Saturday 5 October 2019

Cuirassier and Curiouser

As you know, while working on the Grenadiers, I've also been experimenting with a few test figures. Below is my first ever attempt at a French cuirassier. No French army would be complete without at least a regiment of these.


He is a vintage Hinton Hunt FN 102: Cuirassier Trooper (mounted) charging, painted to represent a trooper of the 8th Cuirassiers.


I had a number of false starts with this one as it was really difficult to work out exactly what it was that Marcus intended in some areas, so it took a bit of guesswork.


I'm reasonably satisfied with the results.  I'll get cracking on the rest of them as soon the Grenadiers à pied are finished, which shouldn't be toooo far off now.

Yours, as always

WM

20 comments :

  1. Love the cuirassiers Matt, just got to have some, even in the Peninsular where the single regiment replaced the blue coat with a drab brown one and baggy breeches. I'm just about to start my own so your test paint is useful and of course stunning!

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    1. I've been putting these off for years, 'Lee. They gave me the fear!

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  2. You've made a great job of a tricky-to-paint figure Matthew! Perhaps the only other HH figure with such hard to follow detail is the British one-piece dragoon. I can't wait to see the whole unit!

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    1. It might be a long wait, Ian. Actually, once I'd figured out what each of the mysterious blobs was actually supposed to be he came together quite quickly, although I made a rod for myself by choosing the eighth. Yellow facings are always a bit tricky.

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  3. A regiment of cuirassiers, surely not! They should be deployed in divisional strength or not at all.
    Seriously though, accept the rod; yellow is definitely the best facing colour for them. A cracking paint job as ever but I would've been tempted to go with a darker horse or a bay with black mane and tail, which I think will give a unit of them more 'presence'. I know in reality they had to take what horses they could get but we paint all our figures in parade, rather than campaign, dress so why not the horses?

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    1. Some of the French cavalry divisions in 1813 were so weak that a single wargame regiment would not be a bad representation, I reckon.

      I have an internal debate going on about horse colours. This lot will certainly have dark browns and blacks, but I want to vary them a bit as I think the regiments look better that way. This one was particularly difficult because my brown ink wash did not want to stick to the yellow undercoat!

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  4. I challenge anyone to deny that this is the new standard to emulate in cuirassier painting. Only you, WM, would choose the 8th. I'm not scared of yellow, not with Revell enamel, but those little 8s. Deep respect, Sir.

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    1. He's only a test figure, so I thought "what the hell..." It means I'm going to have to do all of them like this now, however.

      There are actually two shades of yellow, although it doesn't really show up on the photos too well - Lemon Yellow for the collar and hounds teeth, and Signal Yellow for the cloak. The latter is like egg yolk and really doesn't want to stick on.

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  5. Lovely work, that yellow certainly "pings" - how many coats did that take?

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    1. Thank you, Matt.
      Just a couple, but that's only because I undercoat in white. If I tried to do that over a dark undercoat I'd be adding layers till Christmas!

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  6. He looks wonderfully colorful! As eye-catching as any hussar or chasseur in full dress. Well done too with painting in the '8' on either end of the valise. That must taken some breath holding and bright light.

    Best Regards,

    Stokes

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    1. It was a close run thing with the 11th, Stokes, who had pink facings. I chose the 8th, however, partly because I reckoned that painting an 8 would actually be easier than an 11, and it was in fact actually quite simple!

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  7. Very nicely done indeed, especially around the collar line where you have both the red and white of the cuirass lining and the yellow of the collar. Very nicely done! The hounds tooth lining of the sheepskin is particularly nice. Looks like I'll have to do some touch up on mine as I did not realize that was a thing for the cuirassiers. In any event I like it!

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    1. Cheers, David. Your splendid regiment was a direct inspiration. I just had to overcome my fear of painting steel helmets and cuirasses. When I did these on my ECW army back in the earlies it always looked terrible.

      The hounds teeth are one of the many things that aren't actually modelled on this figure, or at east not as far as I could make out.

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  8. French Guard Grenadiers and now Cuirassiers as well. You French army is going to pack some punch.


    The Cuirassier has painted up very nicely indeed. Are you doing any conversions to provide command figures?

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    1. That is indeed my evil plan, Mark, as the Emperor really needs a convincing win against the dastardly JC. He's too good a general to beat in a fair fight.

      It's a house tradition to make officers and trumpeters, but I have to admit to being a bit torn in this case as all the castings are in really good nick. I hate chopping up vintage figures when they're in good condition.

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  9. That's a very nicely presented figure: en-masse, he'll look the business all right! Pinks and yellows by way of differencing in my view are fine contrasts to pick out the darker, stronger, colours. My own 8th Cuirassiers are to become the 6th (to make room for 8th Lancers). I agree with you: '8's' are easy to paint: 2 white dots joined together and two smaller black dots on top.

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    1. Thank you, AP. This figure is a bit of a lump, truth be told, so a few bright highlights seemed like a good idea.

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  10. Very nice indeed...
    I’m with Rob... divisional strength is the way to go...
    Trample your enemies under foot... ;-)

    All the best. Aly

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    1. Thank you, Aly! There may be other regiments somewhere in the lead pile, but it'll be a wee while before they show up. At the scale I'm working at, three regiments would constitute a cavalry corps.

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