54mm Dutch Belgian Royal Guard Artillery 1810

[Guest]

Nice progress Neil. Finding a brush that suits you is so important.

[Neil Merryweather]

Hi Chaps, I have some small progress to report on my latest explorations.

I painted the coat with Prussian blue, which did have the desired effect of muting the high contrast of the highlight, but I should really have added another tone or two in between. I will wait and see how it comes out.

I painted the shako with thin black ink, and that’s kind of worked. I wanted different blacks for the plume and the peak, so I washed the plume with Warhammer green ink, and the peak with blue ink., and that’s kind of worked.




I gave the blue coat a wash of blue ink as well, to r try and give it a bit more depth, but it still needs more doing to it.

I started on the red, but I have found that my scarlet Model Air is too thin to cover the crappy job I did on the pre-shading, so I need to get some model colour. And I will definitely need better covering power when it comes to the fine lines and piping, so that will have to wait.

You may have noticed that I have yet to start on the flesh, but I am leaving that until the very last. Unlike Peter Day who always seems to do the face first, I prefer to leave it to the last. My feeling is that once the face is done it becomes a person, and therefore is kind of finished. And if it’s KIND of finished I am more likely to leave it and go on with the next one. This has indeed happened with my Tommy, who only needs a few tweaks and a base, but every time I think about it I don’t do it.

So that’s my painting psychology…….

Thanks for looking

Neil

[Guest]

Nice progress Neil. I can entirely see the point of doing the face last. My reason for doing it first goes back to when I first started, when if anything was going to fail it was that.

[Neil Merryweather]

I've made a little bit more progress on this figure.
I'm still struggling with the paint consistency, but not quite as much. I HATE the glossiness of it.
I am really quite embarrassed at the poor sculpting of some of the details- I now understand this from painter's perspective(see what I did there?)
I'm not happy with the cross belts yet- I have looked at re-enactment photos and there's still work do be done there. apart from that I think there's nothing much left to prevent me doing the face and hands next:fearful:


thanks for looking
Neil

[Jim R]

Hi Neil
He is looking good. Always liked these "brightly coloured" figures. Painting your own sculpt is something special.
Jim

[Tim Marlow]

Hi Neil, sorry I’m late to this, he’s looking splendid.....
In answer to the Dutch-Belgian question earlier, that is how one of Wellington’s Army corps, serving under the Prince of Orange, has always been referred to in English text. It was composed of Dutch and Belgian troops from the newly unified Kingdom of Holland (I think) mostly who had until very recently fought for Napoleon, hence the French cut to the uniform....

[Neil Merryweather]

Hi Neil, sorry I’m late to this, he’s looking splendid.....
In answer to the Dutch-Belgian question earlier, that is how one of Wellington’s Army corps, serving under the Prince of Orange, has always been referred to in English text. It was composed of Dutch and Belgian troops from the newly unified Kingdom of Holland (I think) mostly who had until very recently fought for Napoleon, hence the French cut to the uniform....

Enlightenment!
many thanks Tim!

[Guest]

I think he's coming along very nicely Neil.

[Neil Merryweather]

I think he's coming along very nicely Neil.

Thank you Peter, always there with the encouragement of we lesser mortals!

[Steve Jones]

Nice work Neil. Look forward to seeing the next update

[Neil Merryweather]

Thanks Steve, well here it is!

I’ve painted his face….and annoyingly just as I had final tweak of his right eye I mucked it up, so I will have to do that again.

I’m slowly getting more used to the small size of everything, but I’m still struggling with the hand control.

And I still hate the blobbiness I’m getting from the acrylic paint.


I can't WAIT to get some matt lacquer on him, it's driving me nuts.
Hopefully the next installment will be the final one. I need to fix that eye, work on the cross belts, do a bit of weathering and highlighting and then add the accoutrements( which are not very interestng and why I haven't bothered photographing them).
Oh and put him on a base.
thanks for looking
Neil

[Jim R]

Hi Neil
That's looking good. Looking forward to the final reveal.
Jim

[Guest]

Looking good.

[Nap]

Hi Neil

Like others for me the sculpt looks okay ...a interesting subject and it's nice to see the way you approach the painting

I tend to flit between doing the flesh first or lastv..no idea why

Following if I may

Nap

[Guest]

Nice work Neil. I can't work that small any more so envy your abilities.

Re the lumpy acrylic. I find that the stuff can curdle on the palette and that it's best to mix fresh paint on clean areas fairly frequently as you go along. It will also create lumps if you use too many brushstrokes creating fresh layers on top of partially dried ones.