Showcase: Polish Lancer 200mm Bust

...and now for something completely different. Here's a little 200mm bust of a Polish Lancer of the Imperial Guard by CGS Military Figures.

The figure was sculpted by Carl Reid. I saw the bust advertised on Facebook prior to its release and was immediately taken with the dynamic pose and expressive facial expression. I'm also just way into the 1st Lancers of the Guard. They were the deep end of the pond (that is Napoleonics) into which I was shoved in 2015. After this sink-or-swim experience I developed a healthy dose of Stockholm syndrome for this cavalry formation (and 25mm minifigs).

Now as for CGS Military Figures - I hadn't heard of the company prior to that, but I'm not too well versed in larger scale figure manufacturers. I know of the 'big ones' (Young, Alexandros, Andrea, Pegaso, ...), but there is a multitude of small companies doing great pieces. And I greatly enjoy painting busts from time to time. 

I never get to spend enough time on any of them, but I enjoy these little detours into larger scales.

This bust cost GBP 35.00. I also got a bust of an officer of French Line Lancers in a more pensive pose. So I waited a few weeks, nothing turned up. No biggie, I'm willing to give a a lot of leeway in terms of delivery times, especially when it comes to small companies. 

Still, after a few more weeks I got a bit curious and sent an e-mail. Turned out the parcel got lost in the mail. The owner of CGS Military Figures was very swift to offer me to send the figures again, along with a free 75mm French Curiassier on foot (sculpted by Maurice Corry). One week later, the parcel with the figures was at my doorstep. CGS MF dealt very well with this situation and I happily unpacked the bust.

The larger busts come in a nice corrugated cardboard box with a picture of the full model stuck on top. The figure is all resin cast apart from the lance's shaft, which is a brass rod. In fact the model came with two brass rods and an extra lance tip, in case the first one snaps. For other components the kit includes very soft wires used for strings to which the tassles on the side of the czakpa are fixed.

Very, very little in the way of mold lines or flash. Assembly was pretty easy too, and I got to it. Most of all about these busts of course I enjoy painting the faces. It's just such good fun. I'm not saying I'm the greatest at it (or at painting busts in general), but I very much enjoy it and especially painting the faces usually goes very swiftly. 

There are two minor niggles I got about this figure - first: I'm not entirely happy with how I did the uniform, which came out a tiny little bit too light and "worn". I used a recipe similar to what I use on 25mm/28mm Polish Lancers figures. Of course things don't translate well over larger jumps in scale. Oh well. It also looks brighter in the photos due to stronger lighting and all of that.

The other thing concerns the model itself. To my knowledge line troopers of the Polish Lancers did not have any sort of piping on the collars. So technically I should have rather painted that chap as a sort of junior officer. The way he stands now he's a bit incorrect. Oh well.

Here's a size comparison with a Space Marine and an Infinity figure. The bust comes along with the little resin standy thingy.

That's it. Hope you like the chap! I certainly do. I got him with me on shows, so it's not impossible for you to run into him in person. Also, if you'd like to have busts or large-scale figures built/painted by me, feel free to drop me an e-mail. Love doing those. Well, emails too of course, but mainly larger scale figures. :-P