Military Miniatures

My next project is a 54mm metal kit from Andrea, kit number S7-F25, and it is called “French Lancer 1812″. It is a mini diorama of a figure standing in front of a wooden pole which supports the Lancer’s saddle.
This model of a French Lancer comes in two options. The figure can be made either as a Lancer holding a lance in his right hand, or as a Trumpeter holding a trumpet.
At the time of writing this blog, I have decided to go for the Lancer version. Also, I will make it “straight out of the box”, that is with no changes. Once it is completed, I intend to keep it nice and clean, and have no intention to weather it or portray the figure ‘dirtied by battle’.

The uniform colours of each option in the kit are quite different, but the version I have chosen will have grey trousers with leather reinforcement, green jacket, red front and facings.

To start the model I washed all the parts in hot water, dried and undercoated them in white primer, and then carried out a ‘dry fit’ to see how well everything fitted together.

As can be seen from the picture above, the central join of the saddle is very uneven and will need a lot of filling to hide it.

Using ‘Miliput’ I filled the joint line and then, before the putty had set, carved some details into the Milliput in order to blend in the repair with the rest of the saddle.
Once the Miliput was dry the saddle was then sprayed with undercoat.

This picture above shows the saddle resting on the pole and ready for painting.

The diorama of the Spanish and French Grenadiers fighting “somewhere in the Peninsular Wars” is completed.

I made the base out of plaster and whilst the surface was still wet a knife was used to form ruts from a passing gun or ammunition wagon into the ground. The plaster was pushed around to leave a slightly uneaven and raised surface randomly on the base. These raised parts were to become rocks.
And, just as the diorama base was setting, I inserted some dyed sisal string to suggest grasses.
A minute amount of plaster was put on the boot of the Spanish Grenadier to suggest a clod of mud.

The diorama base was given a thin wash of PVA glue and then sawdust, which had been dyed a variety of greens and browns, was scattered onto the surface. Where rocks and stones were to protrude from the soil (the raised sections of the plaster mentioned earlier) I did not put any PVA. These areas were given a number of different dry brushes in tones of grey to suggest rocks.

Just past the end of the Spanish Grenadier’s sword scabbard you will see a spent cannon ball sunk into the earth.

To add further interest and variations to the diorama ground I added a number of scale leaves from oaks, maples, cherry trees etc to the ground.

In fact, if you look at the foot of the French Grenadier you can see an oak leaf stuck to the sole of his right boot!

The leaves, the rocks, wheel ruts, grasses and the cannon ball all add interest to the diorama and are well worth the small effort needed to produce them.

Both the Spanish Grenadier and the French Grenadier were drybrushed with ochre, green and brown to simulate dirt on their boots, trousers and the French Greatcoat.