More Victrix painting adventures!

I was looking at my Victrix Italians and noticed that the Voltigeur company was bereft of two plumed shakos, making it look at bit, well... ordinary.  Hunting threw my spare bits I found two long shako heads so decided to do a head-swap op!

In doing so I decided to paint up the new heads at least in base colours before I attached them because of the fiddly paint work involved with the packs partially covering the back of the heads.  Well, once I started on this I kind of continued, as I was getting pretty good results just holding the heads by the plume and painting them up.

 

I ended up putting washes and finishing which I found easy to do.

I then glued on the heads and painted the shako plumes - they'll just need a wash to add depth and some  highlight to the feathers and they're done!

This poses an interesting question as it took me about ten minutes per head to paint to completion - less than an hour from having the idea, luckily finding the required bits, painting then gluing them on.  It would seem that you can do fine detail required quickly and easily painting the heads before putting the model together.  Hmmm, I wonder if I should try it with the next bunch of Victrix I build? 

As you can see in the last pic they're big lads against the Perry's cuirassiers I'm doing behind them but will still fit in well enough.  

Happy now I have four Italian Voltigeurs that actually look like those fancy-dancy skirmishers! Now after that brief illuminating interlude - back to the cuirassiers!

Cheers,

       Doc