Completed Critique Grenadier Drummer 1870

[ChaosCossack]

Hey all

Finally finished off this one.
The fig is a 75mm resin piece from Ellies Miniatures. Painted in Vallejo acrylics, Dark Star metallic and Citadel ink washes. The base is a home cut piece of Locust from last year's ice storm tree fall. The fig was a joy to paint... very nicely sculpted and easy to assemble.

Our man is a drummer of the Grenadiers of the Imperial Guard in a pose that the Guard became very familiar with... the spent most of the Sedan campaign marching and counter marching by Bazaine was always nervous of committing them to the fight. They spent battles like Gravelotte and Mars-la-Tour sitting by within earshot (sometimes even within sight) of the fight without being given the order to join. Their contribution may have turned the tides of these lost battles but Bazaine was more concerned with securing his retreat long before the battle went against him. Truly a waste.

I was honoured to receive a Silver Medal for this figure at the IPMS show in Hamilton, Ontario in March.

Thanx for looking in... Comments and critiques are most welcome.

Colin

 

[Nap]

Colin,

That look great Really nice work on the lace ..a great release and subject.

Congratulations on your well deserved award

Thanks for sharing


Nap

 

[megroot]

very nice work.

Marc

 

[zane666]

nice one You seem to be on a roll mate.

cheers Zane

 

[billyturnip]

This is great Colin I really like this fig. and how you've painted it. Congratulations on your silver, like Nap said, very well deserved.

One thing though and this is a genuine query not a criticism, do you have a reference for the white plume? I've only seen the Grenadiers with red or red and white for the musicians.

 

[Viking Bob]

Thats a lovely figure and superb painting. Well deserved with the Silver you gained for him.
Well done.
Regards
Bob

 

[pgarri27]

Nicely done.

 

[ellie]

Very Nice indeed well done great job indeed and well done on the award. looking forward to seeing the next work.

Cheers

Ian

www.elliesminiatures.com

 

[Aveleira]

Really nice work Colin!! I like it in every aspect
Congrats for the medal.

Regards
Pedro

 

[swralph]

Great work on this figure from top to bottom.
Ralph.

 

[waterloo1815]

GREAT JOB COLIN!! Congrats on the silver medal!! The lace on the collar & cuffs is what keeps me from buying this kit - scale is too small or maybe I should take a walk on the wild side and give it a try!! If you don't mind me asking - where did you get the flowers & bushes - they really set the figure off nicely!! Are you ready for the Stanley Cup to start?? Go Habs!! Dave

 

[ellie]

Hi Dave just a little bit of info on the kit for you. The Collar & Cuffs are in relief just to make it a bit easier to paint well in theory. we did the same on the trumpeter. hope this helps.

Cheers

ian

Ellie's Miniatures

 

[OldTaff]

Well done, Colin, a lovely job, well rewarded. Must try and get mine done! ..........Eventually

Cheers, Alan

 

[Colin_Fraser]

That finisged up really nicely Colin. The basing you did for him is great. Thanks for the background too. I know squat about the FP War. Gotta do something about that. Sorry I missed Hamilton. I will have to troll around goigle and see if i can scare up some pictures of the show.

Colin

 

[John Bowery]

Nicely done and good lace. Congratulations on your medal.
Cheers
John

 

[ChaosCossack]

Thanx everyone for looking in and your kind support.

To address a couple of issues raised...
First, Roger, the sculpt is based off a "cigarette card" so I tried to stay as close to that as I could. In googling about for other images, I seemed to find the musicians in the bonnet de police more often than not. In one other image with Grenadiers in bearskins, they wore no plume at all. The other mistake I may have made is making the top patch red with a white grenade while having just seen the boxart in progress, he has the colours reversed. I went with the 1st Empire scheme. Oops!

The groundwork, most of my groundwork stuff comes from the model railroad section at our last local "brick and mortar" shop, Hornet Hobbies. Not sure the manufacturer, but if I can dig up some packaging, I'll post it here. The clumps of groundcover are from a German company... I picked them up at a show a couple of years ago. I'm not sure the company name but wish I did because I'm down to the last few clumps... one, maybe two bases worth Oh yeah Dave... NO HABS NO!!!!

The lacework... I too was a bit worried about it but as Ian pointed out, it is sculpted in relief and that certainly helped... it still took, for me a lot of touching up and even more swearing... and maybe a tear or two. I'm a modern man and I'm not afraid to cry.

Colin, I took pics at the Hamilton show. They aren't great, I always find it hard to take pics at the warplane museum, maybe because it's so huge and there's so much going on in the background with the stalls, people and planes. If I get a few minutes, I'll try to crop and clean them and post them up in the Show section. I'll give you a heads up when I do.

Thanx again everyone. I really enjoyed working on this piece... a must have for enthusiasts of both Franco-Prussian and Napoleonic subjects.

Colin

 

[Wings5797]

Superb finish Colin.
Having watched you grind your way through this beauty I can vouch that the Silver Gong was very well deserved.
Good on you Mate well done.
Keith

 

[ChaosCossack]

Thanks Keith, I really appreciate the positive feedback from you... You've always been very supportive since I first joined PF.

Colin

 

[billyturnip]

No problem with that at all Colin, I painted this one years ago so was a bit curious.



Watch out for something similar on my bench.... oops now the cat's out of the bag.

 

[ChaosCossack]

Roger, now that the cat's out, let him run around... let us in on it.