9/19/13

Wooden Wars: Napoleon the Emperor



" On the field of battle his hat is worth fifty thousand men; but he is not a gentleman."
~ attributed to the Duke of Wellington


Vive Le Emperor!

I'm taking a break between battle reports (so I can go through the file of pictures and winnow them down to a decent blog posting) to show off two of the painted Emperor models, and the new standing horse.  The poses you see are options with the Emperor model kit.  Each time I design a new model, I like to push what can be done within the confines of the sprue size- which I have determined to be 4 x 6 inches. In the case of the Emperor, I really wanted to showcase his famous hat, so I worked on the design to show it off in more pieces, creating dimension and parallax.



The Emperor's new sprue. Note the Légion d'Honneur medal
Couldn't You Have Made A Bigger Sprue?
Yes, I could have gone bigger, and indeed my first sprue designs (now OOP collector's items) were twice that size.  For so many reasons the 4 x 6 works better, giving me a stable framework in which to design. Sometimes boundaries are a good thing - just ask my producers at work :)


The horses were based off of ones in paintings of himself.





Saxon Chevau-Légeres  
Here I've taken the ADC model and painted him up as a Saxon Chevau- légeres light cavalry trooper in the 1812 uniform.  There was no conversion, just paint, although I did favor him with the standing horse.  This is a smart uniform, and shows well on the game table/battlefield. I'll be doing up a full unit of these dashing blades. 


Mounted and dismounted. The latter was done with the French foot officer.

Fur texture was enhanced by the actual wood grain of the steed.

Two variations using the same ADC model!

I cut off the hilt on the sword scabbard for the Léger, as he is holding his saber.


2 comments:

  1. Thanks Simon. They are quite fun to paint up, and because of the scale, you really get a feeling of accomplishment!

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