1st Regime Prussian Hussar Officer

I started with Verlinden's Prussian Leiberhessen figure for this project. I wanted something a little different with his pose, so I took the right hand and substituted it with one I had in my spares box and moved it just a little forward on the shoulder. I filled the small gap with A&B Putty and then sanded the shoulder down just a little in order to make the arm look a little more natural. My intent with that small modification is to help with the scene that I am going to put him in...

I also found in my spare parts box a 120mm saber in the scabbard and replaced the one that came with the figure. I needed the right hand to be "open" for the vignette he'll be a part of...

I added a plume atop his shako like that worn by the 1st Regiment and attached it with a small brass rod to the metal flange.

So, after the modifications and the black primer, here's what I started with...

The entire figure was primed in black and this is the first time I've painted fleshtones over a black primer. It took a couple extra layers of my flesh undercoat to make me feel comfortable about starting the fleshtones.

My fleshtone mix is pretty basic for this guy; burnt sienna, titanium white, naples yellow and cadmium red. I added a little of red madder for the shadow tone and more titanium white for the highlights.

For the barrel sash, I started off with the darker tones at the bottom and worked my way to lighter tones at the top. The red cords base tone is simply cadmium red medium with a touch of red madder, and the white barrels are titanium white and sepia. I highlighted the red cords with cadmium red light and the whites with flake white.

Here's what the final figure looks like...I talked with Conny and he suggested that I mix my own black instead of using a something right out of the tube, and instead of undercoating with pure black acrylic I mixed some brown into the color for the pelisse and dolman and added a little blue to the mix for the pants.

I pulled these color mixes directly from Conny's CD "How I Paint" Vol I (by the way, these are incredible references!). Here are the mixes:

The pelisse is alizarin crimson + prussian blue + viridian.

The pants is ivory black + indigo

The dolman is ivory black + burnt sienna to get a brown, then that brown with violet + viridian.

For the highlights, I mixed a little bit of titanium white + prussian blue into the base color and gradually built up on them as I went. For the shading, I added a little bit of lamp black to each of the base colors for a deeper richer color.

I still have a couple tweeks to make; he needs dull coating and then I'll bring out the metal highlights. But I'll wait to do that once the entire vignette is done...