Not Glossing Over

I’m getting rather fed up with the whole varnishing process because it never seems to go quite right. At the start of this project I was using Humbrol Satin-cote and it always dried to a satisfying semi-gloss finish, which was just what I wanted. Then I noticed that the satin was turning more and more glossy as I used it until in the end, it was pretty much drying as full gloss.

This was not what I wanted so I eventually tracked down an artist’s acrylic satin varnish, which was too thin to use on its own, but was perfect as a topcoat to the glossy stuff, restoring the semi-gloss effect. Sorted I thought.

Then over a couple of nights this week, having finished all the Jagers, I ran through the two-coat process but - Doh!!! Suddenly even this varnish decided to dry all glossy. As a last resort I have now introduced a third coat of Testors Dullcote over the whole lot which has taken the edge off the gloss but it’s still not exactly what I wanted.

Any ideas?

By the way, the figure is PN.24 Jager Officer, quick marching

Jager Update

As you can see, I’ve made some progress with the Prussian Jagers and another couple of painting sessions should see them finished. These are quite easy figures to paint so time permitting the full unit of 18 will be paraded here soon.

The bulk of the unit is made up of a mixture of three figures types:

PN.26 Jager, quick marching
PN.28 Jager, firing
PN.29 Jager, kneeling firing

I also have two officers and a bugler to make up the numbers. Once this unit is finished I will finally have two equal sized armies to square up to each other on the wargame table and hopefully there will be another battle or two in the offing.

French Line Artillery

Some of you may have noticed a distinct lack of posts over here recently. This is chiefly because what hobby time I have is being taken up with the ACW campaigning season over at Brother Against Brother.

However, for those who are missing their Hinton Hunt fix I did just snap this picture of the finished French Line Artillery gun and crew I completed earlier this year but forgot to post. The figures are (from left to right):

FN/33 Gunner (ramming home)
FN/32 Gunner (holding cannonball)
A/3 French Field Gun
FN/31 Gunner (firing the gun)
FN/34 Gunner (positioned for manning gun)

I promise to get back to painting Hinton Hunts just as soon as I have thrashed Johnny Reb.