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
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