dimanche 26 janvier 2020

Fusiliers-grenadiers of the Imperial Guard

After a couple of posts related to Star Wars, back to 1/72 and the Napoleonic era. This week-end, I have painted a company of Fusiliers-grenadiers, a middle guard unit attached to the regiments of Grenadiers à pied.

Much less known than the units of the old guard, the fusiliers-grenadiers formed a regiment created in december 1806, and disbanded in may 1814. The regiment consisted of two  four-companies battalions, for a total strength of about 1800 men.


I've painted a unit of 10 soldiers, 1 NCO (first figure from the left) and 1 officer wearing a surtout.
Those who follow this blog from the beginning may have recognized the unexpected guest, the goat-that-travels-through-time. So a little game: could you find the year, and the post in which this goat was spotted for the last time ?

 Meanwhile, the plastic soldiers keep on marching through the village.







Nothing new regarding the painting technique, which has already been explained a few years ago at Benno's. I could copy a link to the post with the explanation, but I've just checked, and I realized that:

  1. The post is difficult to find since I answered a question (by Sceavus :)) in a thread regarding half orcs
  2. The pictures used to explain are no longer visible since the host on which they were stored is no longer in activity.

So I think it might be a good idea if I put everything here. Here you are:

Concerning white: when I want to paint white clothes, I first don't use white, but I start to paint a light grey layer, with a Citadel paint called Deneb Stone (in their old denominations, I don't know the name in their current range).

An example, with a Fusilier grenadier (french middle guard by Hät):




Then I wash the area with Agrax Earthshade - not much on the light grey area, or the shading might be too strong - well it is a question of taste.




Then I begin to lighten. I paint a layer of pure Deneb Stone (carefully, because at this step you have to keep your shades as thin lines between the different elements: clothes, belt...). Then I mix Deneb Stone and white, and I add a new thin (diluted) layer on some areas only - those that receive the sunlight. It is possible de repeat this operation several times on always smaller areas - it depends on your time and on the quality you want to get.

In my example, the belts are painted in a whiter color than the clothes. In the picture below, you have the three steps illustrated on three different minis:



Concerning the flesh, I use a red ink to shade the face and the hands, but I am not very happy with the result because the contrast is not strong enough in my taste. I will go back to my previous technique, a simple wash of diluted of Citadel Dark Flesh (ancient range, it is a sort of brown red), then lightening as explained before. The only difference is that I lighten the flesh paint with Citadel Ushabti Bone (something like ivory), NOT white.

Here you are the result:


I hope you find this little explanation useful, and that you like the result :)

9 commentaires:

  1. I´m not a fan of washes but the result here is good. I sympathise with you on the losss of pics. I´ve been slowly replacing the ones on my blog. Takes ages, even though I have 90% of the pics stored on external drives, I didn´t titel them all to match with the Posts, so not only is it a lot of work to find Posts with missing pics but then to find the originals and re post them it takes a Long Long time.

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  2. Fantastic Frenchmen! I appreciate the tutorial on your painting technique.

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  3. These look absolutely splendid, good job Phil!
    I have to admit my painting technique is quite similar to yours.
    (speaking of which I might have some new stuff painted and ready to be photographed *wink*)

    PS. I'm pretty sure last time I saw time-traveling goat was back in 2017 :)

    Cheers,
    Jacob

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  4. Magnifiques figurines, belle technique, et très chouette présentation!

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  5. I al not a fan of napoleónica, but they look incredible. Your techniques for White clothes are very good, I learnt from them some year ago, thank you Phil

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  6. Great job sir, nice tips on painting white, I too start from light grey but in a far more slapdash hamfisted way than you!.

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  7. Les resultats de votre technique sont magnifique Philotep!

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  8. Ce commentaire a été supprimé par un administrateur du blog.

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  9. Fantastic work as ever Phil, I have shaded white quite similar to your method Deneb Stone is a lovely shade for it!

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