SYW Swiss Eptingen - On to the Midtones

My painting continues on the Seven Years War Swiss miniatures by Front Rank! The basecoating is done on the eighteen remaining figures. In addition, I have painted the eyes and have completed the musket barrels.

I have started in on the red mid-tone for the coats. I enjoy doing the Xs and Vs and zig-zags of the folds. It is fun to see how each figure's clothes look a little different from the other's.

The basecoat stage can be tough to get through as you are forced at times to lay down multiple coats to allow a good base for the midtones and highlights. This is especially true when you are working with yellow and red. They are two notorious colors when painted over black. 

Here is my hit list of remaining items. I always have a small note nearby where I check off what I have completed. It keeps me on track, shows me what I have done and reminds me not to forget details! You can see from the note that I use three colors for the hands and four for the face. The face gets a dark brown undercoat while the hands do not.

Although it looks like I have a lot more to do, most of my painting time is normally soaked up during the basecoating stage. Having to cut in close to the black lines takes a lot of time. Also, that is the time that I generally do the eyes. Once the midtones and highlights start I can be a little more loose with my painting (with the exception of the facial area) and that allows me to speed up a bit.