WIP Chef d’escadron, Lauzan Hussars

[Cannonball]

This is another of the pieces on the bench at the moment. It’s the limited run by Alexandros Models in 75mm of a Chef d’escadron of the Lauzan Hussars which subsequently became the 5th Hussars. This is my first kit from Alexandros and the quality of casting and fit of parts is excellent. The detail is really impressive and crisp and the way the kit is engineered means that everything goes together with the minimum of fuss. It is a great piece of sculpting by Richard Galicek and a really colourful piece. Each kit gets a numbered certificate and a painting guide based on various artist references and pieces of uniform. When the kit was previewed on the site I knew I had to have a go at it although I was a little hesitant about tackling the amount of gold lace. On this occasion I’ve tried out a new approach using some of the colour combinations used by Ivo Preda in is Year in modelling thread and a variation on Danilo Cartacci’s method from his book on figure painting. I would heartily recommend this kit to anyone interested in Revolutionary/Napoleonic French cavalry.

Neal.

 

[misfit151]

Lot of detail there Neal.....nice start.... Mike

 

[Cannonball]

Lot of detail there Neal.....nice start.... Mike

Thanks Mike. It’s a lovely kit.

Neal

 

[Tecumsea]

How did I miss this? just ordered one from Historex-hope I can make as good a job of it as you have Neal. I was put off Alexandros stuff a while back having bought the 4 musketeers and sold them on due to poor casting and fit of parts. Since then I have only bought the Napoleonic Busts. This is a cracker!

Keith

 

[Gooner Mike]

Great painting well done

 

[Cannonball]

How did I miss this? just ordered one from Historex-hope I can make as good a job of it as you have Neal. I was put off Alexandros stuff a while back having bought the 4 musketeers and sold them on due to poor casting and fit of parts. Since then I have only bought the Napoleonic Busts. This is a cracker!

Keith

Thanks for the comments Keith, really appreciated. Still got some bits (plume, boots, sword) to finish off and some touching up here and there before it’s finished. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed when yours arrives. I think that someone had experienced some issues recently with one of their busts but this kit has been great. A little bit of clean up re some seam/mould lines but nothing excessive. The kit goes together really well.

Neal

 

[Cannonball]

Great painting well done

Many thanks Mike.

Neal

 

[Nap]

Neal

Now that's real classy artwork , the gold work looks great , love the cat and the basework , very nice weathering

A credit to you and Alexandros for releasing

Once you've finished it why not enter FOTM as well as voting in previous month

Thanks for sharing

Happy benchtime

Stay safe

Nap

Can you show the cover of that book please ?

 

[Cannonball]

Neal

Now that's real classy artwork , the gold work looks great , love the cat and the basework , very nice weathering

A credit to you and Alexandros for releasing

Once you've finished it why not enter FOTM as well as voting in previous month

Thanks for sharing

Happy benchtime

Stay safe

Nap

Can you show the cover of that book please ?

Many thanks Nap. I’m pleased with the way the gold lace turned out particularly using a different method.

Neal

 

[Cannonball]

How did I miss this? just ordered one from Historex-hope I can make as good a job of it as you have Neal. I was put off Alexandros stuff a while back having bought the 4 musketeers and sold them on due to poor casting and fit of parts. Since then I have only bought the Napoleonic Busts. This is a cracker!

Keith

Hi Keith, I forgot to mention, probably the worst of the mould lines are on the balustrades. Just need to be careful paring it back so as not to lose any of the fine detail on the grapes. It looked a bit daunting/fiddly but it didn’t turn out too bad with a little care.

Neal

 

[Cannonball]

Neal

Now that's real classy artwork , the gold work looks great , love the cat and the basework , very nice weathering

A credit to you and Alexandros for releasing

Once you've finished it why not enter FOTM as well as voting in previous month

Thanks for sharing

Happy benchtime

Stay safe

Nap

Can you show the cover of that book please ?

Sorry Nap, just noticed the last bit re the book- it’s actually the reference sheet for painting that comes in the kit. Each picture is numbered and on the reverse is the source listed relevant to each picture. Nice touch.

Neal

 

[housecarl]

Lovely work Neal.

 

[Cannonball]

Lovely work Neal.

Thanks Carl, really appreciated.

Neal

 

[MattMcK.]

That’s a gem, and I love the kitty ! You mention your technique for gold lace, can you share any details on your process? Well done!

 

[Cannonball]

That’s a gem, and I love the kitty ! You mention your technique for gold lace, can you share any details on your process? Well done!

Hi Matt, thanks for the comments, really appreciated. For this figure I used a base coat mix of burnt umber/mars yellow/ burnt sienna as per the first stage of Ivo’s three stage method he shows on his thread. I let this dry thoroughly then used a mix of Renaissance Gold and Burnt Umber over this-Danilo Cartacci describes a method using gold acrylic but I paint in oils so the gold is a darker old gold if you will. I did this to try and add that tiny bit of sparkle to the lace without it being overly shiny just using a straight gold metallic. Cartacci then shows a mix of Burnt Umber/Gold Ochre/Naples Yellow/Titanium White which he uses for shade through to highlight. I shaded with pure Burnt Umber well diluted then highlighted with a mix of the Gold Ochre/Naples Yellow/Titanium White. I previously used to undercoat area of lace in a brown acrylic before using oils but on this occasion I just painted straight onto either the white basecoat or in the case of the Dolan over the blue uniform colour. As I say it’s a bit of a hybrid of the two methods but it seems to have worked. Hope this helps.

Neal

 

[clrsgt]

Excellent work Neal. Definitely a little gem. Just put an order for this one.

 

[Cannonball]

Excellent work Neal. Definitely a little gem. Just put an order for this one.

Many thanks clrsgt. Hopefully you’ll have as much fun with it. Look forward to seeing your version.

Neal.

 

[Ben-nl]

nice work...i have one too, it is a nice kit.

 

[KenBoyle]

Beautiful Work!

Cheers,
Ken

 

[Cannonball]

nice work...i have one too, it is a nice kit.

Many thanks Ben.

Neal