Isabelino Spanish Troops Finished...and something a little different

This week has seen the completion of the final four Spanish battalions of my Isabelino army for the First Carlist War. All four battalions are in greatcoat - which significantly speeded up the painting process - and are in a mixture of covered shakos and bonet de police ( or "Isabelino caps").

In parallel I have finished the Foreign Commanders pack (although the bases still need completion):

Bernelle (French Foreign Legion)

de Lacy Evans (British Auxiliary Legion)

Spanish Colonel

Next to be painted for the Carlist War is the French Foreign Legion infantry, of which two battalions are stacked nearly in the lead pile.

Also completed this week is something just a little different. For some time now I have been admiring the Perry Retreat from Moscow range and, having recently watched the new BBC production of War and Peace, I have bought a batch of figures to paint for my amusement.

The first item in the Retreat From Moscow collection is a sledge, which represents a part of the sledge borne brigade formed by Colonel Marbot from the the 23rd and 24th Chasseurs a Cheval that he dismounted and used the surviving horses to pull two-man peasant sledges found in local villages.  

This model, the sledge with walking horse, is the first of four sledges that I will do. It was really fun to work with because I got to work with lots of earth tones, which I like because there is always lots of texture. I should have shot these images with a wintery background, but regretably the printer wouldn't play ball.

The snow on the base was created using an artist's texture paste that sets hard and flat white. I will add another layer of this to make the snow a bit deeper and smooth it out a little more.