Lace 'n Big Hats: November 2012

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

28mm Napoleonic British 18th Hussars and 3rd Hussars KGL

I have been working on these two regiments of British Hussars for six months. They are the 3rd KGL Hussars and 18th Hussars. The figures are from Elite Miniatures (28mm).

The swords have been replaced by steel pins, which I soldered on. I ground off the original reigns and replaced them with thin copper wire. I converted some horses, having them tumble, or rear up, with my handy dremel. I moved some of the Hussars body parts around; heads looking side ways, arms at different angles. I would have liked to have had one of the figures doubled over, or falling to the side. I figured I could do this by using the dremel to cut out a wedge, deep at the ourside, narrow inside the figure, which would allow the figure to be folded from the belly forwards. But the braid on the Hussars jackets got in the way. I will try this another time.

I had to drill/cut through hands, and then build up the hands again, to get the copper wire reigns to appear to be held the Hussars. This was a warm up exercise for two regiments, each of 32 men, of Saxon Napoleonic Cuirassier. The Saxon figures are from Connoisseur and are one of their classics.

Grinding off the reigns took days of laborious work. It wasn't worth it. When I took a look at some beautiful Guard du Corps figures, which I was imitating, I noted that the original reigns were still there. The modeller, the superb Peter Guilder, had just added another set of reigns with copper fuse wire. I think the wire I used is a little bit to thick. I may use a thinner wire next time. I hammered this wire flat before adding it to the model. There are still some jobs to be done. The wire reigns has to be smoothed in places. I am going to import some Silfor tufts to put onto the bases.