90mm Poste Militaire
Sculpted by: Julian Hullis
Painted by: Guy Herrick

 

 

This miniature is a white metal, 90mm kit produced by Poste Militaire. As expected from Poste Militaire, it is of the highest quality casting requiring minimal filing and sanding of seam lines. After careful examination, I decided to peg the upper torso and do it separately from the legs. The upper torso was fastened to a work base and the legs were epoxyed together and fastened to another work base. I also decided to peg the arm so as to be able to better paint the detail on the chest. The hand that was holding the shield was pegged to a dowel for easier painting of the hand and later the shield as well.

 

Flesh

After all pieces were carefully sanded and filed, I primed the figure with Floquil R9 primer. After the primer dried, the flesh area was undercoated with Humbrol #121. Next I used tube oils in three colors to base paint the flesh area. Here is the formula:

20% burnt Sienna
40% yellow ochre
40% raw umber

This mixture was applied to all areas of the flesh undercoated with Humbrol #121. The next step was to take a flat dry brush and wipe the above mixture off the figure with the undercoat showing through the remaining flesh mixture. (It requires several brushes to do this step as the brushes will load up with paint, so do not try to do this with only one brush.) Next, I added cadmium yellow tube oil paint to all the areas so that the undercoat shows through (e.g., cheekbones, forehead, nose, muscles on arms and legs, etc.). This was allowed to set for an hour before I took a wide brush again and gently brushed off the yellow. The next step was to add titanium white to all the areas previously applied with the yellow. This was allowed to dry for an hour before gently dry brushing the white off and at the same time working it into both the base mix and the yellow. This is a step that was explained in a Verlinden publication years ago and follows those steps right through to the finish. The last step was to add cadmium red sparingly to the lower lip and usually add a dot to each cheek, again sparingly, and work it into the surrounding cheek area. The figure is set aside for several days in a dust free cabinet to dry.

 

The other colors were painted with Floquil and Humbrol paints using a blending and shading technique. The last step was to take the lightest color used in the blending and shading process and add a little white to it on an index card and dry brush this over the color adding depth to the colors (e.g., a green loincloth).

 

 

 

Bone Breast Plate

 

While the flesh was drying, I went on to paint the other pieces. The first was the breastplate painted with Humbrol unbleached linen, washed with black, and drybrushed back with white. This gave an “aged” look to the bone and also gave depth to it too. The colored beads were painted medium blue prior to the wash and drybrushed with light blue. All leather straps were painted Humbrol Leather, washed with black and drybrushed leather with a couple drops of white added.

 

Shield

 

The shield was painted with Floquil khaki and blended and shaded using red brown for the dark shadow areas and white for the lighter areas. It was then drybrushed with khaki lightened with white. After drying, it was given a clear flat coat. The next step was to drybrush the left side with red. In the photo are five drops of red on an index card and with a flat tipped brush drawing off the semi-dry pigment around the edge of the wet, red paint. The 3 rd step was to dry brush the right side with yellow, for when the dry brushing technique is used, the original color, khaki, will show through the dry brushed color. The 4 th step was to dry brush green horizontal stripes (pre-marked lightly in pencil) on the right side of the shield. The one nice thing about the shield designs is that the original designs were not done in exact straight lines and would be slightly wavy or uneven. Finally, the smaller designs, shooting stars on the left and four small stars in the center (representing the four seasons), were painted down the center. I did not use the shield parts supplied, but went to my spare parts box and picked a scalp lock for the right side and a cluster of three feathers on the left side to be closer to my reference picture used to paint the shield.

 

It took as long to paint all the smaller parts as it did to paint the whole body of the Indian. I used a toothpick and a clothespin to attach the various small parts to help in the painting of these.

The moccasins were painted using several colors, khaki, buff, and red and the beadwork was done with a 20/0 brush. At this time the legs were attached to the base and all the groundwork was completed and dry brushed. The tall grass was from Woodland Scenics. .

 

 

Photographs by Guy Herrick and Brandy Small