I finished up the French baggage wagon that I started working on a couple of months ago. Since I discussed the origins of the figures themselves in that post, I'll focus on the painting here.
(Remember to click on the pictures for bigger versions.)
Like other French equipment, the wagon itself is painted green, with black fittings. I made a mistake when painting the fittings, but as Bob Ross says we don't make mistakes, we make happy accidents: I grabbed my gloss black instead of my matte black, which is especially apparent on the hubcaps in the above pictures. I didn't realize this until I had already painted everything (I thought that the paint was still wet and shining), and since I'm loathe to go back over everything and repaint it I justified the mistake by calling it gloss painted iron, something that I've seen on actual wagon fittings. That's my story anyway, and I'm sticking to it. The cover is painted to look like canvas, and the brigade designation painted on was inspired by a contemporary drawing over a French baggage wagon that I had saved on my computer but is now, alas, lost due to cyber-criminals. At the back of the wagon, riding on the stowed ladder, is a bundle of fodder for the horses made from some Woodland Scenics grass that I had laying around, tacked in place with super glue.
On the wagon seat sits a female camp follower; I described how I converted her in my earlier post. She has a blue skirt, beige apron, buckled shoes, and I attempted to make it look like she is wearing her man's white fatigue blouse, with its' red collars turned down. I think the effect worked okay. The way her hand was positioned sort of looked like she was holding a tobacco pipe in her hand, so I painted her to look like she was. I'm pretty sure that this is the first female figure I've ever painted.
Up front, the horses are painted my standard horse-colors. The tack is black leather with silver hardware, the horse collars are the same green as the wagon, and the rear leads are supposed to look like rope. The front leads attached to the wagon tounge are painted to look like chains, though I'm not entirely satisfied with the effect.
The above print is of the uniforms of the French Train des Equipages, or the Baggage Train. It basically consists of a slate grey (a blueish-grey which I've also heard called "cadet gray") tunic faced and piped in brown, with silver buttons, and slate grey trousers. The uniform is very similar to the uniforms of the Artillery Train, the only real difference being the facing colors, dark blue instead of brown. I've tried to replicate that uniform with the outrider, and I think it worked overall.
Coming soon: My Sergeant Masterson mini-project. Since it's only one big figure it shouldn't take too long to make some progress.
Questions, comments and criticims are always welcomed and appreciated. Thanks for looking!
-Chuck
