This is the battle-hardened grenadier company of the 45th regiment of the line. Who knows what adventures they have had on Spanish plains, Russian steppes and Flanders fields? On the other hand they may have been nowhere much at all but they are at least guaranteed a tour of duty in my display cabinet.I’m actually pretty pleased with them even though they have taken an extraordinarily long time to complete. The figures are all vintage Hinton Hunt ones that I stripped, de-flashed and repainted. To recap they are:
1 x FN10 Grenadier Sergeant (marching)
5 x FN2 Grenadier (charging)
I am now ridiculously behind on my painting schedule for this year due to our house move (with all the accompanying DIY) and the fact that after a couple of relatively leisurely years the world of work seems to have crept up on me again. I do however have a secret weapon that I hope to deploy shortly in an effort to get this project back on track.
Lovely job Ian. Might I suggest just a little dark shading in the armpits and inside sleeves. The French blue was quite dark and I wonder if a little shading might not just enhance. I admire the way that you can paint white up to a black line and leave that black line to show delineate the straps. I'd find that impossible and lines put on afterwards nowadays end up too thick!
ReplyDeleteRoy
Hi Roy
ReplyDeleteI understand what you say about the shading and you are right they probably would look better but I am anxious to preserve the block-painted retro effect. The white straps are a bit of a pain using the black undercoat method and if you zoom in on the photo you can see they are rather wobbly - however they are fine from a distance!
Ian
Those old boys did shade. I remember seeing some beautifully shaded Austrian grenadiers that Marcus had. The painter had done a good job using grey to bring out the folds in the Austrian white uniform.
ReplyDeleteRoy
Hi
ReplyDeleteIf your painting is 'retro', the mine is pre-historic! Remember thatyour miniature are seen always from distance!
best regards
Rafa
I seem to have accidently deleted this post by Roy:
ReplyDeleteIf we look at Hintons by different painters the variation in style is very marked. Some undercoat white (the traditional method) and some black. Some paint quite heavily, some thinly and some wash with diluted paints. Some shade and some do not. Some paint all the details on the figfure, some less and some more than the actual sculpting.
I am currently painting some Wurttembergers. In the 1812 uniform they have plastron lapels with a piped edge in the facing colour and buttons around the edge all of this under the white webbing straps. All I can paint is the dark blue coat with the strapping over it. I have every admiration for anyone who can paint the piping and manage to do the buttons without having gold run everywhere. Similarly on the helmet, there are brass reinforcing straps that run from rim to crown.... I'll just leave them black!! At least I am painting the front plate on in brass. How often do I manage chin straps? Hardly ever as it all too easily grows to a totally unrealistic thickness.
Against this inability to paint all the detail I find shading does help improve the figure, especially when seen friom a distance.
How do others cope with white on white straps (Ayustrians or Saxons . I have tried grey edgeing and black lining, but neither is particularly satisfactory, though black lining was definitely the style in the 60's.
In real life, at the distances Rafa is talking about there is no visible distinction between white straps and a white coat, but on a figure it just looks wrong to paint all in white??
Roy
Hi Roy - My current style for painting the Hintons is a bit of a hybrid I guess. The block painting is because that's the way I painted them as a kid and it therfore has a certain nostalgic quality. However I do do some shading notably on white trousers with grey and also on the personality figures. I also use a wash on flesh which is a step up from Humbrol gloss mushroom that I used in the 70s! I never used to black line back then as I only had rubbish brushes and nobody to help me with painting techniques. I get quite a lot of satisfaction from the finished figures and the style just feels right for me. That said, I thought I might try a bit of shading on the tunics of my Old Guard when I get around to painting them. I agree that some of the detail on HH is very difficult to paint - I only do buttons on command figures for instance. I think one would have to be very skilled indeed to paint in all the detail and less is more as far as my skills go!
ReplyDeleteIan
Ian, Less is less as far as my eyesight goes these days!
ReplyDeleteRoy