Painting 3mm Hussars and Chasseurs à Cheval

 I have lumped these together, as the show offs of the French and Austrian armies are surprisingly similar to paint at this scale. I can see some purists already wincing, but in practice the uniforms are similar from a distance.

You can paint both using the same broad colour palette, which is good! Of course, depending on the hussar regiment, the colours may be very different. I happen to be painting the green uniform of the Chasseurs à Cheval and the Austrian 8th Hussar Regiment "Kienmayer", which has a predominantly green uniform. You may be painting other colours, so while I will give you my colours, you should use whichever you are aiming for.

One thing to note - I'd learnt at this point that I needed bright colours, so my choices reflect this.

Chasseurs à Cheval

Start by undercoating black. As with the infantry, this is a good base coat, and it hides any errors well. First is to drybrush the horses. I use Gorthor Brown, but choose your own colour. You will be seeing these from a distance, so I would choose the same colour for all the horses. Don't bother with painting blazes or stockings. 

Drybrushing is your friend - it saves you so much time!

Next paint the uniform. Chasseurs had green uniforms, rather darker than mine are, but you don't want the models to blend into a dark mass. I use Skarsnik Green, and a very delicate brush. The Army Painter: Super Detail brush is perfect for this. You want to paint the legs, arms and back.

This is very easy, but looks very impressive. Also, that black undercoat helps define the figures.

Next up is the saddle and scabbards. Saddles I paint a neutral colour - I use Rakarth Flesh, but what you're aiming for is a colour that does not overpower the uniform. The scabbards I paint in red and yellow. That's quite fancy, but since Chasseurs considered themselves as flamboyant as Hussars, I feel it's fitting. The saddle is generally a quick brush stroke across the back, so it's visible from the back.

Single line of paint. Vary the scabbard colours - change them at your pleasure. Gaudy is not bad!

Finally, paint the swords and flesh. Swords, similar to the bayonets, should be silver. The flesh is a bit tricky on these models, as the face is tucked away. A blob of paint is good enough, and try and paint the hand holding the sword. This is also a good point to paint the flag and touch up the Shakos.

Paint the bases as per the rest of your army. I base mine so that they are not directly next to one another. Close order suggests knee to knee, but it also looks less impressive!

I've also added some Rakarth Flesh highlights on the horses' tails. You can also see the saddles a bit better here.

Hussars

The steps are almost identical to above. Drybrush the horses first.

I can't emphasise how good drybrushing is. Mine looks very dark here, but you can lighten the colours with ease.

Next, paint the dolman, pelisse and breeches. The dolman is the jacket, the pelisse is the cloak and the breeches are the trousers. For the Kienmayer Hussars, the dolman and pelisse are green and the breeches are red. Paint them in:

Two colours and look how good they already look!

It's amazing the level of detail you can get isn't it?! 

Finally, paint the scabbards yellow, the swords silver and the faces flesh. Again, these are going to be seen en masse so minor mistakes are fine. Don't bother with saddles in my opinion - simplicity is key. 

Fairly little work, but they look great!

At this point, paint the flags and shakos, if needed. 

Overview 

I was terrified of the complexity of cavalry for a long time, but once I got going you can paint them quite quickly. Hussars and Chasseurs add some colour to the battlefield and you can use them to smash aside unprepared and tired infantry formations. Just don't let them near wine or women!