All the King's Men 54mm Napoleonics Project Started

Ken Cliffe has hit another home run with his 54mm Napoleonics line.  He recently sent me a teaser gift, knowing I'm a lead prostitute-lead addict:  and will spend copious amounts of disposable income to build a cool Napoleonics collection.  My plan right now is to build a division per side (French and British) plus add "accoutrements" such as limbers, etc as Ken brings them out. Hopefully I can find some of the old Hinchcliffe Calder Craft sets like the field forge and Larrey's ambulance.  That will set me back but they were cool when I got started in the hobby and will be cool now.   I'm posting the progress of painting this figure and will describe the painting techniques, colors used and time it takes to paint it.  

All the King's Men sends two types of heads to construct either Cuirassiers or Carabiniers.  This is a cool touch.  The horses are soft plastic. I don't remember the manufacturer but I do remember they come from Argentina.  The carbines and sword scabbards are separate castings and must be attached.  I use a weird technique (go figure...right?) of a drop of Elmer's Glue plus a drop of Super Glue-Gap Filling to make a tough bond.  Hopefully this will help the miniatures avoid the grip of the "fat wargamers" like me.  I also like that all the horse furniture is molded onto the horse. The previous horses I've painted for my AWI 54mm collection had an Achilles' hell of the reins getting broken during play.  I could have fixed it by poking a hole in the head of the horse but I'm too lazy to take the extra time.

Ok, back to the figure.  I prime all my figures with Rustoleum Flat White after cleaning the soft plastic horses with Dawn dish soap.  It just works and has worked since 1980. Krylon just doesn't get the job done.   I built the rider and glued it down onto the horse before painting the horse. I don't have a problem doing that. I then glued the figure down onto an All The King's Men cavalry base after attaching adhesive backed thin magnet sheet to the base. My traveling boxes are metal lined. Again, that's just what I do.

I'll paint the horse with Windsor-Newton Water Based Oils. I use Lamp Black. I apply the paint in a thick "gloppy" coat and "pull" the paint off with sponge or foam pieces.  Been doing this for years as well.  Will post in progress pictures below.