Military Miniatures

Sorry for the long delay since the last post, but life has been hectic. First a cut thumb prevented modelling, then my wife was preparing for a major exhibition and I was roped in to frame some of the pictures. Yes, the cut thumb and cleaning glass for the frames was part of the delay!!!

Then, along came an airbrush and compressor that forced us to buy it.
The horse has been airbrushed in a mixture of diluted Vallejo acrylics. This is the first coat. Highlights of light and dark still to follow. I am amazed at how accurate you can get with an airbrush. And with lots of practice, no doubt a lot better than this, my first attempt.

The horse needs lots of tidying up, but this is a good, solid base coat to build on.

The Officer’s body has been cleaned up, casting marks removed, degreased and undercoated with a thin layer of grey/white undercoat.

The lines that you can see on one of his legs are not casting marks, they are slightly raised relief lines for painting the uniform trousers stripe.

The plume has been fitted to the square shaped Polish cap (czapka) and again, the metal casting has been cleaned up and undercoated.

The parts that made up the horse have been glued together, all the flashing has been removed and a considerable amount of time has been spent getting rid of casting marks. Any joints or slight imperfections have been filled with fine miliput putty.
Originally there was a large gap between the front of the saddle and where it should rest on the horse’s right hand side (shown by the red arrow). This gap was filled with miliput and roughed up before setting to make the gap look like an undelaying cloth or blanket.

I had to use quite a lot of flour paper in order to remove all the scratches caused by the extensive filing needed to get rid of the casting marks etc. This morning was also spent re-carving some of the saddle and saddle cloth detail removed when getting rid of joins.
The white primer, applied just a couple of hours ago, has a slight texture and this gives the horse a slightly rough (and natural looking) coat.Now the undercoat will be left for at least 24 hours to dry and set before painting. At this stage I am not sure what colour the horse is going to be. Probably one of the many shades of brown, but I also need to carry on looking at pictures of horses in order to get a feel for how the light shows on the the body.

Father Christmas, cunningly disguised as my wife, has given me a wonderful present of a 54mm model of a senior officer in the Polish Light Horse, part of Napoleon’s Guard.
This figure is wearing the full dress uniform of 1810 and it will be quite a challenge for me.

Not only will it be my first figure on horseback, it will be painted as if he is on parade. Unlike the previous 4 models which I have painted as though they were either still in battle or were retreating from battle with damaged and dirty uniforms.

The quality of the metal casting is very good, but unlike previous ones I have completed, this does not have so much detail cast into it. Lots of the detail will have to be added by painting.

It looks as though a fair bit of work will be needed with thin lead sheet to make horse reins, stirrups, etc. which will also be a challenge – one I look forwards to.

Here are the two halves of the horse offered up together. There is quite a gap which will need to be filed square and then filled with milliput (or similar compound).
I have already removed some of the few casting marks. This having to fill and file to get a good result has an advantage that you really get to see, feel and know the model that you are working on. This better knowledge of your model’s surface, texture and detail means you produce a better result when you get to the painting stage.