Wednesday 12 December 2007

Progress report - 13.

I got to work on the horses for the Bishop's troopers this evening. First I applied the black undercoat then a good coat of sandy ochre. This was followed by a light wash of red and a sloppy wash of chestnut. Whilst each wash was wet I wiped the flanks of the figures with a rag to remove most of the paint so the lighter colors beneath showed through. Each was allowed to dry before the next was applied. A final thin-ish wash of black overall and the main coloring was finished. The various layers give a life-like depth to the figures. The next stage will be the picking-out of tack and a few white markings on the animals.

4 comments:

WSTKS-FM Worldwide said...

Hi A.J.,

How about an in-progress photo or two? It's neat to see how projects are coming along.

Best Regards,

Stokes

A J said...

I agree, and I shall endeavor to try, Stokes. My webcam lacks definition and is all but useless in artificial light, but it can at least give a general sense of the subject. I'll see what I can do tomorrow if I get time during the day. Once I have all the regiments completed and properly based, I'll borrow a decent digicam and have a photo-shoot/parade.

Bluebear Jeff said...

I was also thinking that a step-by-step photo essay on your horse painting technique would make an interesting and informative post.


-- Jeff

A J said...

Hi Jeff, thanks for the interest. The next batch of horses I get will be the order from Spencer Smith and should arrive any day now. I'll take stage-by-stage images and demonstrate my technique.

I have found painting cavalry (in any scale) a real chore in the past but by keeping the numbers to paint down to around 10 or so, using the painting block method and acrylics instead of enamels has speeded the process up tremendously. I've adapted your method of using wooden splints to hold the riders, and this is proving a vote-winner with me.