British Hussars Floyd's Troop - Week 3

This week has been spent doing dozens of little bits and pieces - red trim on saddle cloth, ink wash for saddle cloth, sword (unfinished here), reins etc, bit more work on horses, shako plate, brass end to carbine, yellow trim on pellisse (and so on!)

 I also spent quite a while on the brass chin straps - some I just painted gold and others I tried a non-metal technique of brown and yellow. Can't decide which I prefer, perhaps a combination of both would be best.

 I also did the stirrups but these need touching up, and the metal barrell of the carbine, and the oilskin holders.

I'd never done horses before and while some of them have turned out reasonably well others need a lot more work. I find it hard to put in the same level of care and effort on them, my eagerness to get on with the rider (which I enjoy) causing a pretty slapdash approach.

Also need to finish the sash and cords worn around the waist. This is tricky as there is so much equipment in the way of the brush now, on the other hand because it is almost entirely obscured only a hint of red and yellow in the vague area will suffice. Would have been a real pity if I'd spent ages painting the sashes to perfection before assembling, only for them to be 95% hidden from view. I might still try the other method for the next batch which I hope to be a troop of the 18th Hussars.

"Are you sure about charging this square?"

The final steps will be the finishing touches - highlighting and tidying, and then basing. Not sure how I will base them, perhaps on quite large blocks of 8 or 12. I don't wargame but maybe the hobby will be around when I pop my clogs - hopefully in the distant future - and I'm sure nobody will want to buy a base of 50 horses! It's something I think about. I'd be interested to hear advice from the wargaming fraternity r.e. basing and numbers.

I'm going to paint up a few French and Belgian casuaulty figs and have fun sticking them on the bases (I believe it is a myth that horses won't trample on a man on the ground!) as well as various bits of battlefield detritus - drums, hats, muskets etc. If my memory serves - yes, I suppose I could look it up and check - the 10th only really got going towards the end of the day, so the ground would certainly be plenty of such items.