Plastic Mounted Men at Arms

I painted these a couple of weeks ago, but I have only just got around to photographing them! I tried to paint a little variety in the armour, with some of the armour unpolished (black) and others highly polished (which would have been incredibly expensive!). I also tried out some new methods for painting horses that I have been working on, I am quite pleased with how these turned out.

The last photo is a unit of light cavalry made by just using the liveried men at arms in the box with various open faced helmets from the infantry sets.

Russian High command

One of my favourite sets so far. I enjoy researching the personallity figures and trying to find portraits to work from. I tried to get the green right on these which is shown as almost black. Infact Russian Napoleonic uniforms should always be a very dark green. Some officers and generals are often depicted with a slight blue hue to the green too.

Russian special offer figure

This is the special figure you get when you buy 3 or more boxes of the Russian plastics from Perry Miniatures.

Russian Jäger Battalion

When Alan asked me to paint another box of the new plastic Russians, I asked if I could paint them as a Jäger Battalion this time. I got a bit ahead of myself and decided to do a few skirmishers, using bits from the British firing line plastics. All that was needed was to cut the wings off of the shoulders and change the cuffs and they were good to go. Fortunately Russia also imported vast amounts of British muskets during the war, so the British design musket isn't incorrect.
This gave me the bug to do a few more conversions. As Jägers did not use standards I had to make some figures to fill in the gaps. Using bits from the Prussian, British and even Zouave sets you can make some really nice and varied figures, while not standing out from the crowd too much.
The officer was converted from a plastic Prussian officer, as the uniforms were very similar. The only major difference being the gourget, which was taken from the supplied plastic Russian officer.

Plastic Napoleonic Russians

The new plastic Russians from Perry Miniatures... second box on the painting table now!

Russian field officers

I have a soft spot for the Russian army. I painted the horses to show the "wild" blood that would probably be present in Russian horse stock.

English mercenaries

War of the roses plastics painted as English mercenaries fighting on the contenant. The St. Georges cross livery gives them that football holligan look! I'm particularly pleased with the armour effects on the men in full harness.

15th Century Milanese

Plastic with metal pike, painted as Milanese. Striped hose make them stand out as European.

Napoleonic Neapolitans

Plastic French painted as Neapolitans. When Alan shown me these uniforms I couldn't resist asking if I could paint some for him! Just need the flag.

Prussian Landwehr lancers

ACW Zouaves

ACW rioters

I was very excited to paint these when I saw Alan sculpting them. Couldn't resist some "Gangs of New York" inspiration!

Medieval wagons

Again, a real joy to paint. They look great in games too.

Defence of Paris 1814

I can't resit painting irregular units! Im looking forward to painting some battalions of these soon.

Austrian Generals

These were a real challenge to paint. White and red are hard to pull of effectively.

Prussian command

These were the first horses that I painted aftr paying close attention to natural horse colours. I'm particularly happy with how the white horse turned out. I really enjoy painting Prussians.. there is something about those sombre uniforms that appeal to me!

Prussian wagons

These were the first of the new wagons made for Perry Miniatures. A joy to paint!

Plastic Prussians

French foreign legion lancers

Painted after studying Spanish horse breeds from the 19th century. Backed up with contemporary images.

Michael Perry's collection.