A second post for Janaury 12th but no points bomb. I have finished another 8 men for my 28mm SYW Highlanders. Once again these are from from Perry, taken from the AWI line.
It was a bit of a fight getting these to the finish line. I had them based and terrain last night, when I realized that I had painted the lapels green instead of leaving them scarlet! So hasty repaint while getting base paint all over my left hand. Then the extreme cold, a flood in my university office and an emergency deep freezer defrost. But here they are. Phew!
I have to say that I have really been enjoying working on these figures, which is a good thing as I have a total of 30 to finish and I'm less than half way there. The poses are wonderful and the details crisp which really helps pick out lapels and lace work. Unlike some I have never had much problem with flash on Perry figures and these were no exception. I could be that I don't notice, that I pick less popular molds or just that I am use to flash clean up having grown up painting Airfix soft plastics and early 1980s era historicals.
Uniform wise of course the big item is the kilt, in this case the full meal deal belted plaid. The tartan for the 87th (Keith's) Highlanders was "Government or Black Watch), which is one of the easier ones to paint. At the time this was likely not strictly regimented (that's a Victorian intervention) and my guess is that various woollen mills were give an order based on an approximate description.
I used a dark blue base coat (mix of 50:50 Paynes Grey and Ultramarine Blue) with a cross hatched green pattern on top. With the pleats and fold in the back, the green pattern become more "impression of cross hatching". Over all the aim is to get a pattern that is a combination of dark blue and green in approximately the right tartan. Pictures of reenactors (have I mentioned dhow much I love Pinterest) show that from any distance, the colours bleed into each other and the actual tartan becomes indistinct. Add movement to the mix and you want a blue/green blur.
To provide some justification, I present as Exhibit A my go to source picture on Kilts.
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| Moi circa 1975 aged +/-13 |
By my count that is 8 figures @ 5 points each =40 points. Woohoo, yeah me!
Kilts are definitely not one of my favorite items to tackle. In fact, I have a battalion of Crimean War Highlanders that have been sitting in a box awaiting a turn with the brush for more than 15 years! Excellent kilt reference by the way and your results are terrific. Forty hard-earned points for you!
ReplyDeleteThanks Jonathon! I'd like to see your scots get finished.
DeleteGood job! It has often annoyed me that my BW kilt just looks an indetetminate Dark from 10 feet away meaning that any attempt to replicate the crisscrossing blue, green, black lines ends up either unrealistic or unnoticable. No wonder Britains stuck to dark green with a simple cross hatch, for flashy regiments like the Gordon's.
ReplyDeleteThanks Ross. I've put in more detail on flashier tartans like the Royal Stuart but otherwise keep it basic.
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