This is a tremendous piece of work that comes handsomely packaged in a cardboard box with a color photo of the finished figure and a short historical perspective that offers a couple painting variations. The figure comes in six pieces, the head (w/the hat attached), the torso, cap box, right and left arms and the right hand and musket. All pieces are cast in buff colored resin. The canteen strap is not cast on the torso, so you will have to add that as you go. The six parts for this figure had very little flash and clean up was a snap; I washed and dried the parts and was ready to assemble in less than an hour.

As a general rule, I test fit each part before I glued them and realized during the test fit, that the fit was so good at the shoulders that I chose to paint the torso and arms separately. I chose not to attach the head and right hand holding the musket, but waited until I finished painting the flesh tones and then attach them. The head attaches well at the ponytail on the jacket and lines up perfectly requiring no filling at all. As a matter of fact, the entire figure is cast so well and exceptionally engineered that no filler was required.

I chose to go with green and buff tones for my Minuteman. I used Andrea Acrylics on the entire figure with the exception of my flesh tones (see my article on how to paint faces with oils on Robin's site).( click here to see the article)I started out with an acrylic primer on the entire figure and then worked from the boots up…starting with a mix of black and English khaki I laid in a medium tone, and then worked my way up with successive lighter shades in order to get the highlights. For the shadows, I just do the reverse…lay in a dark shades and get darker with a couple layers.

I use that same technique on the socks as well as the pants, vest and jacket. I try to use gradual applications of the base coat in order to get an even application. I used a buff tone (mixture of white and buff) and laid that on and then thinned the base with water and white to get the highlights. For the shadows, I added some English khaki to the base. For the vest, I opted to go with a gray green (mixed OD Green with field gray) and used the same technique as I described above. The buttons all received a couple applications of silver followed by printers ink.

The jacket was the best part to paint. When I started with the base OD Green shade, this figure just came alive. The vibrant green was set off by the buff tone of the pants and the gray-green of the vest. I applied three base coats to the jacket, and the last was lighter than the first in order to get the mid tone right for highlighting. I used a touch of buff in the mid tone for the highlights, and for the shadows, I applied some Napoleonic Green to the mid tone. The shirt and undershirt were painted in tones of white and gray and highlighted using pearl white and off white.

The musket was painted with a base of black on the barrel and musket couplings, and then used silver for the barrel and bronze for the couplings; I gave all the silver an application of printer’s ink. For the wood finish, I painted it with wood, and then I laid in the wood grain using a mix of dark brown and black. I used the same technique with the wooden canteen; the canteen straps were painted in gray and highlighted using pearl gray. The bread satchel was painted with field gray and then applied several thinning layers of pearl gray as highlights. The same held true for the satchel straps. The leather bullet and cap case and belt were painted in dark leather and then highlighted with a touch of wood to the base color. I applied a mix of clear gloss and flat to give the belt a leather look.

I am very pleased with the work from United Empire Miniatures, and am eager to do another figure. I did run into some trouble straightening out the musket, and when I talked to John Lea, I mentioned that a white metal musket might be a product improvement in later issues. Over all, a tremendous piece that will add class and panache to your figure cabinet as it has to mine…

.good luck !