Painting Polish Dragoons (tutorial)

This is a tutorial on how I paint the Polish Dragoons, I used the dismounted dragoons for this tutorial but the mounted dragoon miniatures are painted the exact same way. There will be a follow up tutorial on how I paint horses fairly soon as well.

I always like to wait with writing a tutorial like this when it comes to army painting projects since the first couple of miniatures/stands are always a learning process. You kind of figure out which steps are completely unnecessary after a few stands, so this tutorial is a slightly improved version of the initial paintjobs.

As always, I start by undercoating the models black, then drybrush the base in whatever color I find appropriate. I want this dirty drybrush work done before I start working on the miniatures.

Step 1)

Starting with the skin, models are painted with Vallejo tanned flesh, this is then washed with Ogryn Flesh Wash - I try to hit the facial area with the wash so that the area around the eyes get extra dark. I then use Vallejo Dwarf Flesh to repaint the face and leave the shaded eyes untouched.

During this step I also paint the hair, moustache/beards.

Step 2)

The coats/jacket areas are painted with a mix of Vallejo Scorched Earth and Vallejo Scarlett Red. Make sure you try to do this as tidy as possible and leave the black undercoat as natural "blacklining". Then apply a second layer, this time a mix of Vallejo Scarlett Red and Blood Red, and to give it a bit of shading wash these areas with Ogryn Flesh wash.

Step 3)

All leather straps, bags, boots, gloves and the wood on the muskets is all painted with Vallejo Scorched brown.

Belts, straps and satchels are then painted with Vallejo Khaki.

Boots and gloves are painted with Foundation Calthan Brown and then given a wash of both Devlan Mud followed by Gryphonne Sepia.

Step 4)

Wood on the muskets is painted with Vallejo Bestial Brown, the sword sheaths with Vallejo Ultramarines blue. Buckles, sword pommels and handguards as well as the metal on the muskets is painted with GW Boltgun Metal and then given a wash of Badab Black.


This may be a bit time consuming and you can probably trim this tutorial down even further - but this is how I paint them.