Military Miniatures

The figure of the seated 4th Dragoon has been completed.
All that remains are his pieces of equipment, such as his sword and boot spurs, which I shall add once he is seated in his final position at the table.
(The Dragoon’s sword will need adjusting so that it rests correctly between the floor and his left hand. The spurs will be extremely small and easily damaged, so best left to last when the Dragoon is firmly fixed in place).

His left hand will be resting on his sword, the right hand is holding a pipe.

Close up view of the head of the French 4th Dragoon.

I took the opportunity on a visit to northern Spain to do some research on cafes, window shutters and tiles on old buildings in the region. Not only did this give me new ideas, but it also lead us to a model shop in Tolosa which sold real scale terracotta roof tiles!
So we bought a packet of them and now the roof of the cafe will have to be remade using these real items. (I have also now realised that I can make similar tiles from clay, and will have a go at doing this when I have some free time).

I wanted the Dragoon to be sitting at the table supplied in the kit, but instead of other offered options, I wanted a serving woman bringing him food on a tray.
So, for the first time in this scale, I have started to make from scratch a figure. The core of the figure is a wire armature and onto this I have put two layers of modelling clay. This has now given the serving girl her rough outline, size and proportion. The next step will be to round off the rough parts and to start to add more detail. Probably with greenstuff or other fine modelling two part mix.

Not too bad for the first attempt?

And finally I have started to put the first colours onto the dragoon’s coat and trousers.

Now to rebuild the cafe roof (probably a complete rebuild of the whole structure) with the new tiles, carry on with the Dragoon and more work on the serving woman.