"No tears horsies" Topic

I was painting a regiment of Dragoons today and thought the method I use might be of some use to complete beginners (or players whose previous mounted troops rode in half tracks)as a colour guide for adding variety to their mounted units. Nothing here of any use to the experienced. The colours mentioned are intended for 15mm, what works for that scale mightn't look right for 25mm.
For a 16 man cavalry unit. One final disclaimer. I'm a lousey painter. For help with doing a nicely finished job ask around this forum for links or advice.
First I always undercoat horses black. It helps both cover up my errors and tones down the colours.

Beys x8
I always paint half of each unit Bey. The seem to be the most numerous and if you split them up amongst the others keeps things looking business like and look less like a circus.
Colours: Dark brown with a hint of red. Black manes and tails. Black legs to about the knees then fade it up ward. Try to avoid going to high with the black (other wise they start to look like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman). Cheat. I found Tamiya's Red Hull. I don't know if its a quality fault or not but not only does it seem to be the right colour but it forms dark in the creases like an auto ink wash.
Chestnut x4
I do 1/4 of my horses in chestnut. Its also a very common horse variety.
Colour: Red brown or Chestnut all over. Easy.
**So for each stand of 4 horses I'll have 2 Beys and one chestnut. To these I add a show pony.
Greys x1
Who hasn't painted one of these for a Generals figure? (OK. I see the hands at the back.)Theres plenty of variety esp with age but a good standard is.
Colour: Body white. Mane and tail light grey. Now starting from the bottom of the legs dapple light grey up to including the bottom of the body. I do this several times until the base of the legs are quit grey and gradualy lightning to the stomach. You can now add some on the rump and just below the mane on the neck.Then add a slightly darker grey to the very base of the legs. Muzzel should be a light fleshy colour.
Palomino x1
Beautiful horses in real life. I can never do them justice.
Am still loooking for just the right colour. But heres what I use anyway.
Colour: Desert yellow with white mane and tail. Dark grey muzzel.
Dunne x1
These are fairly rare but I like them so tend to paint them often.
Colour: Desert yellow with the black mane tail and legs of a Bey.
Dark Brown x1
Colour: A rich dark brown colour all over.
General
Go to town adding variety with different sizes of white blazes on their noses from small white dot to most of their face from just above the eyes down.
White socks. Vary the number and positons of them helps break up the uniformity.
regards
Max

Very useful summary, thanks!

Appreciate it! I've always wanted to do whites with dapple, now I feel more comfortable about it.

As you say, bays were the most common color. That is, any shade of medium brown with black mane and tail. The brown can range from milk chocolate, to terra cotta, to dark earth. Dry brushing the high spots on flank and neck with a slightly lighter shade can add quite a bit of realism for very little effort.

Some units theoretically rode certain colors of horses (tho in practice, on campaign,they rode what they could get). For instance, the French Grenadiers a cheval of the Guard were supposed to ride black horses, and, I believe, so were the French Carabiniers. (For some reason they believed, in those days, that black horses were stronger than others.) The Chasseurs a cheval of the Guard rode bays and chestnuts.

Also, in most European armies, buglers/trumpeters rode grays.

I prime my (15mm) horses black then paint the high spots in light gray before putting on the basic color, so those will look a bit lighter/brighter.

For gray horses I usually paint the body all over with a medium or light gray; add a few areas on the flanks and neck about a shade darker; then dapple this darker area with the lighter gray and some of the lighter areas with the darker. I paint the mane and tail black or dark gray and dry-brush these with a slightly lighter shade of gray. The knees should be the darker gray or even black, and gray horses often have white stockings and white blazes.

Generally, I think, the lighter the horse's color the lighter his muzzle should be,from dove gray to light flesh. Hooves, unless polished, would usually be dove gray to desert yellow.

Very helpful for this beginner! Thanks! I'll be doing 10mm ACW and someday 10mm Naps. Somewhere I read that oils produce a more realistic effect for horses. Does it matter at this scale?

You could try it on a mounted Officer and his ADC. If you like the result then good. If you don't like it they won't look out of place amongst the rest of your troopers like an entire Regiment might.
Max

"Somewhere I read that oils produce a more realistic effect for horses. Does it matter at this scale?"

I work entirely in acryllics and find that Colour Party and Howards Hues horse colours have a slight sheen – so much so that I use them for men's hair as well.

At 15mm that'll do. (Unless you are a pedantic hairsplitter)

I forgot to mention that lately, when I coat all my figures with clear matte acrylic to protect them, that, for the horses, I add a bit of clear satin acrylic -- roughly half and half satin/matte, or perhaps one/two. I put this over the body of the horse only, not the main, tail or legs below the knees. It gives the horse a realistic sheen without making them really shiny. (I also put some on boots, gun stocks, helmets, and other semi-shiny items.)

mane,not "main." duh

I paint a lot like Max. On 25mm bays and browns, I will do a wash of bronze on the neck, front and hind quarters. Not too much. Then do another very light wash over the whole horse with a walnut brown. It settles into the creases for a darker effect and tones down the bronze. This gives the horse a shiny colour like it's reflected in the sun.
Since I started doing this a number of our club members have copied it. No one that I know of has tried it on 15's though.
Thomas

wrgmr1: Sounds interesting. I'll give it a try and let you know.

Don – cool idea on the 'sheen' technique. I'm gonna give that a try on my next batch. :)

If you're doing steppe nomads, duns would probably be the commonest colour; most steppe ponies are this sort of dull brown.
Also, why no black horses? They are reasonably common (commoner than greys, in any case).

I have plenty of blacks and the other variations but thought the others were more impotant to fit into the sample 16 I was giving.
regards
max

I tried the wash with a metallic color, and while it wasn't bad, I found that, naturally, it runs into the deepest areas, whereas, it seems to me, the parts of a real horse that are most likely to have a metallic sheen are the high spots.

I have done a few horses now in a new technique (for me) that seems to work well: Prime black, then mix the basic body color (some shade of brown) with a corresponding metallic color. e.g. copper with red-brown, gold or bronze with a more earthy brown, in about a 60/40 flat/metallic ratio. Do the same with the highlight color. Do not mix metallic with the mane/tail color or with black knees, white stockings, etc. Then I use the semi-semi-gloss protective coat as mentioned above.

If and when I ever get an electronic camera I'll post some pix somewhere.

Hope you do. I'd like to see the results.
PS Don't do what I did. Get some good advice on the camera first. Mine won't let within 3ft of my figures without going out of focus. :0P

As promised, I did get a digital camera and have started taking and uploading pics of some of my minis. They are on photobucket, here: link

Most of these were painted using older techniques. The pic of Bulow gives a fair idea of the semi-gloss technique. The Dutch Carabiniers were painted using the semi-metalic process, but the angle doesn't show off the horses very well. I'll be posting more pics from time to time.

Some good advice there Max!

I paint half my horses without markings. For the other half that have socks and stockings… I paint two with white socks, 1 with white stockings and 1 with black stockings.

Horses with white socks/stockings I normally paint either one, two or three legs, but never four.

Horses with black stockings I paint all four legs.

My 2 cents…

Ray (aka Lava)

BTW, taking Maxshadow's advice, I got a camera (Sony) that is really a lot more complex than I needed but specifically because it has a feature called "macro" that lets me get very close to the subject.

I just uploaded a picture to my photobucket site (see above) that gives some idea of the "semi-metalic" horse idea discussed above. It's the pic of the Empress' Dragoons. Not a great pic, but note the neck of the Eagle-bearer's horse and you can see the effect pretty well.

Yes. Nice effect.
It helps make the horse look like its a living animal. Not painted lead. thanks for the tip

So, Max, you seem to be a regular guy after all. Good advice on the horses. It remains to be seen if I can actually paint a horse other that a solid color. I will try your method when I'm painting the next Napoleonic army. Thanks.

Donlowry,
I followed your advice about getting a camera with the Macro feature. That's what was needed, thanks.
Washes.
I got brave and tried using washes like WRGMR1 suggested. What a difference!
I use a chestnut ink on the Beys, browns and chestnuts.
Citadel Gryphonne Sepia on the Dunnes, Palominos.
Citadel Devlan Mud on the Blacks.
I now need to find one for the Greys.
Anyone have any ideas?
regards
Max

What is WRGMR1 and where do I order it?

I learned to "Oil Rub" horses a couple of decades ago, and never looked back.

Not only does it look great, it's fast! (Though a bit messy, but do a lot at once and clean up once, like air-brushing…)

After priming with Krylon white, I use one of five oil colors and just smear them on with a piece of foam.

Raw Umber
Burnt Umber
Raw Sienna
Burnt Sienna
Payne's Grey

(And the horses love it!)

"(and the horses love it!)" :o)
Clay,
The Oil Rub idea is completely new to me. Do you use it as the primary colour or as a wash or as a dry brush?

Widowson
WRGMR1 is the name of the forum member that encouraged me to try washes. (Sorry if your making a joke and I didn't get it.)
regards
Max