The Third Time's the Charm, Or Revamped Hussars. . . Again!

Still quite a bit to paint, but I've finally got the color of blue that I'm after.  Should have done this to begin with.  Why in the world didn't I listen to the little inner voice in the first place?

Sometimes, I guess, you just have to skin your knees a few times before things fall into place.  So, after trying out a wash of light blue acrylic over a white acrylic undercoat on a single hussar test figure Thursday evening, yesterday afternoon I re-applied (long, drawn-out groan) a white undercoat to the dolmans and pelisses of his 11 cronies.  Later, after supper and bedtime for Young Master Paul, while the Grand Duchess packed and streamed an episode or two of Desperate Housewives online, I stole away back down here to Zum Stollenkeller, to apply washes of Games Workshop light blue (Icy Blue?) and see how things stood this time.

Voila!  Eureka!  Shazam!  Holy Utility Belts Batman!  This is finally it.  The third time's the charm.  The watery light blue settled in the depressed areas -- No jokes about my mental state with regard to recent painting frustrations here, please! -- and ran thin on the raised areas, leaving, more or less, highlights behind in a pleasing Gilder-esque, or perhaps Mason-esque way.  The work went fairly quickly, leaving me time for some very judicious black lining on the inside of the bent left elbows of the figures (the sword arms).  I followed up be retouching the red on the breeches and added a black line or two behind the slightly bent knees of the figures.  Now, I finally feel like we can move ahead with these blasted figures and start to make some headway elsewhere.

Of course, the one fly in the ointment that I discovered yesterday is that, apparently, the lace on the dolmans and pelisses of the Lauzun Legion hussars was white/silver. . .  NOT the yellow/gold that I have painted!  Grrrrrrr. . .   So, that little detail will need to be rectified before too much longer as well. . .  Maybe.  My own hussars will be an imaginary unit of cavalry after all, rather than a true representation in miniature of the mounted arm of Lauzun's Legion.  So, maybe I am worrying about it too much?  But you want to get things just right, you know?  Still, I've finally managed to get the primary uniform colors fixed at last.  

Anyway, below, you'll find several uniform plates that I have found online, which I have been referring to in the painting, and I use the term loosely, of my Minden hussars.  Look closely, and you'll find some conflicting details.  These might have been details that differed between squadrons, or maybe just things that uniform historians aren't sure about now.  Or, like later Napoleonic troops, particularly the late-Napoleonic French and Prussians, they wore what they could acquire easily, and the term "uniform" did not have quite that same rigid connotation that it, more or less, does today.  I really like the gold lacing and white pelisse of the superior officer though (third illustration down). Since I have an extra pair of Minden hussars (officer and trumpeter), to paint as cavalry brigade leaders, there is a good chance I'll base a uniform on this plate at a later point.

Ok, there's painting to be done, ladies and gentlemen!  So, what are we doing sitting here jabbering about it?  And there's a game for me to plan and set up too.  Places to go and things to do, so I'd better snap to it.  Enjoy the weekend!