Completed CGS 120mm Cuirassier with 69th Regiment Color

[Vincent Z]

Hi Friends,

I recently picked up this 120mm kit from CGS sculpted by Carl Reid, and decide to document my progress here. I started before I joined this great community so I'll condense first 2 weeks in the first post.

Preface
This is my first (serious) figure, I did try my hand on a few other ones before this so I don't come into it completely cold and butcher this absolutely stunning figure. and I aim to build a diorama around this figure depicting the charge of Cuirassier at battle of Quatre Bras, 2 days before Waterloo.



Main WIP Report:
First week and a half was mostly spent on assembling the kit. I decided to paint arms and head separately because the pose of the arm will make painting the torso very very difficult.

I also anticipate quite a lot of screw-ups painting the face and the flag, and I don't want to have to strip the entire figure multiple times to make it right.

Pic1: Assembled and Primed.


To make sure arms and head fit perfectly after painting, I test fit them and used copper rod (cut from copper wire) and drilled holes to make a rough guide. Also filled in all the gaps beforehand.

Pic2: Test fitting + Copper wire

Note the Lump on the saddle and the end of the right arm. I covered the joints where different parts will be glued on before priming so that I'm not gluing together paint but the actual model.

I'm not sure that makes much of a difference, but just did it as a precaution.

Pic3: Clearer picture of the right arm and the horse

I started painting after everything was put together and primed, I started to paint. I decided to airbrush paint base color with Acrylic and then paint details with oil color. Metals (such as the cuirass) was painted with GSW chrome metal, which gave it a mirror-like look which I quite like.

This is inspired by Milan Dufek's bust painting videos, you can find him on Youtube and Patreon.

Pic4: half-coated body and horse

The advantage of Oil is that it is very good at building gradual transitions, so they are fantastic for faces, horses, and wrinkled fabric. The downside is that it dries very, very slow compared to acrylic (5-10 sec. vs. 24-48 hrs, longer if you use Linseed oil to thin the paint like me), although I do like the convenience of being able to just wipe off any mistakes and accidents

Due to this property, in places where there aren't much gradual transition of lighting and color such as the Saddle-bag and the trim of the saddle, I just kept the acrylic and didn't bother adding oil color on top.


Pic5: Horse and Saddle mostly finished.

Showing off a very mirror-y armor and my free-handed "Flaming Grenade" symbol on the cartridge pouch and the coat. Although I do feel like what I drew look more like 5 pineapples.


The pants (trousers) are airbrush painted with light color from the top and darker color from the bottom. Which already created a nice transition. I'm debating whether to leave it as-is or add a oil color layer.

Pic 6 & 7: Half finished torso.

I spent the weekend painting the face, almost 10 hours just on this little thing. I think oil color is absolutely amazing for painting the face. I know it doesn't look that great, but remember this is my first one and you should have seen the faces I test-painted with acrylic (which I wouldn't show you and would do everything in my power to have them remain hidden forever).

There are a few spots that are not as clean, and I'll try to fix them later (which is another advantage of oil painting - it's easier to fix things)

Pic8: The face.

Edit note: changed the pictures to thumbnails. Please click the thumbnails for full pics.

 

[NigelR]

Considering this is your first figure, you are doing really well. The horse looks fantastic, and the face is looking pretty good as well, nice flesh tones. Great start!

I have the "Duel" paining of the Scots Grey and Cuirassier to do so I will be interested to see how this comes together....

 

[Vincent Z]

Considering this is your first figure, you are doing really well. The horse looks fantastic, and the face is looking pretty good as well, nice flesh tones. Great start!

I have the "Duel" paining of the Scots Grey and Cuirassier to do so I will be interested to see how this comes together....

Thank you for the kind word!

Actually I’ve been looking for the duel for a while now. It popped up on eBay last week and I was sniped last second on the auction…

Now every time I think about that set I cry inside a little bit

That being said, I would love to see your wip on that set and the final result!

 

[MalcC]

Very impressive start.

Malc

 

[Nap]

Hi Vincent

Great to see what your working on , a fine subject and a lot to get prepped and paint but your doing a good job so far

The horse is looking good and the riders coming along well

Good pics and explanations on the V Bench

Look forward to seeing more

Following with interest

Happy benchtime

Nap

 

[Briggsy]

Vincent, hi and wow I wish my first figure was that good. Love the horse but I would suggest on the sadle bag to do a top coat of oils just to keep the finish consistent with everything else. The cuirasse looks great, never tried the chrome paint before. Also the face is very nice, revisit sections like that after a few days and making adjustments is easier with a fresh view of it. Going to watch with interest, especially the horse as painting these really kind of scares me!

Cheers Simon

 

[Vincent Z]

Vincent, hi and wow I wish my first figure was that good. Love the horse but I would suggest on the sadle bag to do a top coat of oils just to keep the finish consistent with everything else. The cuirasse looks great, never tried the chrome paint before. Also the face is very nice, revisit sections like that after a few days and making adjustments is easier with a fresh view of it. Going to watch with interest, especially the horse as painting these really kind of scares me!

Cheers Simon

Thank you for the kind word Simon!

I must confess this is not my first artistic endeavor so I might have a leg up compared to most other people who just started.

I've been revisiting the face quite a lot yesterday, I feel like at this point its compulsive: I sit down -> I see the head -> pick it up to take a look -> find some spot I want to work on... I might need to lock it away so that I can actually make progress on other parts lol.

I think you have a point on having a layer of oil for consistent finish, I think I'm now leaning towards having everything painted with an oil top coat. Although I'm still very nervous when overlaying parts that already looks OK... I'm very very afraid I'll screw it up more than I improve it.

 

[Briggsy]

Thank you for the kind word Simon!

I must confess this is not my first artistic endeavor so I might have a leg up compared to most other people who just started.

I've been revisiting the face quite a lot yesterday, I feel like at this point its compulsive: I sit down -> I see the head -> pick it up to take a look -> find some spot I want to work on... I might need to lock it away so that I can actually make progress on other parts lol.

I think you have a point on having a layer of oil for consistent finish, I think I'm now leaning towards having everything painted with an oil top coat. Although I'm still very nervous when overlaying parts that already looks OK... I'm very very afraid I'll screw it up more than I improve it.

Vincent, the great thing about oils is that they are translucent, so apply well thinned paint as you can always add to it. Yes it's a slow process with oils, with practice and a very gentle brush stroke you can add sooner but wouldn't recommend it until you are comfortable with oils. But go for it in slow increments, there is a difference in the finish of oils and acrylic.

Cheers Simon

 

[Vincent Z]

Hi Vincent

Great to see what your working on , a fine subject and a lot to get prepped and paint but your doing a good job so far

The horse is looking good and the riders coming along well

Good pics and explanations on the V Bench

Look forward to seeing more

Following with interest

Happy benchtime

Nap

Thank you for the encouragement Nap!

 

[Vincent Z]

Very impressive start.

Malc

Thank you Malc!

I'm also following your work on the Legionary bust with interest.

 

[Waterlooman]

Excellent work - going to be a stunner whan finished - yes I am biased lol.

W.

 

[Vincent Z]

Some midweek small update.

I finished the head and married it to the body. Also finished the pants and the boots. I try to make the boots look wore and dirty... don't know if I have overdone it.


I also started on the arms. Starting with the sword. Very shiny.


Also redid the backplate of the cuirass which was not as shiny before. Now look at them shine.

The chrome metal paint from GSW is definitely quite good, but also quite hard to use and finicky... I'm glad I got it on a second try.


Please click the thumbnails for bigger pictures.

 

[Nap]

Hi Vincent

Nice updates , the head looks good , the cuirass is indeed very shiny ...ideal for parade perhaps , possibly thinking of the subject i.e.: on battlefield I would think about putting a wash over

Your certainly getting on very well with a busy piece

Looking forward to seeing more

Happy benchtime

Nap

 

[NigelR]

Good progress here, this is coming on nicely. You should be proud of this for your first serious figure model.

Also finished the pants and the boots. I try to make the boots look wore and dirty... don't know if I have overdone it.

Definitely not IMO, if anything you could push the weathering a little more. The weather at Quatre Bras was hot, dry and dusty and like Nap says, at the moment the cuirassier looks like he is on the parade ground.

Your approach is quite interesting here. I've never seen a figure with such bright metalwork, but if you look at the real artefacts, that's the way they are. There is a definite "style" in figure painting to make metalwork (like cuirasses and helmets) look much "duller" than it is in reality. Whether that's how it actually looked on campaign is hard to tell. Obviously it would get dirty, but how dirty is another question...

So bottom line, you do what you feel suits your figure

 

[MalcC]

This is progressing very well.

Malc

 

[Briggsy]

Love it mate, I agree with Nigel the wear and tear can be taken further, I say that and tend to do all mine parade ground clean. As for the cuirasse, a matter of taste, they were shiny but like colour and texture in anything miniature it needs to be brought down a bit to be in scale, but everybody's 'bit' will be different. It's about what pleases you I reckon.

Cheers Simon

 

[Vincent Z]

Good progress here, this is coming on nicely. You should be proud of this for your first serious figure model.


Definitely not IMO, if anything you could push the weathering a little more. The weather at Quatre Bras was hot, dry and dusty and like Nap says, at the moment the cuirassier looks like he is on the parade ground.

Your approach is quite interesting here. I've never seen a figure with such bright metalwork, but if you look at the real artefacts, that's the way they are. There is a definite "style" in figure painting to make metalwork (like cuirasses and helmets) look much "duller" than it is in reality. Whether that's how it actually looked on campaign is hard to tell. Obviously it would get dirty, but how dirty is another question...

So bottom line, you do what you feel suits your figure

Thanks for the encouragement and advice Nigel!

I do feel like I should add more wear and tear on the pants next. I actually do want to add some blood stain, but don't have much idea of how to do that. I tried to use airbrush to blow air on a brush with red paint, but that ended up more like a mist.

Do you have any good idea how to do blood stains?

As for the armor I actually quite like it shiny so I'll keep it this way. And the alcohol based paint actually works quite bad with acrylic and oil so I really don't want to mess with it ("if it's not broke, don't fix it" is basically my attitude now).

 

[Vincent Z]

Love it mate, I agree with Nigel the wear and tear can be taken further, I say that and tend to do all mine parade ground clean. As for the cuirasse, a matter of taste, they were shiny but like colour and texture in anything miniature it needs to be brought down a bit to be in scale, but everybody's 'bit' will be different. It's about what pleases you I reckon.

Cheers Simon

Thank you Simon!

Since you also mention the wear and tear, I'll pose the same question to you: What are some good ways to do bloodstain?

I reckon if this cuirassier rode through an entire enemy regiment back and forth a few times and probably slashed some enemies himself, he'd probably has a lot of blood on him... but I couldn't find a good way to do bloodstain...

And also, I'm definitely doing parade ground clean for the good looking and hard to paint part (the colour, the cuirass, face, helmet, etc.), I painted it with care and I want everybody to see it!! But for the more bland part (boots, pants, sheepskin on saddle, etc.) I don't mind adding some dirt, blood and general wear and tear to just tie-in the story and make it more interesting.

 

[Briggsy]

Vincent, I get where you are coming from with the cuirasse it's a stand out point on the figure so why not let it stand out. As for the blood splatter given the size of the figure one method I used for mud splatter on vehicles is to have some fairly fluid paint straight from the bottle, dip the end of a tooth brush bristles into the paint, the with any old tool that is handy, pull it across the bristles so the paint flicks off. If a tooth brush is too big, which it probably will be use a stiff bristled (hogs hair is good) brush instead, nice short stiff bristles. I would urge you to practice first though as it can be a very hit and miss method. I guess the main area to get covered in blood splatter would be the sword arm.

If you want blood on the sword streaking off as he weilds it then mix some red paint into PVA or better yet epoxy two part glue glue, wait for it to stiffen, then using a tooth puck or similar dab it onto the sword and pull it back so you have a streak of blood flying off the blade. I would as say with both methods practice and remember in this case less is definitely more, the last thing you want is a red mess obscuring your fine painting.

Hope that helps.

Cheers Simon

 

[NigelR]

Thanks for the encouragement and advice Nigel!
Do you have any good idea how to do blood stains?

What Simon said, although I would definitely use a paintbrush rather than a toothbrush so that you have more control over the quantity and direction of the splatters. I have just been experimenting with this method for mud splatters and you need to experiment with different paint consistency to get the effect just right.

I'll also echo want Simon said - IMO you should approach this effect with care. I see a lot of figures at shows that just look like they have been splashed with red paint in attempting to pull this off. Which of course is what you are doing, but you don't want the end effect to look like that's what you did!

Thanks for the encouragement and advice Nigel!
As for the armor I actually quite like it shiny so I'll keep it this way. And the alcohol based paint actually works quite bad with acrylic and oil so I really don't want to mess with it ("if it's not broke, don't fix it" is basically my attitude now).

I don't disagree, especially in larger scales like this. Figure painting has become highly stylized and I personally like to get a balance between reality and style.