His hands have been wrapped in strips of cloth as he has no gloves. The once white greatcoat is now filthy with mud, but his musket is still in clean and working condition.

Almost done, the Dragoon’s musket has been added. All that is left now is to base it and add the snowy landscape.
The level of painting and detail is excellent. Note his reddened cheeks as well as the webbing on the musket strap.
I am really happy at how this Old Dragoon has turned out.

Please click on the picture to see a larger image. Enjoy.

……….. and the face starts to take shape as well as the Dragoon’s brass helmet. This one has a brown turban and a black peak.

Back from honeymoon, and a wonderful time too. Full details can be seen in Indigo’s blog.

The dragoon has been mounted on it’s base. Shadows and highlights have been added with detailing on sword handle, scabbard, Dragoon Greatcoat, bandages etc. The head has been added and the horsehair plume of the helmet given it’s first coat.

Two thin washes have been applied to the dragoon’s greatcoat and some detail has been picked out.
Care has been taken to keep shadows and highlights.

The partially built model of the Dragoon has now been given a thin and uneven undercoat in grey primer.
Masking tape has been removed and now the whole is ready for painting.

Note the uneven finish, this is to help give the thin washes that will give the coat colour some shade variation – to make it seem ‘real’ and not one constant shade all over as is the case with toy soldiers.
This can be seen to effect on the curved fold on the left of the figure.

The Dragoon figure is not yet glued to the base – I have just put it here to hold it steady for the picture.

Here is a view of the front:

Now, there may well be a slight delay in starting the painting – and a slight delay before the next series of posts.

In two weeks time I am getting married so life is getting a little hectic now and, apparently, there are more important things to do than paint models

But please come back regularly, I will be posting as soon as I can.

Before finally gluing these two parts together I gave the inside of the coat a dark red wash – it is so much easier to do so when the body is in two halves.

This red lining will later be washed with grey / black / browns to simulate accumulated dirt.

I have also put a heavy black wash over his boots (and have purposely missed out what will be rags wrapped around his boots).
Again, these boots will be covered later in a range of washes to simulate dirt.

Before any further work is done I will mask off the painted parts and apply a fine undercoat to where I have been working on the metal.

His horse has been abandonned and in order to try to stave off frost bite he has wrapped his boots and hands in whatever rags or strips of cloth that he could find.

The Dragoon still holds onto his musket and his once white greatcoat, still lined with red, is all he has to keep away the sub zero temperatures that they faced.

This greatcoat was once carefully rolled up, inside out to show the red lining, on the back of his saddle. Now it is the only thing to keep him warm.

This shows the partially assembled figure from the back. One leg is just visible below the cloak which is shown blowing in the wind.

In the picture I have sprayed the parts with white undercoat (better for photography than shiney whitemetal) and I am holding them together whilst the glue dries. Note the large gap along the join line, particularly at the top. That will require filling and filing until it cannot be seen.

The white gloves are to keep any oil / sweat from my fingers getting onto the model.

More pictures to follow………………
Again, comments most welcome.