Painting Progress: Adler 6mm French Chasseurs à Cheval

Gericault's famous Charging Chasseur (painted in 1812, my current favourite Napoleonic year!).

I love Napoleonic cavalry, and the French cavalry have some of the best togs. A dashing Hussar, in 'full fig', as Harry Flashman might have it, is a fine sight. The Chasseurs of the Line were generally a bit more dowdy than their Hungarian-influenced Hussar brethren. But no one appears to have told the officer depicted in Gericault's painting that!

These rather more modest lads are part of a single squadron from the 28th Chasseurs à Cheval, belonging to Ney's III Corps, which I'm building up for a re-fight of the battle of Smolensk, in 6mm. As usual, I'm posting images of them not 100% finished, because, until I resolve basing questions, practically all my miniatures will remain in a state of limbo. But they're near enough finished... so never mind, here they are!

This last pic contains something that kind of blows my gasket: how did Herr Adler sculpt that sword-knot? It's about as thin as a human hair! (Though not quite as thin as the annoying cat hair - thanks Tigger! - that's attached to him!)

Doing these made me think again that I'm going to have to either buy another magnifying-glass/lamp combo, or else repair the non-functioning one I already have (bought a new bulb, changed fuses, etc., damn thing still won't work!). There's quite a bit more to do: triangular pointy bits on the shabraque (me-shack to-bed-you-go*); more detail and shading on the horses and harness, etc; and a final matt lacquer.

These last two pics show another unit I'm working on, those old Grognards of the guard. They show a before and after state, as I cogitate on how best to achieve a wash to bring out detail. I've tried using Army Painter Quickshade again, and whilst it can give results I like, e.g. the 15mm AW Brits I recently posted about (see here), I'm not liking it so much in this smaller scale. 

Before: nice bright colours!

After: well... the Quickshade brings out the facial detail a bit. But the cross-belts, etc., hmmm!? I'm not convinced. And the workload created by needing to go in on the blues and reds again... it's too much!

I may try using it more strategically, e.g. just on certain areas. Liam of Adler (AKA Leon Adler) has told me he uses some different stuff for his washes. I forget what right now, but I'll find out and give it a try. Anyhoo, it's past my bedtime. This is the first day I've posted twice to the blog... so, that's enough for today!

* In case anyone thinks I just flipped out there: that's not just a sudden attack of Tourettes... but a silly mangled Biblical reference.

Painting Progress: AW 15mm Brits cont.

I've given these minis the Quickshade treatment, plus some highlights - Quickshade made them look too dull - and finally two coats of Testors lacquer...

Took the pics outside, for a change, it being so glorious... 

As I mentioned in my previous post on these figures, I chatted to the guy who runs AW, and he's a very nice guy. Looking at his website now it seems he's more focussed on 28mm than 15mm. 15mm used to be my main scale, but for gaming Russia 1812 at anything over skirmish level, it's too large and expensive. 

My favourite 15mm are AB and Anthony Barton era Battle Honours, and then Minifigs (the latter for nostalgic reasons). I think these AW are a bit too stocky for my tastes, and it's a shame about the ill-formed bayonets on some of these (the French aren't quite so bad in that respect). The worst offenders I snipped off, and may well rebuild with Milliput if I ever get the time! Some I might leave sans bayonet.

So, what do people think? I've been told that one shouldn't use Testors over metallic colours (it says so on the can as well), but I think the metal areas look ok. Sure, they're a bit duller than they were, but they still look metallic. I'm still not sure about Quickshade. But then this is the first time I've used it! (I bought the tin about three years ago!)

Part of me wanted to paint the bases green again, after the Quickshade pooled around their feet. But I think that seeing as I'll be basing them at some juncture, there isn't really any point. It'd just be wasted time and energy!