Spot the Deliberate Mistake
I was happily painting my first Pendraken Austrian cuirassiers when I realised I was attempting to give the officer a rather splendid moustache. I was simply painting what was in front of me. However, similar to my comment in Post 97 where I mentioned that the Pendraken Austrian hussar officer didn’t have a moustache when he was meant to, Austrian cuirassier officers, on the other hand, did not sport moustaches. Perhaps, the sculptor got things the wrong way round. Where my hussar officer received a quick lick of paint to rectify his deficiency, I’d have to attack the painted cuirassier with a certain amount of trepidation, crossing my fingers that I could snip off his facial hair without damaging too much paintwork and creating an unsightly carbuncle. I’d like to think that the sculpted officer had risen from the ranks so rapidly that he hadn’t had time to shave off his moustache – or been transferred suddenly from a hussar regiment! However, I couldn’t swing that story for every cuirassier officer I had on my painting list.
Sometimes it’s difficult to tell if a bit of flash is part of a figure. The lump sticking
out of the officer’s helmet is, in fact, not added decoration but an unwanted piece
of flash in need of snipping off.
POST 102
102
