Rob's hussars *Finished*

[rob_van_riel]

I'll be taking a shot at this chap (from behind a sturdy wall, of course, hussars have a tradition of ferocity)



He'll end up with different colours; the box shows those of the 8th hussars. A trooper of the 10th would be possible, but as hussars go, their uniform was rather plain, which is clearly wrong. No point in joining the hussars if you don't get to wear a really flashy uniform. To compensate, I'll be turning him into a trumpeter, with much more colour to his kit. I'll have to steal the trumpet from some unsuspecting Historex kit, of which I have several.



Other than the change to a trumpeter, this will be strictly OOB, not in the least because the Masterbox kits are at a clearly smaller scale than the rest of the 54mm world (correct, since they're advertised as 1/32).

[fredk]

This will be colourful
That horse is wrong too tho. The French never docked their horses tails. But the English did.

[rob_van_riel]

That horse is wrong too tho. The French never docked their horses tails. But the English did.

The tail looks shorter on the box than on the sprue, although even there it isn't particularly impressive. I'm not particularly worried about that detail though, there were several times when the French would press any horse at all into service. Who knows what the background of his horse might have been?

[Molly-new]

I intend to tackle a figure conversion in an up coming GB so will be watching this one with interest.

[rob_van_riel]

Time to send out a sprue shot. Only one sprue in the box, plus lots of air



Some details will be added from the spares bin, like the regimental numbers on the saddleroll.

[rob_van_riel]

I've started assembly of the larger bits. This is going to be such fun..
There's bits of flash and heavy mouldlines everywhere, sometimes obscuring hard to repair detail. Fit isn't too glorious, which means further detail wrecking work. MasterBox have chosen to mould many of the straps and belts directly onto the bodies of man and beast, further complicating matters. Historex horses have been derided for being less than appropriately barrel-chested, but this one is just as bad, and has very thin legs to boost.

Below is the state of play at this time. Glue needs to set very thoroughly before continuing, so I'm calling it an early night.



The kit includes quite a lot of flexibility. There two different saddles, cloth shabraque for officers, and sheepskin for everyone else, choice of shako or kolbak for centre and elite companies respectively, pelisse worn or over the shoulder, choice of differently posed arms for both of these options. I'm looking into the possiblity of digging up a pair of appropriate legs from the spares box, and squeezing a second figure from all this.
I give Master Box full points for daring to take up Napoleonic subjects and for their general approach, but really, they have a thing or two to learn yet

[Clashcityrocker]

Some of those parts look like candidates for damage when removing them for the sprue.

Nigel

[rob_van_riel]

Some of those parts look like candidates for damage when removing them for the sprue.

Tricky, but a really sharp blade and a steady hand should be able to do the trick. If not, there's a well-stocked spares box

[rob_van_riel]

I just fillered up the gaps in the various bodies. The scary part will be sanding all this smooth later, while minimising loss of detail; not easy, since some of the seams cut right through some fiddly detail I'll almost certainly lose some of the moulded on straps on the horse, but then, these weren't so great to start with, and are easily replaced later.

I've done some digging, and found that the hussars' service dress included very simple pantaloons extending all the way down over the boots. With some fiddling, a pair of legs from an Airfix Coldstream Guard should do the job. First stage in that fiddling is fixing the rather silly leaning forward pose Airfix burdened the poor Guardsman with all those years ago. I cut roughly 60% through the ankles, shoved in the tips of some toothpicks as wedges, and dumped some thin CA into the gap to keep things together. Perhaps not for the squeemish, but it had to be done

[Molly-new]

A very clever, if painful looking, solution to a familiar problem. Good luck filling and sanding the seam between the riders legs, I am wincing just thinking about how to tackle that.

[rob_van_riel]

Good luck filling and sanding the seam between the riders legs, I am wincing just thinking about how to tackle that.

Fine filler, wet-and-dry sandpaper, and above all, no mercy

[rob_van_riel]

Did I mention the horse had some issues?



Not only is the poor beast rather too narrow, especially the legs and neck, it comes with a saddle that doesn't fit. At all. I'll have to practically rebuild the front half of that sheepskin to lie against the horse, rather than float in the air. Things certainly won't be getting dull with this project..

The rolled up cloak tied to the back of the saddle is OK, but it's end caps aren't. These are supposed to have an outer ring, with the regimental number inside it. MasterBox clearly didn't want to include numerals for all regiments, but at the same time didn't want to restrict the kit a specific regiment. So, they ignored the number, and replaced it with a rather exaggerated decorative rim. Nice save, but I'm not buying.
I drilled 4mm holes in a sheet of plastic, and marked the centre of the roll. I then used the old Mk1 eyeball to align the hole and the dot in the centre and glued the sheet onto the ends of the roll. Once the cement has cured, I'll just cut/file off the excess sheet, and hey presto, one pair of outer rings (or so the theory goes). The spares bin will then supply the numerals; Historex just loves these teeny weeny parts



I took the first step in converting the Coldstream Guard legs into hussar service dress.



I'll sand of the excess milliput around the ends of the legs later. I also padded the crotch a bit, effectively shortening the legs just a bit and extending the top part of the trousers. The dolman/pelisse is a very short coat, so more of the hip section of the trousers is visible than with the longer jackets the legs were meant for. It should look better this way.

[rob_van_riel]

I cut almost through the sheepskin on both sides, roughly along the line between the strap along the forward 'hump' and the strap that passes around the horse's belly. This allowed me to bend the sheepskin in a reasonable looking way, and then wedge and glue it in place. Once the glue has set, I'll fill up the cavity underneath with milliput, cut off the wedges, and fill the rather horrid gap on the outside with milliput, sculpted to match the sheepskin (once again, so goes the theory). I'll also make sure there's something dark underneath the side panels to give the impression they're dangling of something (I believe there were pistol holsters there..)

[Gregers]

Great work. I'm watching this closely as I have some horses to build and paint from a tamia Wehrmacht set.

All the best.

Greg

[rob_van_riel]

I'm watching this closely as I have some horses to build and paint from a tamia Wehrmacht set.

I suspect the Tamiya horses will at least be easier to build. As for painting, I must admit to some trepidation there myself. I've done plenty of horses in the past, but those would never pass muster now, being essentially monochrome. A horse's coat is anything but a single colour. The only horses I've done since returning to the hobby are the horse for my other hussar and this chap:

http://www.crazytinker.nl/kitlog/figure ... horse.html

They are dark by design, to give me more wiggleroom. They were both done by airbrushing the entire horse with some mid brown (I think Humbrol Leather), and then spraying on very thin mists of dark brown and black (layering with the airbrush, essentially). The darker coats were aimed to avoid the inside of the legs and belly, and anything but the top respectively (although overspray spread things around, as intended in this case).

I won't be able to hide behind a dark coat on this one, as I seen to recall trumpeters always rode greys. You might end up witnessing a demonstration of how not to paint one of those