Some of you might still remember last years post about my 12ème Cuirassiers. From the beginning they were plagued by some problems. At first my better half wanted to paint these, but real life intervened and prevented her from finding the time and doing more than the first steps on the horses. So I picked up and finished the unit. All nine minis. Then I decided that I would not be gaming at a 1:30 ratio but 1:20 and painted two more… only that I would have needed four more. Last weekend I finally managed to finish those last two remaining horses and troopers. They had been sitting on my painting table for months now, primed and good to go.
12ème Cuirassiers 5th stand
Unfortunately the problems still went on. Once I started painting them I realised that one horse (the one painted brown) was suffering from the usual Perry metal casting problems and was missing part of the lower leg (right front leg). I must have seen this when I cleaned the minis up. since I had removed all the flash on he stump. Not wanting to wait any longer I went for the quick fix and just added a drop of white glue and put it in the sun for 10 minutes. And it worked since one can not see the defect.
12ème Cuirassiers 5th stand rear view
Adding all up it took almost 3 years to finish this unit. I just hope they will not be plagued by as much bad luck on the tabletop! To finish this post up… here is a photo of the unit as a whole.
12ème Cuirassiers
group shot
dhcwargamesblog 
The Angry Lurker
May 23, 2012 at 14:44
Damn nice complete unit but 3 years……..wow!
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Ray
May 23, 2012 at 14:54
An excellent looking unit!! I can’t see the dodgy leg, so you must have made a good fix job on it!!
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Burkhard
May 23, 2012 at 15:14
Thank you guys! Well the three years were in part my own doing. These two have been primed and good to go fr about a year. It only took me about four hours to finish them, so there was no real reason why I did not… Except I always gave other project priority. 🙂
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Curt
May 23, 2012 at 18:50
Lovely work! I really like the ‘at rest’ pose of these figures – a nice counterpoint to the madly charging units that are so common.
-Curt
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vonpeterhimself
May 24, 2012 at 00:59
Nice to get the unit done and gone Burkhard. I bet you’re pleased.
I like this set of figures. Much nicer and a pleasant change from the more common plastic set IMHO.
Salute
von Peter himself
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Rob
May 24, 2012 at 01:04
I agree with von Peter. I much prefer these castings to the plastic ones. I think it’s the way the horsehair plumes on their helmets fall. The charging poses may be correct with the plume streaming behind them, but I like the bulkier at-rest version.
Good work. I especially like the eyes – your men have facial expressions, and I think that brings them to life more!
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Burkhard
May 24, 2012 at 14:36
Thank you guys!
I agree that the metals have more character and that the falling plumes look great. The big problem is the casting quality with the Perry metals. It often takes a lot of time to clean or fix them so I will always mix Perry metals and plasitcs either within units or brigades. That way I can get the character of the metals and the crispness of plastics. Price usually is not the problem since I had the good look to get lots of metals cheap from a fellow gamer who had bought too much.
Regarding the eyes… I can not do without them… Without them they just look dead to me. But they are usually the last thing I do. Essentially the last step breathes life into the golem. 😉
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Rob
May 25, 2012 at 00:06
I’m VERY disappointed to hear that. I was hoping to expand my British colonials with some of the Perry Sudan line. Is it a flaw throughout the Perry offerings, or just their Napoleonics?
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Burkhard
May 25, 2012 at 07:36
Do not get me wrong (I think I might have sounded too negative), they are not bad miniatures. You just need more effort to clean them and must expect the odd horse with an incompletely cast leg or trail. Most of the later are easy to repair and if not… the Perrys are fast to send a replacement.
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Paul P
May 25, 2012 at 01:39
They look great,
3 years isn’t so bad, it took me 20 years to finish an 28mm Prussian battalion!!!
;0(
At least we got them finished :0)
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Burkhard
May 25, 2012 at 07:28
20 years is a hell of a long time. Did your painting style change over time?
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Dave
May 30, 2012 at 14:34
Well they have come up a treat irrespective of the delay. Slightly off topic question, how flexible are the figure ratios for RtE could one use Empire sized (usually 12 fig) battalions under the rules?
regards
dave
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Burkhard
May 30, 2012 at 14:42
Not a problem at all. Most people (including Barry Hilton who wrote them) play with 12 men units or units wherre the numbers can be devided by 3. It is only me who is this obsessed with detail! 😉
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