This is the second unit that I’ve painted for my Neapolitan  (Kingdom of the two Sicilies) army for my Risorgimento project. The Swiss line infantry was some of the highest quality infantry in the Neapolitan army until they finally abandoned the cause. Those that remained loyal were incorporated into their own Neapolitan line units bolstered with local recruits and remained dependable and highly performing. There are enough battles where they fought, and with uniforms this glorious, I had to have at least one unit for my Neapolitan army.

The figures I’ve used are from Gringo40s Piedmonte Infantry line. Yes, I could have used their Neapolitan figures, but I wanted a slightly different look for these from the bulk of the rest of the army’s line infantry, so I opted for the covered, more modern, shakos.

I don’t really enjoy painting white straps over red uniforms. I seem to make a mess of it normally. I took a different approach on these. I first primed the figures in a Zenethal white scheme, very heavy on the white. I then painted in the red uniforms using Vallejo Xpress Color ‘Plasma Red’. This is a ‘contrast’ style paint. By doing this there was just a small amount of touch-up of white over red. I then was able to go over the rest of the white straps much more quickly and effortlessly in white. The only other ‘contrast’ paint used here was my favorite ‘Dwarf Flesh’ Xpress color on the flesh. The remainder of the figures were painted with a traditional acrylic basecoat, wash and highlight method.

Other than the officer, all of the red was left as a single coat of the ‘Plasma Red’. For the officer’s coat I went over the recesses with an additional coat of the same paint as a pseudo-glaze / wash.  I’m still getting more experience with highlighting large areas. I feel on the pants on these guys I’ve done a better job than on previous units. Every unit you paint is a chance for learning and improvement, even after 30+ years doing this. These represent six more figures on this year’s tally. Next up on the painting table, a group of three units of line infantry for my Piedmont army.