Something a Bit Different

A while back a very generous person on the TMP gave me a book on Napoleonic uniforms. It's a mine of information, and is especially good because several of the uniforms are French infantry-style (or close enough for a bit of putty and a knife to fix), which means that I can take a break from all the blue and paint my Victrix in different colours.

The first such break is a Voltigeur based on plate 55, from the Régiment Irlandaise. It's been a bit different painting him- the green is four sucessive coats (thinned yellow, GW green wash, thinned dark green, green wash again) which I'm still not immensely happy with. That said, I really like this uniform scheme so I think I'll perservere.


Now, the plume pictured has order (from the top) of yellow-green, which I've copied. However, I've seen other pictures of voltigeurs (including one in the same book) that go green-yellow. I'd be grateful if I've made a mistake to be corrected for next time.

My first offerings!

I've uploaded a couple of pictures of my first painted Napoleonic French soldier. They aren't the best pictures in the world, but hopefully my photography will get better. I've painted a couple more since him, slightly varying my technique each time but not making much in the way of technical progress.

My first thought? Lots of white belts and trim that need to stand out against other colours is a right pain to paint! I've tried using a grey basecoat, white on top, black wash for the recesses and then more white. It looks...okay...but not brilliant. I'm thankful of the side-of-the-box guide to the uniforms and good box artwork which I used as my painting guide so far.

In comparison to GW plastics, the Victrix are very slight, much better proportioned (whilst I still like the GW style, put some Empire humans next to the Victrix and they'll look like mutants!). This, combined with a couple of years out from painting (being a student and flitting between home and Uni means I haven't done much painting over the last few years) means he isn't my best work.

Whilst I've painted a half-dozen so far, my plan is to radically change the way I paint in the future. Inspired by this post I'm going to use a white undercoat and inks (which did me very well in my early days) and hopefully perfect a method that is very neat.