This figure has taken me ages! In that time I could have painted a battalion of infantry (or two), but like a lot of ideas that enter my crowded little cranium, I just needed to do it!
For a list of ingredients take one rather famous painting of an Officer of the
Chasseurs a
Cheval of the Imperial Guard-which has been copied time and again by modellers (so I was not even being original!), a Newline Designs trooper of the same Regiment, a suitable looking Newline horse, "
Greenstuff" and an encyclopedia of swear words (oh-and a family pack of plasters*!) and you can begin.
The first job was to remove the carbine from the trooper and then cut off his head, right arm and then saw him through the middle (apply plaster* to thumb at this stage!). I then shaved off the arms from his jacket, the bag from his busby and bent the sword into a more convincing curve. It was at this stage that I had run out of regular swear words and resorted to the double-barreled variety!
The horse was in a charging pose which had the left and right legs extended in the opposite order to the ones I needed to achieve. The left leg bent backwards quite successfully, but the right front leg snapped off. Have you ever tried to glue back a leg to a Newline horse? If so, we can
swop questions as to the horses parentage "off blog". The only solution was a bit of a bodge by securing the offending (half) limb to the top half of the right leg and the more secure left with Super Glue. I then proceeded to shave off the mane and tail (more plasters*!).
Looking at the mess I had created a lesser man (i.e. someone with more imagination than I), would have stopped and gone back to those Prussians he started weeks ago. However I persevered and reattached the head and upper half of the torso after bending the legs to match the painting. "
Greenstuff" was used to create a new mane and tail, a new saddle cloth (the leopards head you see is the third version). Glue the rider to the horse, recreate two jacket arms, a left hand and "flowing" busby bag and allow to dry. Saving the best till last-reattach the right arm-this was as much fun as the right horse leg saga, but could not be attached to anything else. This took time!
Et Voila-I am now one paint job away from deciding if it was worth the effort!
* For our cousins "across the pond" I think plasters are called "Band Aids " (?)-sticky tapes from the First Aid box to stem bleeding from vicious little scalpel cuts.
Here are the last of the current batch of Napoleonic personality figures, Messrs. Blucher and Ney. I actually have Blucher from 2 other manufacturers sitting in the lead pile but looking ahead I should be posting a few Prussian battalions, French artillery as well as French Imperial Guard cavalry (Lancers, Chasseurs and Dragoons) in the coming months.
