Dismounted Union Cavalry Tutorial

Alright, I started out with the always lovely Sash and Saber miniatures, cleaned the flash, glued to a piece of cardboard, and undercoated black.

Next I painted the flesh with Games Workshop's Kommando Khaki. I always paint the exposed flesh first because it give the firgure some "life" if you will. As a side note, all paints used will be Games Workshop unless otherwise noted.

Then it's on to the base coats for the main parts of the figure. Regal Blue for the jacket, and Ultramarine Blue for the pants. I'm not really concerned about neatness at this point, just getting a good base down.

Next up I start adding color for all of the details- the yellow piping is kind of a hassle, for some reason every yellow paint I've ever gotten has been thin and runny! The one used here is Reaper's Sunlight Yellow (you'll probably need a couple of coats to get good solid coverage). The rest of the details are filled in but I intentionally leave some black in between colors, this will save some time when I blackline a little later on. The stock of the carbine is Scorched Brown, the metal is Boltgun Metal, and the sword hilt is Burnished Gold.

Now that I've gotten a basecoat on everything, I go back and touch up all of the black leather, and then "blackline" the entire figure. This can be very time consuming if you are trying for perfection, but as you can see for average painting I don't concern myself with perfect lines. After I start highlighting I'll touch this up.

Next I highlight all of the exposed flesh with Elf Flesh, being careful to leave plenty of the base coat in the recesses. I basically hit all of the high points.

I rushed through this picture so it is blurry, but you can still see how I've highlighted the face. I'm basically painting basic shapes for the nose, chin, cheeks, lips, ears, and forehead.

Now that the skin is completed I start highlighting the pants and jacket. I don't really have an exact method for this, I start hitting all of the raised folds and wrinkles, and then just fill in shapes to give the impression of more contours. The pants are highlighted with Ice Blue and the Jacket with Ultramarine Blue. I also touch up the yellow piping during this stage as well.

Almost done! I highlight the carbine stock with Graveyard Earth, any metal with Chainmail, and the buttons and beltplates with Burnished Gold. Final step before basing is a coat of 'ardcoat to protect all the hard work put into these figures once they hit the battlefield!

I don't have any illusions of being a great painter or anything, but I like to think my figures have somewhat of an impressionist style and they definitely do stand out with the bold highlighting and blacklining. Hopefully this gave you guys some inspiration to get those brushes out and start painting!