Step by step painting: Bavarian Dragoons

[robartes]

I have no idea whether this will interest anyone, but that has never stopped me . Way back when I started in this hobby I painted figures to a painstakingly complicated standard. That is all good and well but does not lead to armies of painted figures. Over the years I found that I'm a wargamer first and a painter second so I have gradually lowered my standards to arrive at a level of painting that (I hope) still looks good on the table but takes comparatively little time per figure (I'm down to about half an hour per Napoleonic infantry figure and about three quarters of an hour per cavalry figure).

By way of an introduction to my way of army painting I took some pictures along the way while painting 6 Bavarian Dragoons. Maybe this will be of help to someone .


The six figures are part of a unit of 12 representing 1st Bavarian Dragoons in the 1809 campaign. The fist picture is the full regiment base coated, but afterward there are only 6 in the picture. I find that my 'comfort zone' in painting batch size is 12 infantry or 6 cavalry figures. YMMV.



Horses, flesh, grey and red first layer done:



Everything else first layer done:



Horses, flesh and reds final layer done:



Grey overalls and horse furniture final layer done:



Everything done except metals:



Everything done:



The remaining 6 figures are currently on my painting desk, I'll post a picture of the fully tarted up unit when it's done.

[duhamel]

even for a quick method of painting, I find them very beautiful and even more if it's 15 mm. my poor eyes could not bear to paint this kind of lilipuciens.
bravo! 

[Johnno]

WOWOW! That is still a very high standard. Well done

[Hammers]

I am not a Nappie man but that is quite impressive and seems to be the very way to go about it, if you'd want a Napoleonic army.

[robartes]

even for a quick method of painting, I find them very beautiful and even more if it's 15 mm. my poor eyes could not bear to paint this kind of lilipuciens.
bravo! 

Ah yes, I forgot to mention - they're 28's, Front Rank to be precise. My Dragoons are Front Rank, my Chevauleger Foundry. The Front Rank figures are quite a bit heftier than the Foundries (they're one of the earlier ranges) which I think fits well, as the short lived Dragoon regiments descended from cuirassiers - big men on big horses .

I am not a Nappie man but that is quite impressive and seems to be the very way to go about it, if you'd want a Napoleonic army.

Indeed. My mantra for these is: nothing gets more than two layers (plus sprayed black undercoat). In fact, many items (metals, horse furniture) get only one. Another shortcut is that all troopers in my army have musket or leather coloured hair - saves on the number of paint pots to open

[Ray Rivers]

Fantastic job!

I have for quite some time now realized that this is the way to really churn out minis and that you can do so with a very high standard.

After 30 years, however, it is very hard to break old habits, but I must admit I have dipped my toe into this technique and was impressed with how quick it works and how nice you can make your minis look.

Can't wait to see the finished unit... very nice so far!   

[robartes]

Can't wait to see the finished unit... very nice so far!   

Well, some of their finished cousins on foot can be seen in this thread:

http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=26455.0