"The Tsar's coach and escort" Topic

At long last the Tsar's coach is finished. The coach was easy and Alexander a joy to paint. Westfalia must make more monarchs now! The driver's scarf is a slight anachronism, but we are having a good season and I could not resist it……….the escorts are Front Rank. Four are Leib Garde Cossacks the other two Ural Cossacks. Must again thank Alexandre and Summerfield for their info here. Dr S's book on Leib Garde is well worth the purchase, a treasure trove of info. Finally, at risk of sounding like an Oscar acceptance speech, must thank Neils R. I had two disasters with out of scale gravel, fortunately stuck on with PVA, so removable. He suggested the sand from the bottom a parrot's cage (before use, mind you).
I usually never try to do eyes, but thought on the cossacks I would just do the pupils. Another mistake and much worse in the photos. They look like Alexander has made some indecent proposal frankly. More pics here;
imageshack.com/a/G8Fz/1

But below is a reasonable sample;

The date of the cossacks?
esrly tijpe? greetings werge joe

Hi Serge! These are "late" style. 1812-15. I am such an "expert", (but only now that I have read Dr Summerfield's Book and saved all Sasha's references on their outfits!)

The Ural lancer needs his lance changing. The others are home made, his is the thicker Perry version (of which I have dozens, but I have run out of the steel wire I use instead). The Imperial eagle took some doing!

Gorgeous

That is beautiful.

Is the coach driver an 'ammers fan? There is a touch of the Alf Garnets about him.

Wonderful!

Imperial eagle -painted?

Fantastic job – and very well photographed, too!

I like the West Ham scarf….
Villains fan (for better or worse) personally

Nice piece.

That's brilliant Liam. Mind if I post that to our FB page?

Mind? I would be very flattered indeed! The best pics are on Imageshack as above. Please use whatever is of use. Delighted!

The WHU scarf is a Christmas gag and will probably get changed eventually….about the time I finally do the missing lance and paint black patches onto the sword scabbard.

Alf Garnet is a brilliant observation. Those in the Rebel Colonies will have no idea….but he is the image of him. Claret and Blue, can only be WHU, Villa, Burnley or Scunthorpe…..I think.

The eagle is hand painted. It is actually just a series of dots and stripes. The attached shows what I worked from. Colour was just too much to consider.

Thanks all for the feedback. Much appreciated frankly.

Thats awesome then!!!

Wyeaye!

Seriously though, at this size, easier than expected. I had wanted to add in black lines but abandoned that. The wings are each just five curved stripes (I would love to have done each stripe separated). Two curves for the eagle necks. The left eagle head worked out better than the right. The rest are just blobs frankly.

they look great, nice colour controll – a pity that Niels is not doing 18 mm – there Sho Boki will just scuplt very nice Guard Cossacks in that height.

Where did you get the back ground from?

Looking great!

Wonderful pictures, excellent job!

Superb all round. Wonderful inspiration!

Wonderful piece!

very impressive

Very impressive, vibrant color!

Very nice indeed. I must admit I thought Aston Villa, but that may be down to Dad's Army.

Excellent job!
Congrats!

Amicalement
Armand

Thanks again to all. To be honest I think the photography has too much colour saturation, too vibrant if anything. In daylight they look most like the top photo, especially the red coats. I should have done more processing!

The background was just a front page of a Telegraph supplement on Property sales. I am always looking out for such images. I had to crop to remove the TV aerial on the chimney top left in the bottom two pics! I also did not notice the slight curl in the paper…..follow the roofline of the upper windows in the top pic………..getting better but much still to learn!

Wow! ….. Just plain WOW!

I am totally impressed. I am just blown away.
They look just like the realistic/nationalistic paintings commissioned by later Russian monarchs to celebrate major anniversaries of 1812 year.

Thanks you for the photos!

- Sasha

Absolutely outstanding, very original subject.