Guard Chasseur a Cheval

Or however you call it! This figure is from the Italeri French Staff set, and would accompany the great Bonaparte himself, had duty not called him elsewhere. He's going to be a gift, that's what the base is for.

I had a lot of work with this figure. First of all, I almost completely run out of every sort of paint. The undercoat thus was a light brown, with an umber wash added. It had no effect on the other colors whatsoever.

The horse and weapon (besides the silver barrel and the white spot on the nose) had no block painting at all, only glazes and washes. The tail and mane were drybrushed then washed in black. The body is a mixture of burnt umber and dark red, with multiple washes and a darker (burnt umber + black) glaze on the head, rear and legs. If you take this much care of the horse, it's not a chore at all actually. But I don't want to waste three hours on every figure I paint!

The clothing was blocked, highlighted and washed with the appropriate colour: dark green for the vest and horse furniture, red (with added dark red paint) for the pelisse, sepia for the trousers (the main colour was the last two drops of my VGC Bonewhite) and black for the headwear and boots. Highlighted some spots, added the gold then highlighted and black washed the parts where the gold didn't have enough contrast to shine through.

The base is a single piece of stone that I found quite good looking, varnished then glued the figure on and added static grass to cover the remnants of the plastic sprue.

I had great fun doing this figure and I hope his new owner will like him as much as I did.