Tuesday 13 November 2007

The forces begin to assemble...


And so it begins! The picture above shows the first batch of sixteen soldiers of IR 1 Sleibnitz on parade and ready to be based. The remaining eight figures include the command section of two standard bearers, officer and drummer. They'll go on the painting stand next.

I used a black ink wash to tone down the bright blue of the uniform and the facings to something approaching an authentic "on campaign" appearance. My own experiences on the re-enactment field show me just how powder-stained and grubby it's possible to get in the space of an hour, let alone a period of months! The gaiters are painted in the light buff summer pattern, and not the black winter-pattern shown in the earlier post.







7 comments:

Bluebear Jeff said...

Impressive . . . here's hoping that the remaining troops join them soon.


-- Jeff

abdul666 said...

They look as good 'in the flesh' as in drawing, and much more 'real'!

Fitz-Badger said...

Nice start! :-)

WSTKS-FM Worldwide said...

Very nice color combination on your uniforms. Keep up the good work!

Best Regards,

Stokes

abdul666 said...

For me I *do* prefer white gaiters
( attempt of a posteriori rationalization: when the regiment is viewed 'en masse' on the tabletop, black gaiters tend to 'darken' it, to subdue the shades by 'polluting' the colors by the addition of what, at that scale, acts as general grey, and thus make the uniform 'dull'...

Maybe black gaiters were less common during the WAS than from SYW on? That may well be the (unconscious) reason of this preference?

Cheers,
Jean-Louis

old-tidders said...

Nice bright colour combination, the whole unit will look nice

Allan

A J said...

Thank you for your kind comments, gentlemen. Jean-Louis, yes, you're right, I did chose to paint the gaiters of this unit in a pale buff instead of black because of the darkening effect when viewed en-masse on a green/brown wargames table. As with food, the first bite is with the eye, and I want my figures to look appealing.

The last musketeer figures are complete. I just need to finish the command element and then base the regiment. It should be done by this weekend. Then it'll be on to IR2, von Wöhl...