French Cavalryman, 1790's - Painted

Finally finished! I really enjoyed painting this one. The Doug's Original horse is first class sculpting. I wasn't too sure about the texture of the hide at first. Thinking it may be too much overdone. But after laying in colors, it really helped painting in shadows and highlights. I have two more of Doug's horses that are waiting for riders...They may have to wait, I'm a bit burned out with doing another mounted subject too soon.

The color of the chassuer's green jacket is a bit more darker than shown. The lighting washed some of the clarity.

The reference I used for the chassuer was Europa's "NAPOLEON'S LINE CAVALRY-Recreated in Colour Photographs". There were a couple color illustrations that I used as well. Not sure how accurate he is but I used what was avaliable to me.

British "Tommy", 1916

I've been working on this fella while working on the Frenchman to change
things up and keep my interest elsewhere. I don't normally like doing two projects at one time but building a mounted figure alone can get very fatiguing... Atleast for me.

World War One subjects are really not an era of modeling interest to me but I was inspired by the cover of a Military Illustrated magazine. In fact, I bought the mag (for $1) just for the image.

The pose will be a bit different and arrangement of the equipment will be also. I'm using the book "World War 1 Infantry In Colour Photographs" for reference and inspiration as well.

His trousers may look a bit "baggy" but I really like the way they turned out.

French Cavalryman, 1790's - Part 3

I've just primed and began painting the flesh tones of the trooper. The lace of his jacket is thin strips of semi-cured Duro. Once in place the button loops and buttons were added.

This was my first attempt at scratching a musket... or musketoon rather. Well the butt of the stock is from an Airfix kit and the rest is brass rod and putty. I was a bit intimidated at first to try this and thought of not to have him armed with one. But he would look a little silly having the straps for it with nothing attached. I overcame another modeling phobia and will try a whole musket/rifle sometime.

French Cavalryman, 1790's Part 2

I've progressed much further than the pics shown. I'm just too slow loading them. So I will spoon feed what I have.

I've added the horses straps and foundation of the saddle. The riders legs have been sculpted and then placed on the horse while the putty is still wet. This will ensure a nice fit to the saddle. Note talcum powder was brushed onto the saddle so the rider dosn't stick.

The shark tooth edging of the saddle sheepskin saddle blanket was made of paper thin plastic card.
The cutting wasn't that hard and went rather fast. Some refinement of the teeth will be done later.

The sheepskin was sculpted and textured. Then the rider was placed onto the saddle again to make a nice snug fit. Again, a light dusting of talcum powder was brushed on.

French Chassuer a Cheval, 1790's Part 1

I have a couple projects going. This one is a French cavalryman of the 1790,s. This will give me a chance to sculpt another "Tarleton" style helmet.

I'm using a Doug's Original horse. It's well animated and sculpted. Being more 1/35 scale, I'm using a Hornet head with appropriate expression.

The other project is another WW1 subject.

Stay tuned.