Military Miniatures

The jacket was easy to paint and, much to my surprise, the lace on the front was far easier than that of the dolman in the previous post.

His riding boots are black with silver spurs. I suspect that I will dirty these with a little brown to simulate mud and a little bit of grey as he will be standing in stone when finally finished.

Note the outstretched arm - no, I have not missed a bit just inside the hussar’s sleeve. That is bare metal so that when his hand (holding a pistol) is glued on the end of the arm it will be a secure joint and hold well. If you glue straight onto paint sometimes the hand falls off later taking a patch of dried paint with it.

The hussar’s trousers are plain white. To make then more interesting I have ‘dirtied’ the seat from, presumably, where he was sitting in his saddle. The crests and troughs of the creases will need highlights to emphasise the shadows.

The Hussar’s dolman, a coat which will be draped from his shoulder, has been given its first few thin layers of colour.The lace and fur edging is white and the button are silver. The dolman is a specific shade of blue which will need the peaks and valleys of the folds to be correctly highlighted in different tones to emphasise them.

The Hussar’s left hand can be seen. This too has just been given an even coat of ‘flesh’ colour. Dirt and shadows will be added to make it more life like.

I have put this to one side as I now concentrate on painting the main part of the Hussar.

This figure is another from the workshop of Andreas and will be a dismounted Prussian Hussar aiming a pistol with his right arm outstretched.

The original base that comes with the figure is square and I did not think it ‘fitted’ in with the scene I had in mind, nor with the round wooden base that I preferred.

First of all I carefully cut of the corners of the square, whitemetal base, to leave an irregular edge. This was cleaned and primed with white primer and then stuck down onto the wooden plinth.

Using a modelling compound I then cast and made my own ‘paving stones’ to extend the area that the hussar was standing on until they reached the edge of the wooden plinth. The gaps between the stones were enhanced by making deeper and the surface roughened and weathered.

On the original casting there was a raised area of stones. Using more modelling compound I created a ‘raised flowerbed’ effect and placed some tall plants in one spot.

Once all the carving and modelling was completed the whole was given a number of different coloured greyish washes. Earth was created by scenic scatter and the mould or moss between the slabs by diluted acrylic paints.