Last week I mentioned that I went along to a play test of the forthcoming Ancient Greek skirmish game, Mortal Gods – A test of Courage. I have on the work bench a small band of Greeks and Skeletons for this game and I will return to these in another blog – they are providing light relief from my ongoing Napoleonic project.
The next Napoleonic unit on the paint station is the 79th Cameron Highlanders. I have started to batch paint the 24 figures that I need for the battalion and the first 8 are about finished. In this blog, I’ll show you step by step how I went about the task of painting these eight. Incidentally, I had initially thought that I would paint 28 figures for the battalion but I have reined in my ambition and will go for the usual 24 figures. This isn’t quite the climb down that it looks like. Having painted the first eight, my confidence has grown and I have decided to paint all three Highland regiments at Waterloo, a total of 72 figures. The other reason for the smaller Battalion is that all the Highland regiments at Waterloo had been quite badly mauled in the fighting at Quatre Bras, two days earlier, so a standard sized unit makes more sense.
I’ll rely on the pictures to show the sequence in which I have painted the models, so a picture heavy blog – hopefully more use than me waffling on…I hope that the step by step method that I use will be useful.
Step 1 Flesh
Once the figures have been primed with Army Painter grey, I start with the flesh – face, hands and knees! Vallejo Flat Flesh 70815. I’m using an Expo sable ‘0’ brush for most of the painting.
Step 2 Black
Black 70950 for Hats, Cartridge Box, Bayonet scabbard and boots.
Step 3 – gaiters
Black grey 70862 for the gaiters.
Step 4 Hair and sideburns!
Chocolate Brown 70872 for hair, although I painted one as ginger haired using 70981 Orange brown!
Red coats on!
Flat red 70957 for the Jackets.
Food bags painted
Iraqi sand 70819 for the food bags – you could do these in white and I should really paint the strap in Iraqi Sand to match but I actually paint them white as it makes the front of the figure look better -call it artistic licence or laziness…
Water bottles painted
Pastel blue 70901 for the water bottles. This looks on the light side but when I use quick shade on the figure the colour will darken and the texture of the bottles will show. Painting the unit number on the canteen is beyond my skill, eye sight and patience!
Facings in Green – spot the ginger….
Flat Green 70968 for facings – collars & cuffs.
White lace & straps
The longest stint in one colour! 70820 Off white for tufts, turnbacks, belts, socks and lacing.
Muskets & Water bottle strap
Flat Brown 70984 for Musket stocks and I cheated and used the same colour for the canteen strap – leather brown 70871 would perhaps be a better choice. Some painters like to paint a grain effect on the wooden musket stocks – again, a step too far for me and I think unnecessary.
Metallics done.
Metallics! Steel 70864 for the musket barrel and other details, Brass 70801 for the buttons, belt plate and details on the musket.
Tartan Paint – it’s magic!
Vallejo Tartan paint….Well, not exactly but just to tease, I will explain how I went about painting the Tartan for the Cameron’s in more detail. This was the test shot and once I had gotten my head around the process I reverted back to the batch paint job.I’ll say up front that it is by no means an accurate representation, more a nod in the general direction of how Tartan looks. When it came to it, painting the tartan to this standard wasn’t as difficult as I had thought but it is time consuming. The first 8 figures that I have finished are looking OK for the table top, though I say so myself – you can an idea for yourself next week! But, there are a few steps yet to take, including the daunting task of painting the figures with quick shade and hoping that I didn’t lose too much of the detail.
I’ve also painted the red cross hatching on the hat bands and the socks. So until next week, you can see how I tamed the tartan terrors!
The Commercial Bit
A lazy link this week…nearly everything that I use in my hobby is available post free from the Arcane Scenery shop. So Expo Brushes, Vallejo Paints, Victrix figures, Renedra bases, tools and sanding sticks – they are all there , just have a browse! Use the manufacturers category or the general category to browse products. If you want a specific paint or item, just type the number or description into the search box, hit return and it should appear!