1st New York Cavalry

So, some of the last painting of the season for me. Pretty much the last actually. I must set to packing up the painting kit now.

I managed however to get a fair bit of time, which was needed, in to finishing the first unit for my Federals; the VI Corps cavalry – 1st New York.

It is my experience that the average cavalry figure takes three to four times as long as an infantryman to do properly, and these guys were no exception. The Perry figures are finely detailed, but that of course means more to paint and thus it slows down the making.

Still the cavalry were the obvious choice to do first, I had some good reference to hand to start on them, and they were able to serve as a useful stand-alone unit to test uniform colours on. As it happens two paints I already had were ideal for the basic uniform. Flat Blue (70962) proved perfect for the trousers whilst Dark Prussia Blue (70899) suitable for the coat. Both of course needed highlighting up, but as standard uniform basics I’m pretty happy with them.

I’m also fairly happy with the horses, though they took the bulk of the painting, what with the three to four layers of highlighting applied.

I’m not at all happy with the flesh tones, though at a distance they do look OK. Something went wrong when I highlighted over the wash, I think the reverse would make more sense in future.

For the basing I mixed together summer and autumn grass mixes, with a handful of turf, which gave a fairly natural look.

So anyway, that’s them done, though who knows when I’ll get round to any infantry to back them up!

As for the November totals, well the (essentially final) totals for the year now stand at:

Bought: 263

Painted: 432

Sold: 124

So we never made a 2:1 ratio in the end, as buying got kinda out of control. But I did manage more than I bought, which is at least assuring. And selling over a hundred mini's (all to the same regular customer, as it happens) certainly helped fill the bank balance (to the sum of around £150!). Overall I'll have to take that as satisfactory.