New Rabbit Holes....

 

two battalions of Chassuers of the Guard (soon to be followed by two battalions of Grenadiers)

       Having completed my Prussians I needed to find something to keep the mojo going. I had started these while waiting for my guns and artillerymen to arrive but they had gotten shunted aside once the Prussians arrived. With the Prussian brigade finished and no French yet available to fight I decided to get these folks out and finish them up. If Napoleon's Imperial Guard isn't up to facing the might of Prussia who else stands a chance, right? 

        I had first thought that the fact that they were wearing all blue and overcoats would make this a snap. How wrong I was! There is a confusing mass of white belts worn on the outside of the overcoat as well as a mass of fiddly little details all of which needed painting. It took a whole week to sort through all that but here they stand, just needing facial hair and sword-knots to qualify as completed. I learned a few things finishing these so the Grenadiers should come along a little bit quicker but I'm not figuring on a completion date before the end of the year on that. For now I just need to bang together some bases and it is off to the flocking table!

 

 

initially I used Citadel Levadon Blue contrast paint for the base coat but it cannot stand handling 

and I was constantly repainting wear points as I worked, eventually I had to shoot the whole mass with a matte spray just to get the paint to stay on the model as I handled them during painting

 

once I had switched back to my standard Americana paints things went more smoothly;

the backpack, cartridge box and sword belt all have their own set of belts and straps

all of which are white over the very strong blue color, many coats were required

 

they looked quite a raggedy bunch until the very end when things began to pull together

 

       When I undertake the Grenadiers I am going to force myself to paint the heads and backpacks as separate items before gluing them to the figure. This may sound odd but, given the mass of belts that are present on both sides of the figure (a good many of which run under the backpack) it seems that not having to maneuver around the extra details would making painting slightly easier. Once I get them finished  I will post my observations.