Painting 54mm Horses-A Pain Free-FAST method!

I spent about 10 minutes painting this horse for the 54mm Cuirassiers.  I paint all my horses like this; regardless of scale.  I usually go to Wal-Mart and pick up an "eggcrate" mattrerss pad.  I still have pieces of the last one in my horse painting box I bought several years ago.  Here's the process. It has worked consistently since 1980.  Thanks to Ed Johnson (gamer from the Royal Guardsman in Dallas), Ken Ray (still gaming in the DFW area) and Ruben Aguilar (he is no longer with us...) for taking the time to teach me the technique.  You may not like this and may like to use multiple "washes". To each his/her own. This is what works for me and I'ma stickin' to it.  

I use Windsor and Newton Water Soluble Oils for all my horses.  In this case, I used Ivory Black as "Cuirassiers were big men on big black horses".  I use Payne's Grey for my trumpeters and then add horse details straight from my old copy of the Imrie-Rimsey "Model Soldier Book".  

I glop the paint on the miniature with a large flat or round brush and let it set on the miniature about 5 minutes.  If I'm in a hurry or just want to get stuff done; I'll set the miniatures out in the spa room to enjoy the Tejas summer heat. Tends to cut the set time in half.

After letting the paint set for a few, I "pull the paint" off the figure with the foam.  One doesn't have to crunch down on the figure when pulling the paint; just pull it gently.  You'll use several pieces of foam. The art form here is to get a finished look that contain glops, streaks and or looks stupid (you'll have to figure out of what I speak).

You can see the finished horse in basic Black. I like to let the paint set overnight just to make sure I can paint over it with acrylics.  I'll detail the horse by painting its face, eyes, horse furniture, mane and tail and hooves.  After finishing the horses, I'll paint the riders.

Here's a little more of a close up.  Bottom line, I usually paint 20-30 horses in a setting or a unit in 54mm.  In All the King's Men, that is 8 figures per unit.  They look good en masse and are quite easy to paint and time-efficient to boot!  Let me know what you think. I never use washes, or paint the horse colors "up" like a polka-dotted dark to light effect (Dallimore's method). That looks like crap in a larger figure and is not time-efficient. It took longer to develop this post than it did to paint the figure!