54mm Dutch Belgian Royal Guard Artillery 1810

[Neil Merryweather]

So for my second foray into the dark art of figure painting I am using a 54mm master figure I sculpted back in 1992. I still have it because the company sent it back saying the finish was not good enough. I disagreed so I kept the figure and they didn’t pay me.


I have to say that now I use an optivisor I can see what they meant………(literally, ha ha!)

I found him when I was re-organising my 1-32 scale spares box.

Believe me, re-organising the spares box is NOT my idea of time well spent, but the old one broke apart and in transferring the stuff to the new one I found a lot of old friends from my adolescence, some of whom might well get a revamp on this very forum.

I had obviously returned the reference material I had used to sculpt him (and it probably wasn’t in colour anyway), so of course I had to spend money to find out what colours to paint him.

As this coincided with Peter Day’s excellent painting masterclass SBS I thought I would experiment with Peter’s approach. I would like to point out that in no way will I be holding Peter responsible for the poor outcome of this project…

This is going to be a real “warts and all” affair, as I really don’t know what I’m doing, so don’t expect any words of wisdom, I’m just inviting you all along for the craic!

Apart from a little bit of filler on the arm joint I didn’t do any tweaking this time, I just want to get on with the painting and see how I get on.

In the spares box were many examples of my adolescent painting, and I should also say that seeing them now I realise I was nothing like as good as I thought I was at the time (the arrogance of youth, eh?)

So now my expectations are low, and I’ll just be happy to finish another project. At least with individual 54mm figures they don’t go on for years like my aeroplane builds-although strictly speaking this one WAS started in 1992…..

I primed him with Halfords grey rattle can and pre-shaded with dark tones of the final colours

For the breeches and gaiters and waistcoat I used white with a little yellow mixed in as I don’t believe the white fabrics were so bright in the 19th century.

And I blocked in the blue and the red in the expectation that the tones will change a bit as I work into them.



So this is where I am, who knows where we will end up?

Thanks for watching

Neil

 

[Deleted member 6559]

Can't see anything wrong with that sculpt Neil - looks pretty neat to me. Nice work so far - will watch with much interest.

 

[Wouter]

Very nice sculptwork I must say. And I really love the Napoleontic era. Good start on the colors too.

You just need to explain me one thing: what does the title exactly refer to? I'm a Belgian and the term 'Dutch Belgian' is something weird for me ^^

 

[Neil Merryweather]

You just need to explain me one thing: what does the title exactly refer to? I'm a Belgian and the term 'Dutch Belgian' is something weird for me ^^

Hey Wouter, my apologies. The Osprey Book I used for reference was called "Dutch-Belgian Troops of the Napoleonic Wars" and this is the title I was given by the company that commissioned the sculpt. On closer study I find he is a gunner of the Artillery of the Royal Guard of the Kingdom of Holland.
I never bothered to actually read the book at the time, I just made the model, so I don't know why the Dutch and Belgians are hyphenated like that. To me it implies an alliance, but I have no idea if there was such a thing in 1806-1810,and if it sounds strange to you as a Belgian with an interest in the period then I don't know what the answer is. I don't even know which side they fought on, although the style is rather french. Now I have the book in my possession I will educate myself and let you know!
Thank you for the kind comment, by the way.
Neil

 

[Neil Merryweather]

Can't see anything wrong with that sculpt Neil - looks pretty neat to me. Nice work so far - will watch with much interest.

Thank you kindly, Peter. As I'm sure you know, once you start painting you find all sorts of snags!
Maybe I should have made more of a point of painting my sculpts before ,in order to see the pitfalls?

 

[Richard48]

Hi Neil.
I think the master you did looks pretty darn good to my eyes.Must have been a kick in teeth back in the day to not be paid etc.Hope you carry on sculpting,Nice to see another figure buff on here.Great work.
Richard

 

[Cameronian]

Good to se an 'off the beaten track' subject.

 

[Wouter]

Hey Wouter, my apologies. The Osprey Book I used for reference was called "Dutch-Belgian Troops of the Napoleonic Wars" and this is the title I was given by the company that commissioned the sculpt. On closer study I find he is a gunner of the Artillery of the Royal Guard of the Kingdom of Holland.
I never bothered to actually read the book at the time, I just made the model, so I don't know why the Dutch and Belgians are hyphenated like that. To me it implies an alliance, but I have no idea if there was such a thing in 1806-1810,and if it sounds strange to you as a Belgian with an interest in the period then I don't know what the answer is. I don't even know which side they fought on, although the style is rather french. Now I have the book in my possession I will educate myself and let you know!
Thank you for the kind comment, by the way.
Neil

Hi Neil, no need to apologise, I was just curious ^^. But it that makes sense now. In 1810 Belgium was a department of the French Empire. After Waterloo we became part of the Kindom of Holland but in 1830 we already revolted so they had us only for 15 years or so :P. Clearly the folks who made that book didn't have clue
Until 1810 the Kingdom of Holland was on the French side, one of Napoleons brothers was king. After that Holland was annexed by France.

 

[Neil Merryweather]

Hi Neil.
I think the master you did looks pretty darn good to my eyes.Must have been a kick in teeth back in the day to not be paid etc.Hope you carry on sculpting,Nice to see another figure buff on here.Great work.
Richard

Thank you Richard, Nice to have you aboard!

 

[Neil Merryweather]

Good to se an 'off the beaten track' subject.

It's certainly that! Thanks, George.

 

[Neil Merryweather]

Hi Neil, no need to apologise, I was just curious ^^. But it that makes sense now. In 1810 Belgium was a department of the French Empire. After Waterloo we became part of the Kindom of Holland but in 1830 we already revolted so they had us only for 15 years or so :P. Clearly the folks who made that book didn't have clue
Until 1810 the Kingdom of Holland was on the French side, one of Napoleons brothers was king. After that Holland was annexed by France.

Thanks Wouter. I will still read the book , though out of respect!

 

[Neil Merryweather]

I’ve done a bit more work on the whites. I followed Peter Day’s advice and only used a 5/0 brush. It seemed crazy to me not to just load up a big brush and cover the whole area, but it worked well, and I didn’t go so badly over the edges into other colours.



I blocked in the black areas with burnt umber, as I’m going to try and work them with thin black ink.

I added some highlights to the blue, which looks very odd at the moment, so I’m hoping for the best there.

This whole notion of building up the colours in layers is very alien to me- back in the day I just bought the right Humbrol paint, added some dark and light tones for the shading (usually wet on wet) and it was job done! Mind you as I said earlier, the results were not as good as I thought they were, and the state of the art has improved exponentially since then.

I do miss the smell, though…..

Hand control is a problem,(ooh er, Matron….) but seems to be getting a bit better. Also I think one gradually gets into a ‘groove’ the more one does it ( I certainly do with sculpting at particular scales) , so I think I will stay with 54mm and 1/35 for the time being, even though it’s tempting to do the bigger scales.

Anyway, most of the figures in my stash are this size, so I’d better just knuckle down and nail it.

That’s all for now ,thanks for looking

Neil

 

[Jim R]

Hi Neil
Looks a nice sculpt to me. Off to a good start and I'll watch the rest with interest. As I have said to Peter many times I like these colourful figures.
Jim

 

[Steve Jones]

Looks like you have caught the figures bug Neil. A great subject to have another go at. Looking good so far

 

[Neil Merryweather]

Jim , thanks and welcome to the party.
Steve, thanks, but I've always had the figures bug. I was just being super disciplined these last few years because of that damned Italian float plane. I knew that if I allowed myself to dally with a figure then I would never get it finished.
It remains to be seen whether I can acquire the painting bug,though

 

[Deleted member 6559]

Nice progress Neil. Finding a brush that suits you is so important.

 

[Neil Merryweather]

Hi Chaps, I have some small progress to report on my latest explorations.

I painted the coat with Prussian blue, which did have the desired effect of muting the high contrast of the highlight, but I should really have added another tone or two in between. I will wait and see how it comes out.

I painted the shako with thin black ink, and that’s kind of worked. I wanted different blacks for the plume and the peak, so I washed the plume with Warhammer green ink, and the peak with blue ink., and that’s kind of worked.




I gave the blue coat a wash of blue ink as well, to r try and give it a bit more depth, but it still needs more doing to it.

I started on the red, but I have found that my scarlet Model Air is too thin to cover the crappy job I did on the pre-shading, so I need to get some model colour. And I will definitely need better covering power when it comes to the fine lines and piping, so that will have to wait.

You may have noticed that I have yet to start on the flesh, but I am leaving that until the very last. Unlike Peter Day who always seems to do the face first, I prefer to leave it to the last. My feeling is that once the face is done it becomes a person, and therefore is kind of finished. And if it’s KIND of finished I am more likely to leave it and go on with the next one. This has indeed happened with my Tommy, who only needs a few tweaks and a base, but every time I think about it I don’t do it.

So that’s my painting psychology…….

Thanks for looking

Neil

 

[Deleted member 6559]

Nice progress Neil. I can entirely see the point of doing the face last. My reason for doing it first goes back to when I first started, when if anything was going to fail it was that.

 

[Neil Merryweather]

I've made a little bit more progress on this figure.
I'm still struggling with the paint consistency, but not quite as much. I HATE the glossiness of it.
I am really quite embarrassed at the poor sculpting of some of the details- I now understand this from painter's perspective(see what I did there?)
I'm not happy with the cross belts yet- I have looked at re-enactment photos and there's still work do be done there. apart from that I think there's nothing much left to prevent me doing the face and hands next


thanks for looking
Neil

 

[Jim R]

Hi Neil
He is looking good. Always liked these "brightly coloured" figures. Painting your own sculpt is something special.
Jim