Perry French Napoleonic Heavy Cav - Horses

Here is my first 2010 project - Perry French Heavy Cavalry. I started on the riders, but when I had left over paint for the rider's coats & facing I switched to the horses' saddlery (I hate wasting paint - even craft store stuff).

After this, I wanted to try a new (for me) technique to paint horses. I first dry-brushed light colors over the black base coat. The carabinier horses were given light gray and mudstone as they are blacks. The cuirassier horses were given a mixture of yellow, brown and sandstone - in varying degrees, as they will be reds and bays. The musicians' horses will be grays (the cuirassier one ended up being dappled - as was the carabinier officer's).

According to a horse painting guide in an old Historex catalog I've had for decades, the so-called "blacks" are actually dark brown bays. The guide recommends a mixture of dark ultramarine and carmine. I had to google both to be sure, although I thought it was dark blue and reddish brown anyway. The mixture was initially a bit too purple for my taste, so I added more black. The finish has since been improved with successive dry brushing of grays. More pictures to follow after I finish their saddles.

I decided to use Vallejo Inks, black and red brown instead of a paint wash for the reds & bays of the cuirasssiers. It came out pretty good. I didn't even dry brush over them later - which was my intent to use this "new" method anyway. Maybe I could've lightly rubbed some of the highlight when before it dried completely though. No biggie. Looks really good for the minimal effort. I will use this method for future horses colored red or bay. Oh, and it really helped that the Perry sculptures have nice definition.

Here are the cuirassier horses (less the officer's) completed. I chose the 4th Regiment as there were flags for this unit and the 10th - the 10th had yellow facings. I wanted the aurore (aka bright orange) facing of the 4th. Here's the kicker though. For whatever reason the Perrys didn't sculpt the grenade badges on the ends of the saddle-cloth. It's understandable why they wouldn't put numbers on the portemanteau. The grenades actually were easier to paint than the number 4 though. I know the carabiniers will be the 1st Regiment now! The sheepskin shabraque was given a dry brush of a mixture of white, yellow and sand - didn't want it to be too bright. Musician and officer sheepskins are black. The wolves-tooth edging of the shabraque is the regimental color of aurore, as is lining of the folded cape on top of the portemanteau.

I think the riders will be a little easier than the horses - at least they're smaller. Carabinier horses next, as well as the cuirassier officer's.