French 67th Ligne 54mm Project Stage One.

OK  assume you remember the very kind gesture from my friend (the loaning of the house) well a few weeks before he went on holiday I asked him if WWII was the only period he was interested in from a military point of view. No was the reply he also liked Napoleonic Wars. Well that was what I was looking for, now I could find a larger figure and paint it up for him. It's been over twenty years since I last painted something so large so it's going to be a challenge. I plan to record my progress as a series of posts that will be released once the figure has been painted and delivered. I am both excited and shiteing myself!

9th August. Miniature arrives, well the second ordered one arrives after the first was not due to being discontinued.Originally I went for a British Infantry soldier taking leave of his wife, now is the turn of a French Man in action, a total change of pace.

I knew it would not be a single cast but both the number of parts and make up of the bits was a bit of a shock! Both arms need adding which is fine but also the right hand clutching the musket! Now that means I would have to marry up three separate pieces that could not be even a fraction out or the figure would look crap. No pressure then. Once I started to assemble the other parts it became clear why they benefited from assembly. I still wish than hand came attached though.

Assembled and ready for action. I managed to get the arms and hand aligned, not sure how but the end result looks fine. I really would not like to have to do it again though.

This shot shows the bayonet sticking out and is one of three parts glued in the same area. It also shows that bloody hand which I had filed slightly to get the right finished angle. I also cut a small amount of the barrel off for the correct fit.

This shot shows the level of detail on the figure which is great. I am really looking forward to painting it up. I have now undercoated the whole thing and plan to paint the base first, just where from there I have no idea.

Undercoated the figure in white then once dry set about working on the base. The battle the figure is based on was Aspern-Essling or Wagram as some may know it. A quick Google search and I found a few paintings that showed the buildings to be made of brown to yellow stone so armed I made for the brown based wases.

First up was the Vallejo Umber shade. Next the Sepia which gave a nice yellow effect to the rocks. The Umber had given me the dark brown finish between the rubble which I will add smaller ballast type debris as well at a later stage. Then it was a case of dry brushing three shades from brown to light yellow one over the other. Still need to do a spot of minor over highlighting and a tad of darker detail to finish it off. I am resisting tufts and grass as this is recent buildings turned to rubble.

I skipped the boots and went straight on to what is one of the biggest challenges. White trousers, I know white can be tricky in smaller scales but this guy has stacks of it. Trousers, waste oat, inside of the coat and coat trim not to mention leather belts! So I started with Blue Gray which is fairly dark then over painted most of the areas with Sky Grey just leaving the most shadowed areas Blue Grey. Next up I watered down Ivory and washed the lot in that following up with neat Ivory that again was used to cover a fair amount of the trouser but leaving more areas uncovered. Next was the Standard White which was used on the most raised or flat areas, mostly applied in stripes. Another thin wash, of paint this time White that was allowed over all the trouser area and this was applied in about four layers, drying between. Then I highlighted some more in Ivory and White where I wanted it to pick up some more. The grey as you can see shows through a fair bit but I really like the effect. All told it took about two hours to get the trousers done, if not for the heat it would have taken much longer as the paint quickly dried.

I just added the one coat of blue to the coat and inked it, I also applied single coats of White or Ivory to the other areas requiring a white colour. The plan is to repaint the leather with a different white once the figure has been varnished.