Military Miniatures

Thanks to some bad weather here in the UK I have been able to progress a bit more painting of the French Grenadier.

You can see my work area too in this picture. Light is supplied from the window overlooking the garden supplemented by a ‘daylight’ bulb in an angle poise lamp. The French Grenadier is progressing quite well.

In the next picture the greatcoat and everything above his greatcoat is being painted. Leaving the trousers and boots to last allows me to handle the figure without damage as I paint the upper portions. The shako still needs the tricolour painted on the front, just above its brass eagle.

Although I still have quite a bit of work to do on this figure I am starting to think about the base, its size and its layout.

I have started work on the 54mm figure of the French Grenadier. However I am having some difficulties with the quality of the casting, more specifically with the porosity of its surface.

When undercoating the previous 54mm figure (of the Spanish Grenadier) I also undercoated the main parts of the French Grenadier. What I had not noticed at the time was the fact that surface of the casting was not good, especially on his greatcoat.

As can be seen from the picture below, once examined closely, pits and holes can be seen on the surface of the greatcoat.

Using “Milliput” I have managed to fill the bulk of the defects on the French Grenadier’s greatcoat.

But now I have come to do the detailed painting of the rest of the figure, I have found other minor defects on the casting. So I have stopped the project to consider the various options open to me.

The options are:

Carry on painting and then ‘hide’ defects under a layer of ‘mud’ or ‘dirt’.
Replace the figure (long wait for postage etc).
Paint the figure and then seek to hide the most visible defects behind scenery etc.
Spend a long time filling, filing and repairing the casting.

So, with the help of a coffee, I am off to consider the benefits of these options.
(To be honest, this is the first time since my last post in January that I have had a day to do some painting and modelling. To find out that the figure is not good and that I will have to stop to repair or return it, is a bitter dissapointment).