A quick update on my Lasalle Project. I’ve completed 2/3 of a battery of Royal Horse Artillery-there’s a howitzer yet to be added. Nominally, they’re from Ross’ Troop (note the chestnut horse). I need to paint up limbers, as well, but don’t currently have any.
The basis of my roster is the Light Division at Bussaco, Black Bob commanding.
The reason I’m showing partially completed units is that I’ve been working on the lead I have around the house. This project was started for Neil Thomas’s rules, which require fewer figures than Lasalle. Never fear, the purchasing of figures to fill out the units will happen soon enough!
Royal Horse Artillery + 52nd Oxfordshire in line.
Blues are a bit too dark?
RHA to the front.
I really need to work on my photography skills. These photos came out way too dark, and have been modified to hell and back in Photoshop in order to get them close to what my eye perceives under bright light.
In other news, I’ve been coating my figures in brush-on gloss and matte varnish, in an effort to prevent paint chipping. I hate it. Totally dulls the colors, and suppresses detail. I’m going to try using spray-on gloss and matte for my next batch of miniatures, in hopes that the thinness of the coat vs. brushed on helps. If it doesn’t look any better, I’m just going to start hitting them with a quick coat of Testor’s Dullcote. The single coat of Dullcote is how I’ve done most of my ACW miniatures, and you don’t lose that much of the detail. Of course, they’ve taken quite a bit of damage over the last couple of years. Trade-offs and compromises!
ArkieGamer 
Comments
Nice offerings. Contrast rich colours and excellent, naturalistic basing. I do like the idea to have another unit in the background to showcase the artillery. If you have the possibility to manually adjust f-stops and exposure time you should be able to achieve good results with daylight close to a window. The camera just needs a stable base and off you go. I second your thoughts about varnish. Whatever you do, the paintjob looks always a bit less awesome than before. I decided to not varnish (only heavy play miniatures) and so far I am doing alright, but I am very careful handling my miniatures. I think I will need to retouch on the head in some point (I could see applying some varnish on the hair might be a good idea and maybe the shields. Other parts will not be touched much. I also think the primer is more important than any varnish. I got myself soem Alclad airbrush primer, that should be pretty good. Only catch is I need a respirator, that stuff is pretty lethal if inhaled.
Thank you, sir.
I took these shots with a Lumix Lx5, which is manually adjustable. I had it in aperture priority mode, so I could easily control depth of field, and was using a tripod. Really, the pictures look fine on the camera display, but when I get them to the computer, they look dark and low contrast. I suppose I need to go to full manual mode, and bounce back and forth between camera and computer until I figure out the optimum settings for my ‘studio,’ and then write them down.
I bet you’re on to something with the primer. I’m airbrushing Vallejo acrylic primer now-maybe I need to move up to something more serious, and, like you, pick up a ventilator.
The Alclad must be airbrushed and can even be sanded, so does not come off in a piece as is the case with most primers. However, it can damage your DNA according to the bottle, so maybe the respirator setup is a very good idea ;).
Oof! I’m not trusting a respirator with my lovely DNA. :)
Lovely work. I agree with d&b that the primer may actually be more important, but some bits do seem to be knocked more than others: tops of heads and weapon tips seem to bear the brunt.
The reference to the chesnut horse is lost on me; but it is a nice looking horse. D
Thanks!
Going by my lightly varnished Confederates, hat brims are a prime candidate for flaking. I’m liking this primer idea. It makes a ton of sense. Flaking seems to always go to bare metal, not to the primer beneath.
This battery would have been a part of the ‘Chestnut Troop’ of the Royal Horse Artillery, which were (in theory) all mounted on chestnut colored horses. I should have said that in the text, instead of making an obscure reference!
You learn stuff every day – ain’t gaming wonderful?
Excellent work, Tim. Don’t get rid of those Neil Thomas Napoleonic rules just yet….
Oh, I won’t get rid of them!
Lovely work! I too use the Vallejo airbrush primers, and just Dullcoat at the end. I never have problems.
Thanks! Hmmm… maybe I should stop whipping my troops when they perform poorly, then I won’t need as much varnish.
LOL!
Top work as per usual and your photography is getting a lot better.
Thank you, sir.