General de Brigade

[bk]

Thought you might like to see some recent Napoleonics I've painted...
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[Gentleman Johnny]

Hello bk,
You thought correctly!
These are very nice and the basing is splendid.
Maybe a tad shiney for my taste; I gloss bayonets, swords, horses-eyes and metal helmets etc so am not completely averse to shine... I notice you've used different coloured tack depending on the horse colour to get it to standout more. Effective.
Italieri ARE rather good at horses, the proportions and posture are good and they don't have overfat legs or HUGE heads which a lot of the metals suffer from. They also really get a sense of movement into the charging poses.
Nice.
GJ

[Craig]

C`mon bk ,black mounts for the Carabiniers
Very nice indeed.
Reghards,

[bk]

I know i know that these chappies were supposed to be mounted on black steeds but have also read that due to difficuty in replacements it was very common that other colours were tolerated.
Plus the fact that artistic licence is one of my fortes... when ,of course, it's valid

[bk]

Here's a couple more pics of the Carabiniers...agree they're a tad shiny
but not as bad as in the above photos, which were all taken with flash.
Took some shots this morning outside which gives a much better idea as to how they really look.
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[bk]

Thought I'd send a picture with the entire unit charging - the contents of one box of Italeri French Carabiniers -1 (discarded to even up the unit)
Photo's a bit small but gives some idea of what one gets for ones money
ie 23p per horse with rider - not bad value for money, eh?

PS/ the drawback with these figures on the wargames table is of course
the paint flaking off.
Has anyone got any foolproof tricks to preserve ones labour of love?
Have read that some use a glue and swear by this method. From my experiments the glue clogs up the details and the figure loses all its
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[Gentleman Johnny]

bk:
I tried the glue method once and discarded it, for the clogged-up detail reason as you say.
I've heard that applying the glue afterwards works but have never tried that so can't comment.

I give mine a pretty heavy coat of gloss varnish followed by two coats of matt - brushed on, not sprayed - and don't find them flakey.
The gloss seems to add a bit of flex, but probably more singificant is that some plastic ranges are much harder these days then the traditional '70's bendies - IMEX and A Call To Arms being prime examples.
Italieri have not gone this far yet but their plastic is still firmer than it used to be.

As long as the figures are treated with sensible respect (not total reverence) rather than brutality and if they are group based - so you are not repeatedly handling individuals - I just don't find myself thinking about repainting.
Of course if you drop a metal figure you will end up with bayonets at right angles or snapped off when you correct it, whereas there is a good chance the plastic will bounce safely... best advice is try not to stand on them!
Try the varnish method. Any gloss or satin highlights to the finish can be applied after the two matt coats.
GJ

[bk]

Thanks ever so much GJ! Am about to paint a few random cavalry figures including French Dragoons, Russian Cossacks and Kuirassiers, Saxon Garde du Corps, British and French Light cavalry etc etc etc...........so will be testing out your tips afterwhich i'll get back to you to let you know. In meanwhile check out one or two new angles of my French Carabiniers.[img]
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[Silver Whistle]

Top paint job and I think the way you have done your bases are going to become your trademark.

Any chance of letting us now how you texture and paint your bases please?

[Giles]

Very nice indeed.

[paulalba]

These are excellent BK, beautifully painted,

Have been very tempted back to the 1/72 scale plastics with all the releases of excellent naps figures over the past few years.

If the really hard plastic was used throughout a few ranges I'd be sold.

Cheers
Paul P
Scotland