Fantastic face and uniform painting… That’s a real talent 
Thanks, Johnny. They’re a bit smaller than I’m used to, lol.
Looks great.
Tanks, Tank! 
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Dynamic Trio
Here’s the next set of faces done within the last week. The weather has been cold and sometimes wet, with snow flurries, if you can imagine that, in April, HA! T’sall good, I’m taking advantage of the down time and working these figures. This really is a fun set to work with. Kudos to Vladimir, once again.
I really like how the standing figure came out; he’s got that dark almost Burgundy color tone to his hair which makes his features more prominent. The wounded figure was pretty straight forward and fun to paint, but the snarling chap leaning forward was a real bear. His facial features weren’t cooperating as well as the others. I recon it’s just a state of mind when dealing with so many faces to paint, you’re bound to get one or two that will give you a hard time. When in doubt, Ruck Over, Bby!
As mentioned before, these will be set aside while I work the last three figures; Hatched man, Baby Face Drummer Boy, and the fallen French horse rider with body armor. I’m sure someone will correct my description of the horse rider, cause right now I forgot what he’s called, HA! No worries, steady ar she goes.
Thanks for watchin. Cheers, Ski.
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Ski those guys are looking absolutely stellar. Would not want to be a Chasseur squaring up to them.
Amazing work! Is there somewhere you could point me to show where you learned your technique from? So lifelike!
Ski, those are 3 angry faces lol… But seriously, they look brilliant, tones look so real… Compelling to watch them take shape
There must be a law against figure-painting this brilliant Ski, but while you’re still at large great to see you in da zone - ossum bro!
Early on the question was raised about the Black Watch’s combat history - according to the first book off my shelf (Waterloo by Bernard Cornwell) it does look like they were so mauled at the preceding engagement at Quatre Bras they took no part at Waterloo two days later:
The French attacked in three columns numbering over 17,000 towards a British line of 3,500, including over 500 of the Black Watch who advanced to meet them unaware cavalry on their flank weren’t Brunswickers, but French lancers. The 42nd hastily formed a square, but the lancers were upon them at full speed & some were even trapped and cut down inside the square…which wasn’t a square at all but a massed huddle around the colours. A 15 year old French trumpeter thought the kilted demons were prostitutes, enraged having just seen their wounded C.O. (Macara) hacked down along with his stretcher party while being taken from the field. A French lancer severely wounded Ensign Christie who was carrying the colours by a thrust which entered his left eye & penetrating the lower jaw. Christie refused to surrender the flag as it fell towards the cuirassier, by falling on top of it. The Frenchman was cut to pieces immediately.
It was a chaotic battle ending without a decisive result other than the French attack stalled. The chivalrous good ol’ days eh? Anyhow this certainly looks like the scene depicted 
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Thanks, my Nothern Brother!
Hey Stik. Thanks for the kind words. You asked a question I haven’t been asked in a long time, so bear with me. I switched to oils back in the early 90’s from enamels, mostly trial and error learning the blending techniques. Mark Bannerman has an article on Missing-Lynx that was very helpful back in the beginning. After all those years I recently ran across Daria Calle’s videos on YT, and I never looked back. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QapONEamQg
Daria’s explanations using oils sure made a difference for me. Faces were not my strong point, still aren’t, but I’m learning more with each one. Give it a whirl, it’s just a matter of practice, Stik.
Thanks, Johnny. They do look a bit peeved, don’t they, lol.
Thanks, Tim. Bro, I’m still learning with each face I paint. I appreciate those kind words, Ma Brotha.
I ran across that title issue at the beginning and changed the name of the build to Quatre Bras. Not sure why it was labelled Waterloo on the kit. Heck, I wouldn’t have known it either, lol. This is not my normal venue, so this would have been a boatload of study and all I wanted to do was paint em. For some reason this set really got the hooks into me and I can now see why.
Thanks again, Gents.
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I was going to mention it passing a while ago but I forgot lol… Quatre Bras was the name of the horse I rode for a while in the HCMR when I was in the riding school 
Thanks for the link Ski. I’ll look up the Missing-Linx one also.
It’s amazing how small this world is, eh?
Hey Stik, youbetcha, Bro!
Hatchet Man, French Cuirassier, and Baby Face Drummer Boy
The last three faces are almost done, baby face Drummer Boy being the slacker in this final set. I was fighting the good fight yesterday only to scrub his face with an oven cleaner bath. He too was not cooperating. No worries, I’ll get him done in short order.
The French Cuirassier was a fun one to paint. He doesn’t have any overly exaggerated features, so it was smooth sailing with this guy. I went ahead and painted much of the surrounding armor and fluff just to get it out of the way and to get a perspective of what it would look like further in the process.
Hatchet Man was a bit more of a challenge due to his sharp features around the nose and mustache; it was tight quarters around the mouth, etc. I had started with this figure in the very beginning, but had to scrub him as well. This time around it was a much easier run. He’s now good to go and like the French Cuirassier he too has been set aside to dry completely. The pics may be a bit fuzzy.
I’ll work Baby Face this week and get him completed. His super light skin tone threw me off for a bit, but I can see where I was drifting from the main objective, so he’ll be dialed in shortly.
More to follow and thanks for watching. Cheers, Ski.
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Class Photos
Here we have the entire crew, all eleven faces done minus a few touch-ups. It took a bit longer than expected, but now it’s time to review each face in detail. For the most part, I think they came out acceptable enough to continue on to the next stage.
Baby Face Drummer Boy is done for now. His left eye looks like someone socked him a good one, but that will be feathered out. These photos really bring out the errors in blaring color, lol. After a few attempts with dismal results, I decided to just let er rip and paint his face like all the rest. Without prominent features like the others, I improvised to give the face just a little more character. I tried not to overdo it, but I think he’ll do just fine.
Looking closer at the eyes I see there needs to be more definition at the lower eye lid areas, they’re too washed out and not defined worth a hoot. When the oils are completely dry, I’ll go back with a very thin line and correct that and maybe whiten them a bit as well.
After this face dries for a few days, I’ll go back and check each face for needed corrections. Feathering, or filtering, with oils is not too difficult and helps correct most areas of concern. Just make sure you don’t get carried away with too much thinner. The layer you are trying to adjust may become too thin and actually rub off. It’s a delicate operation and I have had issues in the past.
The hat checkered section is up next. Now that is gonna to be a hoot. This will really test my “straight line” abilities. We’ll see soon enough. Thanks for watching.
Cheers, Ski.
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So damn good !!!
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Thanks, Johnny!
Battle of the Tartans
After working the tartan pattern for a few days, yes, a few days, I have finally arrived at a pattern and color scheme that will work. Like you all know, I am “NOT” an acrylic fan other than undercoating, so this was more than just a real hoot. Several attempts at filters came to abysmal failure, so back to the drawing board. This is the fourth attempt, so it stays! Of course, I will work in the lines that crisscross the pattern, but they won’t be accurate, the 0000 brushes and thinned acrylic are not cooperating enough to take on that fight. Whatever I do here has to be repeated for all the tartans/kilts that are in this bunch.
The portion of the tartan that is posted on the right is much closer to the actual pattern required, but I prefer the pattern painted on the Officer.
More to follow and thanks for watching. Cheers, Ski.
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Brilliant sums it up…4th times the winner
That’s looking really good Ski. I think your colour contrasts will really help the pattern show on the figures too.
Maybe a dumb question because I don’t work with them, but if you’ve done everything else in oils, why switch to acrylic for the kilts?