You may know that I spend most of my efforts on armor dioramas, but on occasion, for a major change of pace, I paint figures. Large-scale, Napoleonic’s are my favorite. 90mm and above. The colorful uniforms are fun, and the skills developed on that branch of the hobby help with the smaller 1/35 figures that are so integral to my dioramas.
Here are some photos of my latest project.
BTW: I know this should probably be posted under ‘Figures’, but as I post all of my other work under ‘Armor’, I just followed my normal practice.
It’s a 1/9 scale bust of a trooper, flag bearer of the French 4th Regiment of Hussars. A fantastic resin sculpture by ‘RDG Miniatures’.
It’s not for the faint of heart…
The face was painted in artist’s oils. Their slow drying time allows for wet-blending and infinite color shading. Absolutely necessary on the larger scale faces.
I also used oils on the horse’s coat, again to allow for the softly blended sheen.
The rest of the figure was painted in acrylics, with oils again used for shading and washes.
A tour-de-force Ralph! Such an eye catching piece- a really dynamic and visually interesting sculpt that you have brought to life. Your paintwork is top notch- the facial tones and the expression really make a great focal point but the horse and the bright color work are equally good.
I too turned to doing figures from just armour models- I felt my figure painting at the time was poor and tried doing more and learning more and now figures are a good half of my work. Like you I would encourage armour/aircraft/car/train modellers to give figures a go- especially scales bigger than 1/35.
I understand, Tank, but I haunt the Armor side. And I hope my point resonates with my fellow modelers. Practice with figures, particularly larger ones will improve your 1/35 tank crews.
Thanks Karl. The quality of the sculpture makes all of the difference. In this case the artist did a fantastic job. The molds and the engineering of the parts were a huge challenge, though.
I recommend Milan Dufek’s YouTube channel for large-scale figure painting tutorials - he’s very, very good. He did a review of this figure, and I fell in love with it.
Got it, but this is not an Armor/AFV Figure. It belongs in the Figures Forum, not here. I’m moving it since it will get more comments and appreciation there. We have separate forums for a reason.
I’ve read several novels that cover that period, but I haven’t heard of that title. I’ll have to check it out. Thanks,
BTW: My biggest challenge was in researching that uniform. I have the Osprey book on Hussars, and the 2nd volume of ‘Histoire & Collections’ book on Hussars, but not the first volume that covers the 1st through 8th Regiments. It’s out of print!
