"Sauvons Nos Aigles!"

Imperial Guard Plancenoit 1815

"Let's save our eagles!"

The Imperial Guard withdraw from Plancenoit during the battle of Waterloo crying "Let's save our eagles!" after being overwhelmed by the Prussian attack. The wonderful bust from CGS Military Figures certainly conjures up the thoughts and images of the bravery and ultimate sacrifice of Napoleon's Imperial Guard at Waterloo and this provided easy inspiration for the painting of this bust.

The Storming of Plancenoit by Ludwig Elsholtz

The Prussians attack Plancenoit by Adolf Northern

My Completed 200mm Imperial Guard Bust by CGS Military Figures (sculpted by Carl Reid)

Imperial Guard 1815

Further progress

This is getting nearer tothe finish line now. I have painted the eagle using a combination of Vallejo Brass, Rose Gold (powder) mmixed with Vallejo satin varnish and Vallejo Burnt Umber and Black.
I have attached the head and re-worked the blanket roll a little. The next stage will be the weathering of the uniform and flag.

Imperial Guard 1815

Continuing with the flag and knapsack

Some progress has been made over the last two days with the flag and the knapsack receiving some attention. For the gold colour on the flag detail I have used Vallejo Leather Brown and Yellow Ochre for the base colour, highlighted by adding further Yellow Ochre and then adding White for further highlights.
Knapsack is done using Jo Sonjas Red Earth and Raw Sienna 50/50 mix with Jaune Brilliant added for highlights and Burnt Umber added for shades. The roll at the top is considered (by me) to be a blanket roll and not a Greatcoat, as the Greatcoat is being worn. I prefer this option for a couple of reasons, first it fits in with the seasoned campaigner utilising all available resources and secondly it adds another colour dimension to the piece. I have used a grey base and added a mix of highlights using Raw Umber, Paynes Grey and Raw Sienna with additional hights created by adding Jaune Brilliant to each mix, some more work still to do on this.

Imperial Guard 1815

Continuing with the face, Greatcoat and flag

A fair amount of progress since my last post. Face, hair and Bearskin have been taken to near completion using the Jo Sonjas.

Here is the paint mix that I used for the face

The hands were painted next using the same flesh mix

Following on from there the Greatcoat has been rendered using a base of Jo Sonja Paynes Grey with French Blue, Medium Ultramarine and Naples Yellow used to create highlights and Blue Violet and Carbon Black for the shades.

In these pictures it looks a little bright. I do intend to darken it down as I will be going for a dirty and worn look.

In this next shot I have begun to dull it down a little using a wash over the entire (blue) area of Paynes Grey thinned with Vallejo Matt Medium and water mixed 50/50 with just 3 or 4 specks of the Paynes Grey. It's still quite subtle at this stage.
This process will continue when I begin to "dirty up" the uniform and flag using a variety of browns.

Here with more work done to the straps and the white and red areas of the flag.

Imperial Guard 1815

Face Painting

Having pre-highlighted through the airbrush I have pushed on with the face painting using 9 different flesh tones mixed with Jo Sonjas. Firstly generating 3 tints of mid tone using Norwegian Orange, White, Raw Sienna and Naples Yellow and adjusting by adding more white for the lightest and adding Burnt Sienna for the darker. The same was done for the 3 tints of light tones by working from the darkest and adding more Naples Yellow and White. The 3 tints of Greyed tone was achieved by using the same mid tone mix and adding Raw Umber, Hookers Green and Paines Grey to the mix in varying amounts. Warmer areas were created by adding Alizarin Crimson, Plum Pink and Cadmium Scarlet to the middle mid tone mix.

The pictures are after about 2-2.5 hours work and still require more refining but it's definately taking shape.