The Sepoy General: Painting Sir Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington

 

Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (known to most simply as Wellington) was one of Britains most notable military figures. Wellington was a great thorn in the side of Napoleon Bonaparte all the way up to his defeat at Waterloo. So much did the Duke vex Napoleon that he would often scathingly refer to Wellington as a mere "Sepoy General", referring to his early career in India.

The miniature of Wellington I will be painting is from Perry Miniatures and came with Henry Paget, Earl of Uxbridge, and Lieutenant General Sir Thomas Picton, who both served under Wellington at Waterloo.

The miniature depicts Wellington's uniform at the Battle of Waterloo. First I primed him in black and painted his coat with Kantor Blue.

I decided to finish the coat before painting the rest of him. I washed the miniature in Drakenhof Nightshade, than added more layers of Kantor Blue, avoiding the recesses. Then I added layers of Altaic Blue over that.

I then added highlights of Hoeth Blue

With the coat done, I painted the hat and boots in black, the paints in an off white, and the skin. I also mixed red and black and painted it over the lips and eyes.

I then painted Wellington's lips and eyes, added a light wash to the pants and skin, and highlighted the hat and boots

I then painted the smaller items such as the spurs, sword, telescope and add layers and highlights to the pants

Wellington done, I moved on to his horse. I primed him black and air brushed the saddle blanket with a blueish grey color

I then painted the horses hair, mane and the harnesses. I also washed and added highlights to the saddle blanket.

I then washed everything except the blanket in Agrax Earthshade

Then I added highlights and painted the eyes.

My last steps were to add details to the horse to make him look more like Wellington's real horse, Copenhagen, and to redo Wellington's face a bit. His eyes were very bugged out and looked terrible. It looks a bit better now. Good enough for the table top at least.

 And he's done! The perfect companion to the Napoleon model I finished a few days ago. Now I just have to paint their army's so I can pit them against each other.