Rob's hussars *Finished*

[rob_van_riel]

Now, where was I again...

The trooper has been assembled, save for his arms and shako. I had to come up with something to do for his left arm, which (for obvious reasons) is posed to hold the reins of his horse. This chap is on foot, and wherever his horse is, it's not here. I separated the thumb from the fist, bent it upwards a bit, and drilled a hole (big one, 0.65 mm...) at the base of the thumb. Then, with the shaft of the drill still in the hole, I bent the forward part of the thumb down again to make contact with the fist. The hole will be filled with the stem of a tobacco pipe from the Historex odds and ends box.
The shako didn't fit, so I put a blob of milliput into the bottom, and squashed it into shape with the head. Not perfect, but I think it will do. Some fiddling with the crossbelts was also needed.

The trumpeter is progressing very similarly, except that here the left hand was merely opened a bit to be able to run the reins through it. I then added a splash of colour to the figures. Should give you some idea of where this is going.



The horse is also ready for painting, but I'll have to spend some time pondering how to do the grey coat before I dig in.

[rob_van_riel]

Couldn't resist doing a little mock-up while working on the base...

[AndrewR]

Tricky thing, that armless horse riding

[rob_van_riel]

Tricky thing, that armless horse riding

I don't know, really. There's several horse cultures that train to ride without using your arms (to literally keep your hands free). No idea if hussars were trained to that sort of level. Being flashy bastards, I guess they would really have liked that sort of trick riding. It might be just the natural way of riding for them.

[AndrewR]

Tricky thing, that armless horse riding

I don't know, really. There's several horse cultures that train to ride without using your arms (to literally keep your hands free). No idea if hussars were trained to that sort of level. Being flashy bastards, I guess they would really have liked that sort of trick riding. It might be just the natural way of riding for them.

Try getting on the horse without arms

[fredk]

These are coming on nicely

... No idea if hussars were trained to that sort of level. Being flashy bastards, I guess they would really have liked that sort of trick riding. It might be just the natural way of riding for them.

Not only Hussars, but Dragoons and Lancers were all trained to fight without using hands on reins. Horses were trained to respond to the pressure from the riders knees. They were also trained to bite and slash with their fore hooves.

[rob_van_riel]

Try getting on the horse without arms

Sounds tricky, but then, I'm hardly a cossack, and even getting on a horse with a complete selection of limbs sounds tricky to me

[AndrewR]

Try getting on the horse without arms

Sounds tricky, but then, I'm hardly a cossack, and even getting on a horse with a complete selection of limbs sounds tricky to me

Totally agree with you.

[rob_van_riel]

Lots of work on skinny bits today; base coat for the horse, and hands and faces for the hussars. The guy on foot has a completely asymmetrical face. The right side looks positively skeletal, while the left side is more normal. I decided this must have been due to some violent misunderstanding in the past, and made the right cheek (or what was left of it) into what can hopefully pass as a mess on red scar tissue. The mounted man ended up with rather wierd eyes; the right eye sits lower on the face than the left. I'm certain I put the eyes just where the plastic had them though.

Pictures after I've added hair and mustaches....

[rob_van_riel]

A bit of a set back in the equine department.
The horse had been given a base coat of dark grey, and today I started putting increasingly lighter layers of artist's oils on. Didn't work. Try as I might, I can't get rid of the brushstrokes. The blending effects on the shades of grey work well, but the contrast with the base colour is too great for my meagre skills.



I'm going to have to give up on this particular attempt for now, but I'm confident I can still fudge a decent result out of it. I'll let the paint dry properly, then revert to the old airbrush and enamels to smooth over the coat.

[rob_van_riel]

Her Furryness has installed herself between me and the bench, and on my chair. I'm a wimp, so she'll get away with it for at least some time. Some delays likely..



On the bright side, the horse doesn't look so bad from over here

[MarkyM607]

Can't see any brush strokes in that last pic!! . Could you sand it with extremely fine sandpaper or the like?.

[rob_van_riel]

Could you sand it with extremely fine sandpaper or the like?.

Possibly, but given the extremely thin coats of paint, there's a risk I'll end up with bare plastic entirely too easily. In any case, experimental recovery on a failed experiment is not my idea of solid tactics (well, not unless the entire build was considered experimental; I might have tried this had I run into trouble with Napoleon here). This build, however, is supposed to end in some presentable result, so I'll use tried and tested techniques for recovery.

[rob_van_riel]

Pictures after I've added hair and mustaches....

As promised, a pair of mugshots.



While doing the hair, I realised MasterBox missed some characteristic details there: no tails, and no braids. Those were de rigeur for any self respecting hussar! Sadly, these gents will have to do without, as we're quite past the point where I'm willing to consider some re-sculpting on these chaps.

[rob_van_riel]

I'll let the paint dry properly, then revert to the old airbrush and enamels to smooth over the coat.

I decided I needed to see where this was going rather sooner than the oils might like, so I oversprayed today. We'll see if this comes back to haunt me later, but for the moment, I think the fudge is close enough.



I depending on how this looks tomorrow, I might hit it again with a mist of white over the top, to create some more colour variation in the coat.

Also, more of those infernal buttonholes