Friday 30 December 2011

Sapeur Postma

Painting, painting, and painting.  I'm beavering away on a light infantry unit I want to get finished before I start on anything else.

Yesterday evening and this morning I spent long hours on getting this one finished, as he is quite a bit more complicated than the rest of his comrades in the battalion.
Sapeur Garrin Postma, who, as a young blacksmith's apprentice in Lille, ran away to join the light infantry after Valmy, and whose strength and ferocity on the field of battle was legendary.  Very handy with an axe whenever a gate needs beating down (or heads, in).
His colonel was clearly a fan of les Habitants.  

This was a tough one to photograph.  Lighting wasn't what it could be- too bright or too dark, and the reds and blues came out much brighter than what they actually are.  The colours are really a lot deeper than this and the shading more subtle, especially on the apron.  

But it will stand out well enough on the tabletop, which is where it counts.

A Front Rank miniature, of course, and a remarkably clean and detailed sculpt.  It was a real pleasure to paint.

13 comments:

DeanM said...

Very nice details. Interesting to see the red colored coat. I know musicians would have all kinds of colors, but didn't know pioneers did too. Best, Dean

Ray Rousell said...

Great painting!! What regt is the figure based on?

Robert said...

There's a colour plate in the Osprey Napoleon's Light Infantry book which shows a sapeur of the 8e leger wearing a red coat with blue facings.

This was enough to strike the "I want that" chord, so I decided that, given the lack of evidence to the contrary, the regiment I'm now working on would have one similarly dressed.

The Osprey books mention that the sapeurs of the 30e de ligne and 15e leger were recorded as having worn red coats as well, while the 27e leger and the 3e & 18e de ligne dressed theirs in sky blue.

Gotta love those free-spirited French colonels.

Achilles said...

très bien monsieur!

Looking forward to the rest of the battalion :)

Paulalba said...

Very cool Robert

Rodger said...

Very nice work on this figure.

Christopher(aka Axebreaker) said...

Looking good.

Christopher

Doc Smith said...

I think you're pretty safe with the colour scheme - I think its backed up by the contemporary Otto Manuscript (as in Guy Dempsey's 'Napoleon's Soldiers') - he looks a mean enough dude and will add lots of colour to your Legere tete d'colon. All the best in the New Year to you.

Cheers,
Doc

Rafael Pardo said...

Hi
A nice addition for Lasalle!
Regards
Rafa

Curt said...

Great job! I quite like these outlier uniforms.

Blancard said...

Hi there,

I know it's a very late comment, but the cockade is erroneous, I think. From outside to the centre: white, erd, blue...

in case it helps ;)

Robert said...

The regulations stated white-red-blue, but I've seen references and other illustrations, some contemporary, which show the cockade in other combinations of the same colours as well. For example, an officer of the Croatian regiment.

How accurate these illustrations are, or how common any deviations from the regulations were, is anyone's guess.

This may shock purists, but I've taken so many liberties already with the uniform, that one more isn't going to hurt, especially for such a minor detail on a 28mm figure.

Blancard said...

That is a very reasonnable answer!