Sunday, 20 September 2015

Essex Gendarmes

I have rather mixed feelings about these figures. They are very cleanly cast with good detail but most of the horses have a rather heads-down defeated pose and the thick, cast-on lances are held out to the side in what looks a very uncomfortable pose. Some of the figures are perfect for French Gendarmes but others are more Germanic looking and one had what looks more like a jousting helmet than the typical close helmet / armet.

One of the horses has barding straight out of the Triumph of Maximilian - although very well done, it just doesn't look like the smoother style of barding seen used by French Gendarmes in the Pavia Tapestries and the Voyage de Genes. I wish in hindsight that I had remodelled this with Miliput.


As with the previous group of Minifigs and Asgard / TTG Gendarmes, I replaced the lances with wire/Miliput and bent the arms to bring them closer to the body.












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4 comments:

  1. Anonymous25 November 2015 at 23:44

    very very nice indeed. The spirals are especially neat, and the paint is beautifully done, just slightly muted. Do you add a white or a grey to the paint?

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  2. Nathan26 November 2015 at 17:30

    Thank you.

    I'm very much still learning and experimenting with colour combinations. I wanted to find a happy balance that gives a reasonably light and bright overall effect but slightly faded and muted colours. My earlier figures tend to either be too dark or with colours that are much too vivid to be credible for the 16th Century.

    You are quite right: I have added a little white to the hi lights on yellow, and red (as well as, of course, blue) and a bit of light grey to green to try to get a slightly faded effect. The black is hi lighted with flesh to try to give a warm tone (not sure that really comes through). The overall effect is still unhistorically vivid, but I think it is better to err on that side with 15mm than to be too dull and muddy.

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  3. Mike B13 December 2018 at 19:13

    Outstanding paintwork!

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    Replies
    1. Nathan13 December 2018 at 19:42

      Thanks very much, glad you like them.

      They are nice figures to paint but not quite right for French 1520s. I regret now the barber's pole lances and checked motif but I've just bought a load of Venexia gendarmes from Lancashire Games and keep looking up at my print of the Ashmolean's Pavia painting for inspiration. They will have to wait a while though whilst I work through Normandy 1944 and Late Romans.

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