Tutorial on Painting the French Ligne - Part 3

When I left off I had a basic uniform for my figure, but still lacking detail, save for the cuffs and lapel piping. This is the point where you need to make some hard decisions. The more detail you paint, the longer it will take to get done. In this case you have details like:

• Buttons on the lapels
• Buttons on the turnbacks
• Buttons on the cuff flaps
• Pockets on the jacket (with its own piping, no less)
• "Easy access" flap in the trousers
• Cross-belts
• Cartridge box
• Backpack and/or blanket roll
• Bayonet sheath
• Sword, scabbard, and sword knot (for NCOs, officers, and grenadiers)

The list goes on and on. I decided to add only three: the buttons on the cuff flaps, turnbacks, and lapels. For the buttons on the cuff flaps, I simply painted three mustard-yellow dots on the blue flap. The yellow on blue has enough contrast that you don't need any highlighting. The grenadier cuff flaps, however, are red, and the contrast of yellow on red is not as great. Nonetheless, I did not change how I painted them.

For the buttons on the turnbacks and lapels, it is mustard-yellow on white, so more contrast is needed. I used my Micron black pen and drew a small dot of black where the buttons should go before painting the mustard-yellow on top (leaving a little black showing). This gives a shadow effect.

Don't worry if you don't get it perfect. It will look fine at "arm's length" viewing distance. Some of my figures don't even have the same sized buttons or the same number. Trust me, it gives the figure character. : )