Military Miniatures

The saddle cloth (sheepskin) has been given a number of dilute washes of white. I added a minute bit of yellow to some of the washes to give a little colour variation and to prevent the Lancer’s saddle from looking too flat. For me, Vallejo acrylics are the easiest paints to use and control). It is important to use very dilute paint otherwise the detail of the saddlecloth would be lost.
As I am painting the Lancer as a Lancer and not as a Trumpeter, the saddle cloth is white with red saw tooth trim.

The stirrups were then painted silver, the stirrup straps and the straps around the saddle were done in brown.
Finally a thin strip of lead was painted brown, glued to the right hand side of the saddle and then bent over the top of the saddle to represent the girth.

Now the saddle is resting on the pole. For reference, the undercoated French Lancer has been temporarily placed next to it.

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.

Both the Spanish Grenadier and the French Grenadier are painted and have now been glued onto the wooden base I have made for them.
The base was made from a strip of 6mm thick wooden strip that had been cut and glued to form a base with two levels, stained and then varnished. I have left the top of the base unvarnished to assist in affixing scenery.
In the picture below, the French Grenadier is on the left, the Spanish Grenadier on the right.

At the moment I have not decided on what scenery is to be added to the base. I can’t have too much on the base as the figures are meant to be moving towards each other and cannot do so if there is too much scenery in the way. So I have to keep the scenery at a minimum, but I want to try to make it interesting as there is quite a lot of the base to cover.

To simulate a battle scene I have added ‘interest’ by making a Spanish Grenadier’s Bearskin cap and embroidered bag out of modelling clay. This will be painted and then arranged on the base close to the Spanish Grenadier. It was not difficult to sculpt and it makes a change from the French Shakos or broken swords or muskets that are normally seen in model diorama scenes.

The figure of the French Grenadier still has casting marks which are just visible in places. Therefore these will be hidden by making the back and hem of his greatcoat dirty, which means that the base should show the ground being wet or muddy. I had an idea to make a rain puddle on the base with some muddy grass and the ground cut up by wheel tracks and foot prints. But first of all I will sketch out some ideas.

Thanks to some bad weather here in the UK I have been able to progress a bit more painting of the French Grenadier.

You can see my work area too in this picture. Light is supplied from the window overlooking the garden supplemented by a ‘daylight’ bulb in an angle poise lamp. The French Grenadier is progressing quite well.

In the next picture the greatcoat and everything above his greatcoat is being painted. Leaving the trousers and boots to last allows me to handle the figure without damage as I paint the upper portions. The shako still needs the tricolour painted on the front, just above its brass eagle.

Although I still have quite a bit of work to do on this figure I am starting to think about the base, its size and its layout.