HUNGARIAN HONVED RIFLES: NEW FIGURES NEWLY PAINTED

For those who may have been following along, you may recall that I posted earlier that among the figures that I had commissioned from Steve Barber that the Hungarian Jagers were the first to have been completed and had arrived. I have been plucking away a bit at a time on them for the last several weeks. They are finally done and now join the ranks of my growing Hungarian/Honved 1848/49 contingent.  This was another exercise in gray tones, but a lighter gray than the Austrian Jagers done earlier.  In this study, you may, as always, clix pix for BIG PIX.  

 I primed them white (as I always do), and then used Testor's Model Master "RAF Medium Gray" for a base color (yes, friends, I'm talking enamels)...

 ...and then brought out the Humbrol "Brown Yellow" for the bags and Testor's Model Master "Leather" for the canteen cover...

 ...then a light wash of black, and a then a highlight in light gray for the trousers and jacket, and a bit more brown yellow for the bag.  Then old school Testor's "Flat Yellow" in the 1/4 oz bottle for the officer's hat and belt details...

...speaking of which, I did one of my officers with white fur as opposed to black, inspired by an illustration of a Honved Pioneer officer who had the same gray jacket with white fur in the Somogyi Honved Army 1848-49 book.  The fur lining on the figure is a base of flat black and a highlight of light gray followed by a drybrush of flat white. I also painted over the boots on these officers to render trousers.

It was challenging to bring out the green detail against the mid/light gray of the uniforms, so I did all of the details first in black and then went over them in green to get a blackline effect.  This still did not render a good result. The green looked washed out and indistinct.  I tried several old standbye Humbrol greens, "Uniform Green" highlighted with "Light Green" for instance, but those still didn't stand out (for the officer's hat color, though, Humbrol Uniform Green worked fine).  After several other tries, I resigned myself to the look.  But then, just as I was about to "finish" the figures with a coat of clear flat, I looked over and saw an "old school" bottle of Testor's "Beret Green" among my "odds and ends" paints--I couldn't remember buying it. Out of curiousity, I picked it up and gave it a closer look.  I tried it on one figure...and it turned out to be just the thing! 

Once Steve completes the honved infantry in kepis, I'll be rounding out the infantry and the Hungarians will be near completion.  I must say that I don't mind the wait--I don't think I could face another hungarian sleeve knot right now!