2o Bellalugosi Line - Haute Couture!

 The main uniform colours have now been decided upon for The 2o Bellalugosi Todaroni - The Pledge. I would like to say that I did loads of research and scanned through hundreds of Napoleonic uniform guides - actually I painted the uniforms white because I like the colour and contrast it gives against the Black undercoat!

Photos One to Four - The White uniform areas have been painted with GW Skull White over a layer of Vallejo Stonewall Grey allowing both Black and Stonewall Grey to show through in the shadows.

The eyes have been painted GW Badmoon Yellow and when dry, washed with GW Red wash. Both the colour and technique were unashamedly stolen from the Rob Alderman article in issue 2 of 60 Bloody Rounds. See earlier posts for more details.

Photos Five to Seven - More uniform painting. I wanted a Crimson Collar and Cuff colour and choose GW Red Gore as the base, highlighting with Red Gore and Bloody Red, but never actually using Bloody Red on its own.

Regular followers/readers will know that I enjoy using strong primary colours. particularly Bloody Red on my miniatures. In this case it took a considerable amount of will power not to paint a final highlight of Bloody Red.

At this stage there is a very strong Red-White-Green theme going on - very appropriate for the Italian based Todaroni.

Photos Eight to Ten - Some additional uniform painting. I have added a touch of blue to the feather on the officers bicorne, also highlighting the trim of the headgear with Gold. The rosettes on the bicornes have all been painted red-white-green and any Gold areas first painted with Dwarf Bronze, then Gold and finally Polished Gold to add highlights.

The pure Black areas have been highlighted with very Dark Grey, see Boots, Bicornes and shotte bags. At this stage I am still deciding how to paint the eyes - black dots or slits?

With most of the main painting finished, I expect the detail painting; flintloque, trim and bases to move along quickly. As usual, more to follow and very soon. On a personal note, I am very pleased with the crimson uniform detailing rather than my more usual Blood Red.

These Todaroni really are a very colourful unit - 'the very height of Napoleonique/Neapolitan high fashion.'

Tony