Leib Garde Cossacks WIP1

Sorry for the lack of posts this past wee while, it has been a busy old time and I haven't really felt like posting much or had much to post to be honest. I've actually found it easier just to point the iPad at whatever I've been working on and upload the odd video. Anyways I've finally started to crack on with the base coats for my Leib Garde Cossacks from Sho Boki Miniatures.

There will be 30 in total, 6 from the Black Sea sotnia and the 24 Leib Garde Cossacks above that I'm working on at the moment. This is a unit I've been looking forward to doing for a good while now ever since Sho put his 1st WIP sculpts on TMP.

There were a few stops and starts as Sho tried to work out how to incorporate the lances and had a few sideways ideas with different heads and separate parts. With the final castings you have to add the lances yourself like Xyston figures. The figures have a good area for the lance to be superglued in place so it's pretty straight forward. I used spears from Xyston cut to size with a little extra detail added.

I'm really enjoying doing the figures even though I've been short of time. The Sho Boki figures fit really well with AB light cavalry horses and are a good match to AB figures too. The detail is a little softer than AB in areas of the casting however the sculpting has been done really well. Sho has put a lot of character into the figures and the faces come alive as you paint them. The trumpeter was his 1st attempt at a trumpeter and looks pretty good.

The LG Cossaks used Arab and Orlov horses so for the Arabs I've been google searching and have been adding some rich chestnut tones (all still WIP). It's been fun! 

For the blue I base coated with Vallejo dark Prussian blue and will be highlighted with intense blue mixed with Prussian blue, I'll maybe add a little CdA light grey in for the final highlight? The coats will be done with a base of Vallejo cadmium burnt red mixed with Vallejo red and then a mid tone of the red neat and as a final highlight I plan to hit raised areas with vermilion sparingly.

My test figure, the blue is probably a little too bright and vibrant as I used Vallejo intense blue neat as the final highlight so I'll control that back on the rest. For the yellow I used Vallejo ochre brown and then for the mid Tone I added 50/50 mix with deep yellow, I'll be adding a tiny highlight of the deep yellow neat in raised areas to lift the detail out.

A long way to go however so far I'm pretty happy with the progress. I would definitely recommend the figures to anyone collection a late Russian Napoleonic army as they really are sweet figures plus I believe they are the only 18mm option out there. Sho is a good guy to deal with and is very helpful with all aspects of our hobby and definitely deserves supporting. I know he is slowly growing his range and there are a few unusual little gems amongst his recent releases. Ordering from Estonia was very smooth to.

I'll share another update when I get further forward as well as a little idea or 4 to make the unit more interesting . . .

Happy wargaming!!!