Here is part of the reply that I sent, and I have posted it here in the hope it can be of use to others too.

“How did I learn to paint? I just started and learned from my mistakes as I went along. It takes time, but here are the things that I have learnt from experience and things that work for me.

1. I have to be in the mood to paint. Sometimes weeks go by before I get in the right mood.

2. Don’t rush. Some of my figures took up to 100 hours to paint! But not all in one go.

3. Look at real life. For example, I guess you have a pair of jeans. What colour would you paint a figure with jeans? Blue? Wrong.
Really look at your jeans. They are actually white and blue in fine stripes. So paint a light blue base coat on your figure and then dry brush a little white on the top. This gives the two colour look that your jeans have in real life. Look at the folds in your jeans. The top of the fold is lighter than the bottom of the fold. But there is no line separating these colours. So pain a lighter blue on top of a fold. A darker blue at the bottom of the fold. Now blend with THIN washes between the two. You will get a graduation of colour from light to dark.

4. Dont paint where you don’t want paint. Silly to say, but so true for ’sharp’ colours. For example. You have a figure wih a red jacket and white belts. Don’t paint the whole figure red then try to paint the belt white on top of red. I don’t know why, but it does not work. Paint the jacket red, but carefully ‘miss’ the belt. Then paint the belt white. This will give a clearer colour and will also make a very sharp line contrast between the two colours.

5. Don’t rush – use lots of thin coats of paint instead of 1 thick coat for the main surfaces. For a jacket I would paint a number of thin coats of paint. Then a number of slightly different coloured THIN washes. Then the graduated highlights on the folds. Finally over the whole lot another VERY THIN wash of basic red. This will give you a jacket that is a myriad of different colour reds, but the eye sees just a realistic red jacket instead of a single red layer of paint.

6. There is a tendency for people to paint a really good figure. Then, for me, they spoil it because they outline in black every single detail. In real life do you see a soldier’s belt with black lines painted either side of it? No. So don’t do it. Use the technique in 4 above to get a natural sharp contrast. If you want to outline a detail to make it more visible, use ink and a 000 brush so the line is very fine and almost invisible. That works just as well as their thick lines but is far more natural.

That is probably enough to be getting on with at the moment. If you want any more help, please feel free to drop me a note and I will do what I can to assist”.

With the help of a print called “Napoleon’s Retreat From Moscow” by Adolf Northern, I have taken short video clips and have produced this short YouTube video.

My belief is that this media can really give models like these a ‘life’.

Hope you watch and enjoy it. Best seen in full screen.

Thank you

If you look at picture below, you cannot see the joint between the Cuirassier’s body and his arms. You do not have visible join lines in real life, so why should your military model have them?

Showing the area where both the left and right arms join the figure.

Fill the joint with a little too much Miliput, or similar compound. Smooth off with a wet finger or spatula and try to leave slight ‘lumps’ to mimic muscles. It gives your 54mm model a better look, and it is not as difficult as it seems.

The figure of the French Cuirassier has been allowed to dry and then undercoated ready for painting.

(Kit number S7-F32).

This is a white metal kit of 11 parts and an initial look in the box shows that the model has wonderful detail cast onto it.

When offering up the parts to each other to check the fit, I found that one arm was not a good fit to the body, and one leg, when held in position on the figure, did not line up with the locating holes in the base.  So I will need to use some “Miliput” to fill the gaps and make good with sanding with flour paper or similar.

It is always a good idea to do a ‘dry run’ and assemble any model without glue to see how well the parts fit together and whether any alterations or filler will be required. It is far more difficult to correct any casting faults when the model is fully assembled and, possibly, partially painted.

The French dragoons and the British Infantry were kept on different bases, and the final shapes I chose for the bases has worked well. Even though these are two small dioramas, they capture the movement and feel of a real cavalry charge in Napoleonic times. I am very happy with how they have turned out and how well the two separate dioramas combine together to tell one story.

The corner of a British Infantry Square at Waterloo

The charging French Heavy Cavalry

French Heavy Cavalry charging a British Infantry Square at Waterloo

The completed bren gun carrier crew in place

You can’t see in these photos, but the driver has tatoos on his arms!

The French Lancer has also been based. I decided to place the bucket directly onto the polished wooden base instead of on the model’s base.  It gives this model of the French Lancer a bit of individuality.

French Lancer Based

The French Lancer  was missing a bucket. That has now been painted with thin washes of various shades of brown for the wooden staves, silver with a number of reddish brown washes over the top for the two iron hoops and yellow/green/brown for the bucket rim.

The wooden bucket

And now complete with artificial water.

A bucket of water

I have used an oblong wooden base from Andrea which I have now stained with wood dye and am in the process of varnishing with a dark, gloss coating. This base is a bit larger larger than the figure’s own base so I am thinking about putting some extra plaster/scenery around the figure to use up the area.

The Infantry Square now has a hand made “L” shaped wooden base of darkly stained and polished wood. This is now ready for the individual fitting of the 40 odd infantry figures, followed by the ground or grass on which they will be standing.  I decided not to add the charging French Dragoon figures. Instead these 4 mounted figures will be put on their own round base with appropriate coloured and churned up ground. That base has now also been stained and varnished. Looking at the picture below, I have just realised that the two separate bases make quite a powerful diorama!

The L base for the infantry square and round base for the mounted dragoons

And I have built and undercoated two 1/32 scale British Bren Gun Carrier crew that I promised to do for someone.

Bren Gun Carrier Crew

A busy few days and almost ready for the next diorama.

The infantry figures are small (25mm tall) and therefore the base will have to be thin so as not to overwhelm the figures. Normal sized bases would reduce the impact of the diorama.

So I have decided to mount the infantry figures onto thin card which, in turn, will be mounted onto stained and polished wood some 3 to 4 mm thick.

The picture below shows some scrap card with the infantry, officers, drummers and trumpeter on it so that we can get an idea of the final size of each side of the British Infantry Square.

Final layout of the British Infantry Square Diorama

After trial and error I have taken off the mounted figures as these detracted from the impact of the figures in the sides of the infantry square.  The square ‘hole’ could be filled with scenic grass, footprints and maybe another single foot figure, or, the final wooden base could be cut to the shape of the white card. This would make an unusual base.

Once glued to the thin base, the figures should look like this:

The corner point of the square

Now comes the easy part. Gluing down 40+ figures close together, putting wet plaster between the figures, painting it a muddy colour, add scenic dressing, and all without getting it on the figures!

French Heavy Cavalry figures

One of the troopers has been slightly modified. I have bent his head backwards and have also bent his sword arm. This is to simulate him being shot and you can see the result in the picture above (top right figure).  The trumpeter’s face has been painted to simulate a young boy or youth and I have to say that these plastic figures from Italari (6003) are of excellent quality.

And here are the 4 French Heavy Cavalry figures mounted on their horses and charging the British infantry square. The effect of the ’shot’ trooper can be seen better in the picture below. Note the horses legs have also been slightly bent to give movement to them. Perfectly upright horses do not give an impression of galloping.

French Heavy Cavalry