Thursday 5 January 2012

Saxon Command

That's the brigade command finished for my 1812 Saxons. Took a while with the conversions but I'm happy how they turned out. I feel the General especially turned out well and I like the combination of uniforms from the big French hat with Saxon cockade to the Germanic style short boots and red breeches plus big shiny star.
   
Also happy how the horses came out. The Generals horse was painted bestial brown, AP'd then repainted with with the same colour and highlighted with a little cream added, then the socks and mane etc were lightened progressively.
   
I know the Army Painter method is seen as taking a shortcut but there was quite a bit of painting involved in these 2 afterwards. The horse furniture on both riders I used a GW crimson with Formula P3 Skorne red then AP'd then the skorne red was used on its own (I kept the Generals a shade darker). The Generals breeches were 1st painted skorne red then AP'd and highlighted by repainting skorne red and then adding a little Vallejo vermillion for the highlight.
  
I went with a warmer flesh tone then highlighted with a lighter flesh after the AP. The coat was GW regal blue, AP'd then repainted and highlighted with a mix of regal blue and mordian blue. I had to go lighter again afterwards as my shading was too subtle (my old WW2 tank painting habits catching me out again!).
  
 I'm pleased with how the epaulets etc turned out. Not sure if I would use wire again or pro-create for the aiguillette? I'll have to do more tests.
   
1 area I messed around too much was my grey highlights on the bicornes (daft I know). With my shakos I just use a dark grey for speed however with larger surface areas I think I will need to do 2 shades by adding black to the grey as my dark grey is a bit to light.
  
My wee dudes with their buddies. I'll have to get stuck into the next battalion when I am next off work. Can't fight those massed Russian with only 1 battalion. Very tempted to go straight to my artillery but I really want to have Saxon looking guns and the only way is to convert the French guns I have. I found pics on line of the Calpe Saxon guns un-assembled and pics from Dr Summerfield's Saxon artillery book but to do them right I would really need to see how everything fits together. 1 for the future maybe?

19 comments:

The Angry Lurker said...

Excellent painting as usual my friend....

Mr. Bigglesworth said...

Amazing works of art - your units have very inspiring commanders.

ljr70 said...

I always love your stuff! Another great effort and true art work!

Von Blucher said...

These are beautifully painted and the conversion work is tops, as good as if you purchased them from AB.

PaintPig said...

Lovely display of your talent, well done

Anonymous said...

Amazing results you have achieved as usual. Very much a fan of your work!

Christopher(aka Axebreaker) said...

Cracking fine work!

Christopher

Ray Rousell said...

Superb work Paul, great conversion work too. First class!!

Rodger said...

Very very nice command stand Paul.

john de terre neuve said...

Great job, quite impressed what you can do with 18mm figures.

John

Dan said...

this is truly an amazing job, you make me want to paint some Saxons, well done.

DeanM said...

Very nice!

Paulalba said...

Thanks a million for all your kind comments guys, they are very much appreciated and are great encouragement.

I now have a long stint at work so hopefully when I am finished I can work towards completing a new battalion.

Best regards
Paul

Ken said...

Stop showing off! Great painting mate!

Cheers

Ken

RazorOne223 said...

Hey these guys are really really nice! Would be glad to have them in my army.

Cheers

Eric

Phil said...

Looks great, as usually!

GaryA said...

Beautifully done and, best of all, you can't tell there's any conversion work. Nice, skillful job there mate.

:O)

Paulalba said...

Thanks guys,
Slowly getting through another battalion as well as cleaning up my artillery while waiting for the bases to arrive and cleaning up/converting my lights.
Best regards
Paul

Schrumpfkopf said...

I really do love the strong saturation and your very clean painting.