I started a new project over the weekend. This is one of my favorite kits from Pegaso. It's the 75mm mounted Captain of the Hussars. He's been sitting partially assembled on my work bench for quite a while now just tempting me to start painting him. Other projects kept intervening but, having just finished up at the Crystal Brush competition, it was finally the right time to get started on him.

The work is still in the early early stages. I've basically just done the face on the rider and started base coating his upper body. I've seen quite a few versions of this figure online, often painted as one of the 4th or 6th hussars. So I decided to do something slightly different and paint him as one of the 5th hussars. This means I'll be going for a lighter blue for the basic clothing and then white for the pelisse. Here's what I've done so far...


I paint the face in a couple stages. The first step (below on the left) is to get the basic highlights and shadows in. At this stage I'll step back and evaluate how he looks. In this case I thought a few of the shadows needed more work, a couple blends could be smoother, and I wanted brighter highlights on the tops of the cheeks. So then I'll go in to fix those things. I'll also take care of details around the face (like the hair, collar, and chin strap). I'll take another look at the shading on the face to make sure I'm happy and then I'll start to add in color variation through glazes of thinned down ink. This is where I put the red in the cheeks, nose, and ears. I use blue to tint the jaw and create the impression of stubble. I'll also add a bit of blue/purple under the eyes. You can see the difference this makes by comparing the two images below.


Another thing I did with this face was alter the shading on each side. His head is turned and slightly titled, so the right side will be more in shadow and then left will be more in the light. It's not as noticeable from the front, but you can definitely see if when you compare the two sides.


Up next will be his colback. Once that is done, I'll move on to his body and see how well I can do with the blue for the 5th hussars.

Excellent start with that face.

marc

I'll second what Marc said, superb

I presume you paint using acrylics?
Really nice skin tones and looking forward to seeing how you deal with the gold lace........

Steve

bery bery fine

very very fine

Thanks, all!

Steve, yes, I am working with acrylics. I've started doing some of the lace details on his colback, but I'm not entirely happy with how they're going. So I may rethink my process a bit and try a slightly different approach. I'll be sure to share the details once I get it figured out!

That's a superb face.
Really looking forward to seeing this develop.

Cheers,
Andrew

Great start and loving all the notes. Your paint work and blending is always so fine I really enjoy seeing your figures come together. Do you start painting the face with a black primer or undercoat - or is that just for the headgear?
Cheers
Mat

Spectacular so far.

Thank you!

Matt, there was a time I used black primer for everything. These days I tend to work with a white or grey primer. It all depends on how many layers you paint, but in general the colors will be a bit brighter when you work on top of a white or grey primer. On this figure I used a grey primer. Before I get too far into painting the face, I make sure to base coat everything that touches the face. In this case, that's the black hat, the chin strap, the collar, and his facial hair. I expected I'd accidentally get some of that black or dark brown on the face as I went right up to the edge between the two areas. It's much easier to clean up when the face is just base coated rather than when it's got all of the shading and highlighting on there.

Fantastic face

Superb painting. As already mentioned the blending on the face is excellent.

Chris

Great start, if rest is as good as the face it should be a marvellous figure.

Looks like this will be a stand out, great work!
Regards
Chris.

Mine is almost done! Just missing some details. It's a great kit, worthy of the money.
I'm sure you're gonna do a beautifull work. The face looks excellent.

Regards
Pedrp

Face is looking good , Very interested how you tackle the 5th hussar blue as I am about to start the MM 90mm 5th and have no idea how I will get this difficult shade

This is going to be amazing, cant wait to see the next step in your painting! I agree with everyone else, the blending of the skin tones in fantastic. Question, what inks are you using? I used to use Windsor and Newton but started using the Games Workshop washes instead, almost the same effect as inks I feel but wont fade in sunlight or over time.

Slainte,

Andy

I loved painting this one. Looks like you are off to a great start.

great work on the face...