1:16 French Cuirassier

[Battle Brush Sigur]

Look what I got! To distract myself from what I SHOULD be doing (paint a whoooole lot of 25mm horses and lancers) I got this kit.



I like that box design. The three sprues came in a plastic bag along with a 2-page A4 sized instructions leaflet for painting and assembly. Well, less of an assembly instruction than the picture from the boxfront (plus a back view in the same style. Very, very pretty.) and a bunch of numbers for where the parts go. There are no numbers on the sprues themselves, but if you open the instructions there's pictures of the sprues along with numbering for the parts.
 


Last night I couldn't resist ripping the box open and starting to build the horse. The fit of the two main halves of the body was awful. Some filing and shaving with a blade helped that though. The plastic's rather nice. Not too brittle not too soft. Detail looks great.

The little nubbins on the horse halves went bye-bye during all the filing of course. I replaced them with metal pins, mainly to help positioning the parts against each other. Then I applied some plastic cement (Revell Contacta Professional of course), used five rubber bands to tightly keep the parts together and it as off to bed. Me, not the horse. It stayed on the table.

So far the build is going OK. Of course there'll be much fiddlier parts later on, but I think it'll be OK. Painting the chap should be very, very interesting. Never painted such a large figure before (concerning scale of course. I painted larger things like titans and dragon and such. Also not counting the lawn ornament Snowwhite figures a few years ago.)

Some parts with a 28mm Space Marine for scale:

[wolfkarl]

Hey, that's a nice find! I'm old enough to remember these types of kits. I built a few of the these in the old days.

[Battle Brush Sigur]

Cheers. Yeah, Miniart (from Ukraine) have a nice little range of these 1/16th historical figures out now for not too much money. First I wanted to go with Andrea or Pegaso or whatever, but a mounted figure that size (or a bit smaller) costs like €120,00 whereas these plastic one here set me back just under € 30,00. Which is OK for a project I'm not sure I'll ever have the time actually finishing.

[DintheDin]

I also remember these kits but did never dare to make one...
Knowing your painting prowess, we are waiting something special to come out!
Eager to see the next stages! Cheers!

[Battle Brush Sigur]

@DintheDin: Thanks very much. Honestly, I think in terms of painting this may be easier than a smaller scale. You mostly have to take care so colours are where they belong. Shading/highlights to large extents take care of themselves at this scale. The biggest possible problem I see (and the thing where people could spend a LOT of time on this figure is getting the different textures across.

Someone on a Napoleonic FB group posted pictures of his version of the model. I put up mine at the stage it was at back then to compare:



...and the night after that most of the chap was put together:



Only halfway through I relaized that reigns have to be scratch-built, along with the straps for the stirrups and for the scabbard. Guess I'll use cardboard for that. Also: The basket for the handle of the sabre has to be built for which I plan to use copper wire.

[Battle Brush Sigur]

Last night I started slapping paint onto the Cuirassier here and there:



Now I have to go back to 25mm Minifigs Polish cavalry. Hope I can get back to painting the big Cuirassier soon.

[wolfkarl]

He's looking good so far. Beautiful painting on the face and nice color choice for the horse. Keep it going!

[Vanvlak]

Good grief, even the moustache on your finger is beautifully done, let alone the face of the real thing! 

[Battle Brush Sigur]

@wolfkarl: Thanks very much! Also: nothing like finding out that there still are gaps after the base colour is applied... (as made evident by the putty i smeared on top)

@Vanvlak: What finger? Corporal Pinkie takes offense to this! Cheers!

[DintheDin]

@DintheDin: Thanks very much. Honestly, I think in terms of painting this may be easier than a smaller scale. You mostly have to take care so colours are where they belong. Shading/highlights to large extents take care of themselves at this scale. The biggest possible problem I see (and the thing where people could spend a LOT of time on this figure is getting the different textures across.

Colours where they belong, shading/highlights and different textures! You got the real issues for this scale perfectly well, but I'm sure that in the end we will see a masterpiece! Keep up the good job!

[Vanvlak]

@wolfkarl: Thanks very much! Also: nothing like finding out that there still are gaps after the base colour is applied... (as made evident by the putty i smeared on top)

@Vanvlak: What finger? Corporal Pinkie takes offense to this! Cheers!

Hasty apologies to the Corporal, before I'm challenged to a duel!

[Battle Brush Sigur]

@DintheDin: Well yeah, in theory I got a plan... Let's see how and if this translates well to reality.

@Vanvlak:


Best thing to wind down after hours and hours of painting Bay horses is painting a Bay horse I say!


full size picture: http://www.tabletopwelt.de/uploads/monthly_2017_09/wip2.jpg.b7f70037d0e64b802c5b7da60a99458c.jpg

[DintheDin]

It's beutiful! I like the fading you managed between black and brown, well done!

[Battle Brush Sigur]

@DintheDin: Thanks very much! I'm still not entirely happy with the horse, but I guess I'll get there eventually.

Little update on the fella.





Here's a pic of the sabre's basket WIP:

[Vanvlak]

Good grief, the sabre basket looks terrific. And he's so lifelike it's weird to see his disembodied head floating on the pin vise!  Nice metal on the cuirass too.