French Cuirassier 200mm bust Box Art

Box Art for CGS Miniatures 200mm Cuirassier Bust

1er Regiment de Cuirassiers Waterloo 1815

Here I present my first box art commission for CGS Miniatures - 200mm French Napoleonic Cuirassier sculpted by Carl Reid.

A beautiful figure to paint which presented an opportunity to explore some different techniques and mediums to tackle the various finishes required.

First of all here are some shots of the finished piece.

I used multiple mediums for this piece beginning with priming the cuirass and helmet with gloss black enamel through the airbrush. This was followed by an airbrushed coat of Spaztix Mirror Chrome (most commonly used on RC car bodies), the opacity of this was increased for the highlighted areas with just a single thin coat in the areas of shade. This is a super chrome finish, about the highest shine I've yet to find.

 

The cap peak on the helmet has been left gloss black and the face primed with a medium flesh mix of Jo Sonjas over matt black undercoat (Jo Sonjas Carbon black)

As is my common practice the flesh and clothing have been rendered in Jo Sonjas.

Here we see the face near completion.

 Colours used (all Jo Sonja) are:

White + Norwegian Red (base flesh)

Burnt Sienna (added to base for shades)

Raw Umber + Green Oxide (added to base for greyed shades)

Naples Yellow (added to base for highlights)

Raw Sienna (tones)

Peranment Alazarine (tones)

Plum Pink (tones)

The blue uniform colours (all Jo Sonja) are:

Paynes Grey + Ultramarine Blue (base colour)

Naples Yellow ( added to base for highlights)

Black (added to base for shade)

Raw Umber + white (added to base for greyed highlight)

Raw Umber + Black (added to base for greyed shade)

The cuirass and helmet have had some additional shading done to add further depth using thinned oil paint (lamp black and vandyke brown)

Printers inks were used for the brasswork, a mixture of copper, 9 carat gold and silver with mars black and burnt umber oils to shade. These give off a distinctly different sheen to the mirror chrome.

 

Due to the higher opacity of Vallejo paints over Jo Sonjas I often prefer to use them for whites and did the gloves/gauntlets and straps with a mix of Vallejo white, buff, yellow ochre and medium grey.

I wanted to add some real texture to the mud weathering so opted for Vallejo pigments, first mixed to a thick consistency with Vallejo matt medium and applied with an old brush, then thinned out with water and flicked on.

The carbine has another different metal effect, this time it's an undercoat of Jo Sonja carbon black with careful rub over with a soft pencil and polished with a cotton bud. I feel this still matches the type of shine acheived by the mirror chrome although in a duller more gunmetal finish.

The carbine's stock is a vallejo Red Brown, Brown Earth and Raw Sienna with layers of Brown Earth considerably thinned with Vallejo matt medium to give it a sheen (I know it's suposed to be matt medium, but a few layers of it give Jo Sonjas a nice glow).

A big thanks to Graham from CGS Military Figures for commissioning me to do this wonderful bust. Alongside the previously released Imperial Guard bust I feel these are the amongst the best busts released on the subject. An absolute joy to paint.

Alex.