Monday, April 11, 2016

1° Chevau Leger Lancier




Can this really be the first unit I have painted in 2016?! Unfortunately the answer is yes! Where has the time gone?

I signalled that these were going to be on the drawing board way back in January. 3 months later, here is the finished product: The Neapolitan 1st Chevau-Leger Lanciers, using the new Waterloo 1815 set of French lancers and providing new heads by a little judicious head swapping. All troopers have shakos while the officer gets a rather dandy busby.

I still haven't worked out a good place to set up a photo studio in the new house, so bear with my lighting fails.

The figures are very hard plastic, more akin to Zvezda than Italeri in consistency. The lances are very delicate and require extreme caution when cutting them off the sprue. I'm wondering how long they'll last on the actual figures The figures carrying their lances in an upright pose are particularly vulnerable; I've already clumsily knocked one and bent the lance at a precarious angle!

The sculpting is very delicate and in proportion with dynamic poses, but one gripe is the shabraques which have a curious 'tail' on both sides, reminiscent of a British light dragoons shabraque:

Exhibit A
Besides that minor gripe, they are very nice figures and will grace a tabletop in the not too distant future, I hope. They may well end up going the wrong way, but they will still be on the tabletop!










6 comments:

  1. Fragile lances aside, they are a most splendid unit - fabulous job Sir.

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  2. Excellent painted figures and great conversions!

    Greetings
    Peter

    ReplyDelete
  3. Well worth the wait Ben.
    The shabraque may not be so 'odd'. The images on the (now defunct?) Empire Histofig depict the chevau-leger lanciers with such horse saddlery. I'll email you a copy.
    James

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