König Chevau-léger Regiment.

I finally finished basing a few units for my own small collection of AB Figures. First unit off the rank and based is the König Chevau-léger Regiment. A Bavarian cavalry regiment.

The green of the coats of 1809 was a darker green then was apparently worn during the 1812 campaign. Whether or not this change was represented in the actual units in Russia, I have no idea. But the darker green has been pointed out to me as wrong based upon the assumption my unit is for 1812. Just one of the travails of our hobby.

I have found when studying primary sources that what is written down and what happened, or was experienced, is a grey area. Even so, this bit of information allowed me to experiment with different colours, which I like to do in order to represent visually different nations.

The main shade of the jacket is painted using GW Kabalite green over a base layer of GW Caliban green. The paint is mixed at a one to one ratio with water and applied in successive coats, each getting smaller as they approach the “zenithal” of the miniature. Effectively the highlights are more intense at the top of the miniature, and darker as they progress down into the shaded areas.

I am still tossing up how extreme the contrast should be on the figures I paint. A lot of the miniature painters we admire paint for the web, which means the contrast on the figures is accentuated to make the miniature “pop” or look visually interesting. Paul Alba, a tremendous miniature painter, goes the other way and paints to accentuate the sophistication and proportion of the actual sculpt. I find this is the best option to take when dealing with AB Figures, as the nuances of shape and form inherent within a moving body is already in the figure. The former option does lend itself to sculpts of a more “practical” nature. However, it may be interesting to see the two combined.

Commissions.

I am currently taking small commissions of 10 – 30 figures. If you would like to commission a command stand, an elite unit or a diorama in smaller scales, please contact me here: expressminiatures@gmail.com.