War of Spanish Succession- Marshals of France

Only two Marshals to start with Monsieur's Tallard and Villars according to Front Rank, although you could call the figures anyone you like I guess depending on the paint scheme you choose, but for the sake of clarity if nothing else we shall call them as described in the cattle dog.

The horses first as they are nearest to completion (but furtherest from being finished), the strapping and eyes will be completed once I have the rider finished and duly mounted

The horse above did start out being as a deep chestnut but some where along the way morphed into a golden chestnut in colour which still looks pleasing.  This will be Tallards mount, when ordering the figures I notice that the figure although saluting with his bowed head would look equally at home holding his tricorne as the horse broke into a canter, that my hope.

Here we have Marshall Villars feisty steed which I think (hope) will go well with the figure waving his tricorne. This horse turned out exactly as planned, black with a hint deep brown, a colour I quite often see and thought would replicate. I don't know if this colour has a particular name. Both horses have been varnished to keep the safe from any 'more' damage and repairs, I'm a bit of a butter fingers some days!

Our worthy French Generals........

Monsieur Tallard which I have about half, maybe a bit more, completed with the blue of the coat and saddle clothe shaded and detailed.

Once the blue tones were completed I went back over the figure with the under coat and black wash to clean up any sloppiness before moving on to the crimson and yellow

The recess between the arm and face is a bit of a pain to get to, the photo does not show us anything but believe me it is all going on in there and will have to be painted,  it is easily seen with the naked eye. Nice detail on the face

Haven't made up my mind whether to use a painted finish for the gold trim or metallic paints though I am leaning towards metallic paint as true gold thread was used on the lace of very senior (wealthy) officers rather than gold coloured materials.

Monsieur Villar which I have done practically nothing to, but I thought you might like to see the sculpt.

The figure is about roughly the same angle as it will be on the rearing horse, looks cheery enough. He has a very nice plain uniform, I will have a look through my library and find out which regiment he was colonel of and maybe use that for the coat colour or maybe the french pearl white/grey coat colour, that would make for something different?

Once again it is a nice sculpt and should turn out well and don't forget to click on the pictures to enlarge them.

For those of you wondering why I'm being so pedantic about this and that with these figures they are being painted for sale on the inter web, here first and if I don't get any enquiries then ebay. The hope being I might build up some reputation for painting something more than table top quality miniatures adding some specialty pieces to my repertoire, of course I might just be day dreaming, you can but try. There is no misplaced sense of ego, these are not true display quality figures, but I would like to think they will turn out a cut above my normal output, if only my photos would stop turning out randomly grainy

regards
Dave

STOP PRESS I took a few more photos which have come out much better, not so grainy, with a good view of the face and a tentative attempt at giving the coat lace a painted gold finish (NMM), just for a look-see. Click on the pictures to enlarge

Much better indication of the blends and shading of the blue coat and a reasonable view of the lace work. I may do the other side with gold metallic paint to compare, what do you think?

regards
dave