Update of Sorts, Sir Stapleton Cotton

I was hoping that my cyberbuddy, Paul, could offer some direction, but he's busy with his family, I'm sure. Here are some more pics of General Cotton after having fussed with the figure all day. I'll never get this one right. I'm thinking of just giving up and making a command stand as he is. I think I'll order another figure and see what I can do with a second try. Here goes:

A work-in-process: Stapleton Cotton in 15mm

Some figures are just not made for Quickshade, or quick anything. This is one of them. I intend to use this Sir Stapleton Cotton figure for my cavalry command stand. I've been working on it for three days now, and I keep messing with it. The thing is that the sculpting is so fantastic, that it is possible to paint a miniature portrait of General Cotton - Mr. Barton even sculpted in the long curved nose! I know I can be a perfectionist, but this one is a real challenge. I just can't get the gilded hussar braid down. I'm running out of gold paint! Anyway, I'll be sure to post the finished command stand, once I have the figure down.

QuickShade Horse

This is the latest installment in my wash technique foray. This is a French Chausseur casualty marker for Shako II. The horse was done simply with Army Painter Quickshade, instead of deep shade tones and thin successive highlight tones. This makes the rendering of the horse quite simple. Base color, QuickShade, then highlights with more of the base color. I'll be fooling around with more wash techniques to see if I like any of them enough to finish my Peninsular armies with it.

More French Hussar Pics

I figured that I'd post a few more pics of the French 3rd Hussars - here they are. These were painted without the AP treatment, but in the style I had been painting in. It looks to me that the only part I have down pat is the horses ass. I wonder if that says anything about me. Hmm.

Wash Techniques

I'm also considering cooking up my own "magic wash," which consists of future, water, and acrylic paint for pigment. I could be wrong, but I'm just guessing that a solution like that is what this guy uses:

http://www.jonspaintingservice.com/

Still working with the AP on some Old Glory skirmishing stands:

I'll be sure to post a full report when done. I will say that I like AP as a wash for white/ivory colors, because I prefer the warm shade tones. We'll see what happens with this bunch.

An Army Painter/Quickshade Test Figure

For this figure and horse, I used Paul Alba's technique of blocking main colors, applying AP, and touching up with highlights. It sure is faster than painting at least two color shades for every color. I'm considering whether I like this enough to switch for my remaining figures - but I'm also in the midst of using AP on some Old Glory figures, to see how the sculpting comes out with AP.

I still need to finish the horse and horse furniture, put a final dose of flat lacquer on it, and add the static grass. I figured that a casualty figure would be a suitable test figure.

Some pre-Army Painter Hussars

As said earlier, I'm experimenting with Quickshade/Army Painter. Here are the French 3rd Hussars (photographed in hand to show the scale). Next pics will be of post-Quckshade/Army Painter. Stay tuned!