PRUSSIAN CUIRASSIERS 1866 WORK IN PROGRESS II

 

One week's progress (after horses): left, Cuirassier Regt #7 (Magdeburg); right: Cuirassier Regt #3, East Prussian

As repeat visitors of this blog may recall, my painting rate cannot be described as fast. Neither can it probably be called efficient--which may not necessarily be a bad thing. Who wants "efficient" toy soliders? Blech! But, as usual, I digress (aka, meander): apologies, dear reader.  Back on subject...I'm now one week into the Prussian 1866 Cuirassier project, and as anticipated, nowhere near finished. This despite dedicating several hours per day to painting (did I mention it's good to be early retired?). I am about mid way through painting these 12 figures (well, 24 if one counts horses). Anyway, here is a report on how I'm working through these.  Let's start with the above image.  I spent one entire day on the shabraques--getting the the lines and corners consistent, not only on each figure (parallel lines) but across all figures.  This kind of thing really doesn't leap out at you (nobody picks up a stand and says, "Gee, lookit those lines!"), but I find that a repeated geometric pattern like this has a collective effect, and inconsistencies jump out. 

One way I look at painting is to identify areas of special focus/difficulty where details that I feel need to be brought out will take special attention. Often, this involves identifying areas where there is alot going on in a small space. On the Prussian cuirassier outfit, these involve the base and other openings of of the cuirass, where you have rows of rivets (brass on steel), a black ruffle edged in white sticking out (a very signature look for these fellows), a belt across the midsection, and a confluence of straps and brass hinge straps at the shoulder. 

The Northstar sculpts, which I've commented on before, are quite exquisite. I would call them "photo real" in their accuracy and detail. As such, however, they don't give you much to work with as a painter in the way that less finely sculpted figures might. Others' opinions may differ: it may just be the way I paint that creates the challenge (entirely possible).  In the above picture, you can see the fine details of belt, rivets, and ruffle all near the base of the cuirass: excellent though they are, bringing them out and giving them some separation to the eye took some trial and error (to say the least), particularly the ruffle, which sticks out not much more than 2mm or so (which is about how this detail is depicted in images, to be fair, and so it is on the figures).  Whether anyone else will ever notice these details remains an open question. My thinking is that rendering such things, regardless of how small, still contributes to the overall look of the figure. Some might call this wasted effort given that figures are going to be seen at 4' to 5' distance on the table, or that nobody probably even knows (or cares) that there should be a white edge on a black ruff at the base of the cuirass, or given the state of eyesight in our gaming group nowadays (we're no longer youngsters).  All true: but that's just how I paint at the end of the day, regardless. Like others have said of their painting practice, I'll know it's there, and in the end, I'll feel like the figures are "finished."   

Normally, I paint "assembly-line" style, meaning that I do the same detail or color across all the figures at the same time. However, when confronted with a project that involves lots of what I call "high control" painting--which progresses very slowly--I generally take a few figures and do them to completion ahead of the rest. This project fits into this category. Having a few figs done not only gives me a momentum boost to get me through the project, but also helps me to get the trial and error out of the way so that I have the techniques down for  later figures.

Given their unique qualities, I finished the trumpeters for both regiments...

...and the command set for the Magdeburg Cuirassiers: with these figures, I learned how to deal with the cuirasses. 

Having one command set done, I'm moving on to the East Prussian Cuirassier command set. I may be done with these fellows given another day or two. 

I'll then move on to the troopers for both regiments.  These will move along more quickly than their predecessors and I'll do them in one batch of six (as opposed to the three sets of two that I've done to date).   

Then, of course, I'll do the final touch up, the varnishing, and then the basing. Perhaps I'll be able to bring this project to completion in an even two weeks. And if I don't, well, no matter. It may be three. 

Excelsior!