electric Blue and blended in the same way.

The leather reinforcements and boots are both black but I didn't want them to look the same so the boots are highlighted with greys while the inserts are highlighted with browns. The leather reinforcements where given a solid coat of Chaos Black. I then mixed Graveyard Earth into the Chaos Black creating a subtle brown-black. This was thinned and worked onto the raised creases blending down to pure black. Next I added a little more Graveyard Earth and blended this in staying higher on the creases. For the highest highlights I mixed Bronzed Flesh and Chaos Black which makes a sort of browny-grey. Finally I went back over the deepest creases with Chaos Black.

For the boots I started out with a light grey (I don't know the actual name beacuse this is from the old old Citadel range and I've lost the label). This made the boots look too shiney so I washed the entire area with Chaos Black. This toned down the highlights. From there I started out with my brown-black mix but added the light grey to lighten further. I think the boots still need some work but I'm waiting until I base the figure to work in some of the groundwork colours.

For the photos below I just placed the torso on breaking the plume off in the process. You can kind of see the taper look of the legs that I mentioned in my last post. It makes the figure look top-heavy.

GB

120mm Verlinden 5th Hussar Sapper, pt1

I felt a little ambitious in February. Not only was I finishing the HG Signaller figure and KV-1s tank I have also been trying to finish a 1/72 Mig-27. Then I decided to start up another two figures. I've already posted about the Polish Lancer bust. The other figure is Verlinden's 120mm Hussar Sapper. My first experiences with larger scale figures was very satisfying so I wanted to keep exploring.

Hussars are light cavalry whose main job is to screen an army's movements while reporting on the enemy's. Hussars have a reputation for daring and panache not to mention an impecable sense of style. These are among my favourite subjects for historical miniatures. There's something about their attitude of, "War may be hell but at least I look goood."

This particular figure represents a sapper of the 5th hussars. Hussars are unusual among cavalry units in that some regiments included sappers. However, I was reading on some forums that there is some controversy as to wether or not that is true. Apparently there no contemporary references to hussar sappers. I don't know but they do make for interesting subjects.

The figure is cast in Verlinden's typical light olive green resin. The kit is broken down into 25 parts plus a small sheet of thin metal to make staps. The parts include:

• head including colpack
• plume
• tassle
• torso
• left and right arm
• left and right hand
• legs
• left and right boot
• axe
• sabretache
• sword knot
• sabre blade
• scabbard
• water bottle
• spurs (2)
• buckles (5)

There were no casting flaws that I could see and the part dry-fitted well. The only problem is a lateral bend in the sabre blade that hopefully can be corrected with hot water. Once the casting lugs were removed clean-up was a simple matter of sanding.

There are no instructions but the kit comes in Verlinden's familiar camoflaged box with a full colour photo of the complete, painted figure from the front and back on each side. However, I disagree with some of the colours. According to my research, the colpack bag should be dark sky blue but it is shown as white. Likewise the breeches should be dark sky blue but look like a deeper blue in the photos. I'm not sure about the piping on the breeches but usually it matches the facing colour which in the case of the 5th Hussars would be white. As well the figure itself has a couple of errors. In most depictions of hussars, the bag is off to the right rather than the left as is the case here. The plume would be on the left instead of centered and should have a pom at its base. The colpack itself looks a little too cylindrical and narrow as well. There is also something odd about the proportion of the legs. To my eye they look tapered almost giving the figure the impression of coming to a point. However, that may be an illussion created by the style of breeches the sapper is wearing. Lastly, and this is a quibble not really a problem, the sabretache has a prominent "5" on it. This means that if you wanted to depict a different hussar regiment you'd be faced with the inconvenience of having to sand of the five.

On the positive side the figure is nicely animated. The face has a lot of personality complete with the traditional sapper beard. The figure is looking to his left a shouting giving a nice impression of a burly scrapper, unhorse in battle ready to take on all comers. The details are generally well defined and it comes with a nice little base detailed with battle debri.

I thought about changing the regiment because the white pelisse was a daunting prospect. I almost went with the 1st regiment instead but decided to throw caution to the wind and accept the challenge of a white uniform.

Face:
*base = Snakebite Leather + Dwarf Flesh
H1,H2 = Snakebite Leather + Dwarf Flesh + Elf Flesh
H3 = Elf Flesh
S1,S2 = Snakebite Leather + Terracotta
S3 = Snakebite Leather + Terracotta + Chaos Black

Pelisse:
base = Kommando Khaki
H1,H2 = base + Skull White
H3 = Skull White
S1,S2 = base
S3 = base + Chaos Black

Lace:
base = Graveyard Earth
H1 = base + Spearstaff Brown
H2 = Spearstaff Brown
H3 = Spearstaff Brown + Skull White

*base = basecoat
H = highlight
S = shadow

GB