Painting 40mm French - my technique

So having done the sample, here's the first batch of 40mm French Line troops. All up - maybe 4-5 hours. I don't flatter myself that anyone will want to copy my efforts, this is quick and dirty stuff, so this is perhaps more of an aide memoire when I next paint them.

1. - undercoat flat white, I just use an automotive primer. You want one that does dry matt though, or the contrast paints will slide off the thing.  

2. - flesh, I use Citadel Contrast Guilliman Flesh, to provide a nice light base for what comes after.

3. - white areas, Citadel Contrast Apothecary White, on roughly 50% of the figures I do the trousers white as well. If you're feeling adventurous, do some of the waistcoats in a different colour, blue, red or grey all work nicely, or a tan/fawn. You can also do some cartridge case covers in 'white' as well.

4. - the non-white trousers, almost anything you want, I like Citadel Contrast Skeleton Horde, Aggaros Dunes and Garagakh's Sewer, but you could go to town and do blue or red stripes on an Apothecary White base. I'm careful to get the line of the waistcoat right. 

5. - red, I quite like a slightly darker red, and it might seeem non intuitive to do it before the blue but it works better in my experience. Citadel Contrast Flesh Tearer Red, cuffs, collars, trim on the coat and on the Fusiliers, the shoulder boards. 

Ok, timing - 1 hour so far for 8 figures.

6. - blue, slightly thinned Citadel Contrast Leviadon Blue, trying to keep it neatish, you'll find on the Piano Fusiliers, that you can dab it in quite easily into the shoulder boards.

7. - pack Citadel Contrast Garagakh's Sewer, thin slightly if you want to show how rough the fur is.

9. - kit, for the greatcoats, variations of Citadel Contrast Space Wolves Grey, Citadel Contrast Basilicanum Grey, Citadel Contrast Skeleton Horde, and Citadel Contrast Darkoath Flesh. When you do the Basilicanum Grey this works well for the 'spats'. I do cooking utensils/pots and metal kit in Citadel Contrast Black Templar, as well as boots  at this stage and 'ceramics' using Darkoath or Citadel Contrast Gore-Grunta Fur. Wicker is either Citadel Contrast Skeleton Horde, or Gore-Grunta.

10. - hair, any Contrast browns, usually Aggaros Dunes, Garagakh's Sewer or similar.

11. - shako, Citadel Contrast Black Templar, avoid the fusilier's tuft.

12. - musket woodwork, Citadel Contrast Fyreslayer Flesh.

13. - bayonet scabbard, Citadel Contrast Contrast Wyldwood.

By now, you have reached the intermediate stage where most of the base colours are down, and it looks awful. But you're about to fix that. 

And so far, 2 hours 45 minutes... 

14. - get some bright red; personally, I use Vallejo 70.947 Dark Vermillion, touch up and neaten the Flesh Tearer, highlight the cuffs, collar etc. 

15. - white, I use Vallejo 70.951 White, Ivory also works well, especially if you are going to go back with a second pure white highlight. Touch up all the scrappy areas, collar edging, the cuff lace, turnbacks, belts etc. Also do the rosette on the shako, and the musket sling. I also do the white edging on the backpack.

16. - Tuft, I used Vallejo 70.851 Bright Orange, and I added the red dot to the shako rosette at this stage. 

17. - Citadel Contrast Black Templar for the gun metalwork. Tidy up cartridge pouch, boots and shako as required. 

Now the fun stuff...

Up to 4 hours 15 minutes

18. - flesh highlight, just nose, cheeks and knuckles Vallejo 70.315 Basic Skintone.  

19. - flesh wash, I used Citadel Reikland Fleshwash, but only on the face and ears.

At this point, you could choose to varnish before doing metals - 

20. -  metals, brass (I use Vallejo 70.878 Old Gold) for the attachment to the crossbelt, shako plate, pack buckles, chin scales, chest and cuff buttons, as well as the musket strap buckles. Gunmetal/silver (in my case, Vallejo 70.863 Gunmetal) applied to the musket furniture, barrel and bayonet, as well as the waistcoat buttons.

21. - metal wash. I always like to wash the metals to give them a bit of character, Citadel Agrax Earthshade over 'Brass' and Nuln Oil over  'Gunmetal'.

22. Optional.. if you want them looking like grizzled veterans, a thinned application of Citadel Apothecary White over the chin gives an excellent 'unshaven' effect. (You might want to go back and reinstate the lower lip if you get a bit overenthusiastic.) 

The result should look something like this, only better - because I'm not a great painter. 

French Line Infantry