"Regimental numbers and designs on cavalry saddles" Topic

Hi Everyone,
I am new at painting 28mm Napoleonic wargame figures.What do you guys do when you come to depict the regimental number and arm of service modif (eg stylised grenade for french ciurassiers) on the saddle cloth and blanket roll ends?
For numbers I was thinking that perhaps I could find waterslide decals with numbers in appropriate size and font. Failing that perhaps dry transfers although that's likely to be difficult to put on.
For the motifs eg grenade, I can't find anything available.
Any ideas would be most welcome.
Cheers

Given my skill level, I ignore them…

I paint them with a brush. It helps to paint the outline first, in a darker colour. For example, for my French dragoons, I paint the number with grey on the green saddle cloth first. Then I go back and paint a second, thinner, line with white. For the gold markings on cartridge boxes I do the same, but starting with brown and then a yellow or golden second layer.

If you have trouble painting numbers and symbols with a brush, you can try buying a gel pen at your local art supply store. Then you don't have to worry about a wobbly brush point.

You can see that I didn't get all the numbers right, some are a bit thicker and wobbly. But unless you look real close, it'll blend into the rest of the minis.

LOL. I was afraid I would get your answers.

Cerdic, very pragmatic but coming from a modelling background could cause my OCD to flare up.

And Setsuko, I'm tempted but I am afraid it could spell the end of my enamour with the hobby after doing the 4th of 120 saddles.

Now is there going to be someone to to come to my rescue with useful magic?

Love this forum.

There are transfers out there. People like Victrix do transfers for water bottles and pouches etc. Or you can get generic ones from railway modelling companies such as Woodland Scenics. Some are water based and some are rub down. Personally I do simple badges and numbers with painting and more complicated stuff with transfers e.g. titles on a French ambulance. It is up to you but 28mm scale is very forgiving of representative 'daubs'.

Transfers are good for lot of things, but I personally feel that it's MORE work putting transfers on saddles than it would be to paint them. But it's always personal how difficult we find various hobby things.

It's a vexing problem that many of us have wrestled with over the years, and I've tried all the ‘alternatives' mentioned. Water-based decals in the appropriate size proved shockingly expensive and too much bother for the numbers of figures involved. DIY ‘dry-rub' decals were similarly ‘fussy' to produce and apply, and they didn't stick around with normal wargaming handling. Utlimately I arrived at the same conclusion as Setsuko: painting them by hand.

What helped the most was ‘practice' preparation: take a piece of paper, and daub some of your background colour onto it—say five or six ‘squares' of a suitable size—and allow it to dry thoroughly. Then take your base colour, a suitably thin brush, and with good lighting (and possibly some magnification) practice painting your numbers and insignia on the paper, using the highlight colour to try to achieve the ‘font' you want to replicate. Repeat as necessary until you feel greater confidence that you can produce something close to the target size you want to paint.

After a few warm-up exercises, as above, take an otherwise finished and varnished figure, lay it flat on some spare sponge or other soft surface, and have a go! Any errors can be wiped away with a damp cloth (or paper towel)—hence the varish layer first—without damaging the rest of the paintjob. I'm no ‘artist', but I think the results work for non-display wargaming figures, and in much less time, especially when turning out larger units.

Try fine tipped permanent ink pens in appropriate colours.

Thank you one and all for your support. Greystreak, your idea of handpainting on sealed glossy surface is intriguing. I shall try.I may also try the fine tipped ink pen idea if I can find a suitable white for Ciurassiers and Dragoons.

In the meantime I will continue looking for waterslide decals. I have had a lot of experience with those in my modelling so I have a tendency to drift towards that comfort zone.

Thanks again folks.