"AB French Dragoons WIP" Topic

Here are some more figures that I've painted the horses recently. I have a regiment like this, and as I need to complete my French figures to fight my Prussians, I halted the rest of the Russians to finish off this regiment.

John

Very nice looking figures. Especially like the job on trumpeters horse.

Excellent work! They look fantastic. I'm loving the the depth of color you have achieved. They will look even better after ground work is done with the basing.

Superb stuff as ever John. Those uniform coats look great and the horses just get better and better.

Love them John! I can really tell the use of yellow highlights in the green. Do you use yellow for the red highlights as well or orange?

What base colors are you using for the uniforms?

Wonderful painting. But does the horse under the trumpeter look very small. Maybe a trick of the eyes as the others look OK.

Ashenduke & Barenakedleadies- Thank you for the comments

Stephen – Thanks and good to hear from you. I think I'm starting to get my groove back in painting Naps. The white horse is the first one I've done using Vallejo paints.

Tim – You can, but I prefer to use a scarlet that's more on the orange side.

rct75001 – I think it's the pose, but it is a heavy cavalry horse though.

John

Tim,
Sorry I missed your 2nd question. I use the dark green mixed with a dark blue for the base color, I than paint most of the figure with the dark green leaving the base color as the shadows. Next step is to add a little yellow to the dark green and hit the areas to have the final highlights.

Hope that helps.

John

Very Nice!!
BRAVO

Top Job VB. Especially like the detail – i.e. the leopard skin for the officer's helmet. Look forward to more photo's.

AB's are top figs. I am about to attempt some Russian Lancers myself so am feeling pretty inspired by what you have done.

cheers
Gary

John,

Very inspirational! If I didn't know better, I'd think those were 54mm figures.

Dave

trailape – Thank you for your comments, as always.

WasAdamsg01 – Gary, I think we all inspire each other. Before the internet, You would go to a wargame convention to play games and get inspired. Now we have it at our finger tips. Check out my Early Prussians on Paul's Blog and while you're there check out Paul's fine work, especially on his Russians.
link

Dave, as always, thank you my friend. Like I posted above, I think I'm starting to get my groove back.

John

John,
They look absolutely gorgeous. I love the green colour that you have achieved on the uniform jackets. Looking forward to seeing the squadron en masse!

Malc

John,
As always your painting is top notch!!!

Shocked to see you do French ;0)

Beautiful horses to.
Best
Paul

Malc, Thank You and I will repost when the Regiment is completed.

Paul, Thanks allot as always. I do need some French for my Prussians to beat up on though. :)

John

To true LOL!

Excellent work!

archiduque,
Thank you for your comments.
John

lovely figures – both in sculpting and painting, as for officers stirup straps, they could be red, as a special distinction for French cavalry officers

von Winterfeldt,
Thanks for the comments, I usually paint the French Generals with red stirup straps, and not the regimental Officers. But I might rethink that now that you've reminded me about it.

More surprised no one mentioned that the trumpeter should have a green collar to match the Officers unit and be in the correct reverse color uniform.

You guys are slipping out there. :0)

John

John,

One other thing you missed was on that Dragoon officer. I recognize that officer and across the right side of his face he had a bad saber scar and you obviously missed it. ;-)

Other than that scar faux pas, I love your figures!

See about getting that scar right. ;-)

God bless,
John Tyson

Lol, you sure it was the right side John?

John & Paul,
You two ruined, my second "Guess what you missed?" Question.

But really thanks again to both of you, helping to keep me motivated, while having a good laugh.

John

VonBlucher,

what make 15mm figures did you use for your Bavarians and 1806 Prussians?

Fredloan,
The Bavarians on Paul's Blog, I'm pretty sure they're all AB's. These were painted by Paul (Paulalba). If I'm wrong I'm sure Paul will come along and correct me. I think Paul also had a couple of AB conversions on some of his Bavarians.

The Prussian for 1806 are all AB's with a few AB conversions thrown in also. These were all painted by me.

John

Fine looking specimen vB good job, you make me feel like pulling mine out, …..err AB fig's

regards
dave

ok, the mounted officer did not match any AB officer I have seen

Dave, Thanks and don't pull too hard!!

Fredloan,
Follow the link, AB-F21 for the Dragoon Officer. Look under French 1798 – 1806.

link

Unless you're talking about some of the figures on Paul's Blog, as there are 3 Prussian Officer conversions just among my 1806 Prussians, that I can think of.

John

Hi Fredloan, If it is my Bavarian command stand you are talking about the commander is an AB Austrian officer heavily converted and the officer with helmet is an AB Saxon officer with head swapped and some more details either added or removed. The only figure not AB is the sappeur who is from fantassin. There is 1 other oddity, the walking officer is an AB Austrian with headswap.

hope this helps?

a lot of head swaps, as a newbie I have never tried this. How difficult is it to do?

a lot of head swaps, as a newbie I have never tried this. How difficult is it to do?

A sharp blade and a steady hand is really all you need. If you are just going to glue the heads then give both joining surfaces a quick file before gluing. If you want to pin the head in place (to avoid unfortunate beheadings) then a pin vice or dremel (to save a whole lot of time) will be needed and a bit of brass wire for the pin.

Nice work Von Blucher.

a lot of head swaps, as a newbie I have never tried this. How difficult is it to do?

I usually don't worry about the donor figure and when removing the head, I take a little more metal with it than I need to. This way I can do some light filing to insure a good fit on the new figure. Having a gap filling Super Glue or some green stuff helps hide the transition area also.

Bandolier, Thanks!!

John

LOL, I may just have to pay you to do a few for me. While I practice on a few.

Fredloan,
Paul painted the Bavarians and did an excellent job with those conversions. I think he did head swaps on his Bavarian artillery outriders also.

John

ok Paul are you up for a conversion commission??? I am way too busy trying to finish off my Bavarians, my first army. It will distract me way to much to try my hand at a conversion right now.

Paul by the way did you also fabricate and make the cloak on the other officer not in the helmet? great job if that was the case. What substance do you use to make add ons to figures?

From experience, you don't need to pin heads when doing head swaps for figures of this size. I have converted 100s of ABs and have hardly ever had a head come back off. Super glue gel is perfect. Use a small set of pliers, cover the jaws with a bit of material (on the donor head especially) as the grooves will mark the head. Gently prise the head off. Most ABs will come at the neck, some under the collar. You will get the odd wasted figure, but after a bit of practice, you can get a pretty good success rate.

John

Hi Fredloan, I'm afraid I don't have enough Romine to get as many of my own troops painted as I would like so sorry I am not able to take commissions on. Yes the cloak is added with green stuff and the bicirne he has on is scratch as well.

Baxterj being Scittish I try to have as little waste as possible ;-) so I try to save every figure from the trash. I use a new scalpel blade and slowly cut above the collars and once I have a weak neck I wobble the head around till it comes off then tidy up head base and collar area.

I always pin vice the heads and bodies and use a paper clip section to put them together. I found a superb liquid superglue that will stick anything "react".in eBay. Haven't had a head come off yet.

Romine should read time!

John sorry for jumping your thread.

Paul,
Not a problem as the request was directed to you.
I didn't want to speak for you, even though I know how busy you've been lately.

No worries John, same as yourself. Have a good break in August coming!

Well thank you everyone, I have a few pennies to spend so I will buy a couple of Saxon mounted inf. officers and practice. Wish me luck, I have to read up on Green stuff and how to use it as well.

Fredloan,
It's allot easier than it sounds. Look at it this way when done and it looks good, it will probably be your favorite commander.
John

I agree, here a head swap – and some modifications of an Austrain officer with helmet into an officer of about 1792 – 1800

vW,
Very good looking conversion, and as with everyone that works primarily with AB's can attest to the fact of the need to convert figures for more Officer types.

John

ok figures for conversion ordered, now I have to read up on the green stuff. Yes the convesrion looks very nice.

I use a mix of magic sculpt and green stuff – for must parts, only for some parts I use pure green stuff, like hairs.
The mix has the benefit that it can be carved or sanded.
Here an Austrian train conversion, one of my sources stated that the train had till about 1796 hats, so I converted a late AB Austrian train figure, usually I would do the hat in the mix as well, but I had a left over of green stuff which I didn't like to waste.

vW,
Very well done.

Hopefully after all this work AB dosen't come out with the figures soon.

I also picked up some of the new AB Revolutionary Austrians. No one I know seems interested, unless they expand the French to include some of the eastlier period uniforms, and they really don't want to purchase Battle Honors at this time.

John

VonBlucher
Thanks for your comment – but I believe nobody will come out with an Austrian train in hat.
As for the AB Austrian Revolutionaries they are great, some conversions to be done as well, like a standard bearer for cavalry.