Progress report - a slight bendy Pole issue!

A few photos of the lovely Ral Partha Polish winged hussars in progress. I thought the horses were going to be a pleasure to paint and they certainly were. Not yet satin varnished as I might do a bit more work on the blanket detail, must say I'm really pleased how they turned out. One slight issue is that of the bendy wire original Ral Partha lances, as usual I fit these only once the figure is painted and drill out the hand before undercoating. This avoids it getting in the way of the brush. However the thicker lances - and I did a test run before painting - refuse to push through and are very soft metal so bendy, and there is the potential to scratch the paintwork. The thinner wire lances similar to those supplied by Hinchliffe is no problem as you can see, John fitted the flags to all ten lances so don't really want to see them wasted. Mmmm bit of a tricky one but nothing that can't be resolved.

Edit: Gave them a good coat of varnish so will let them dry overnight. In the morning I'm going to use a fine pointed file and mini plyers to push the lances through. As the lances are integral to the original castings it makes sense to keep them, a steady hand and eye will see the job finished then I'm going to follow with 24 Strelets dismounted Dragoons by way of a change. I do like the Vallejo satin varnish, it goes on quite thick but dries to a pleasing sheen which really brings out the colours, especially the horses. Note the hanging strap beneath the horses front legs, I have never seen that on a casting before, in fact I almost trimmed it off when I picked up the first one thinking it was excess metal!