The Grand Duchy of Stollen

Belts, buckles, and straps yesterday and today.  Whew! 

Only two weeks of July left to finish (hopefully) the current battalion of 33 figures and a horse.  Of course.  

A couple of sessions yesterday on either side of cleaning out the garage and another satisyfing period this morning after coffee before moving on to rehanging several pictures and a few commemorative plates that have been waiting for a year or more since we had some door and wall repairs made in one case, and the Grand Duchess decided to replace an older picture in the second.  

Speaking of which, The Grand Duchess and Young Master are visiting grandparents in the Pacific Northwest this week, so yours truly is home alone.  Scary, right?  I always joke with my wife that my usual group of floozies will pick me up in their pink Cadillac for some fun and games in her absence.  The spousal reply is typically something along the lines of "Sure, they will."

In any case, while my time is largely my own this week, I was a…

Painting more carefully now to avoid getting new paint on figures parts already completed.  Just a few more white shoulder belts to go!

Some time in the painting chair yesterday evening following an afternoon of dental games with the periodontist preparing for an implant later in the month.  Fun, fun, fun.

Back home, after the usual early evening activities around dinner, cleaning up, and bedtime for The Young Master, plus my evening walk around the neighborhood, I got back down to business and returned to the painting table.  This short session saw me applying white to the shoulder belts that support the black cartridge pouches on the right hip of most figures pictured.  

My two decade old 000 sable served me well, and just over an hour later, most of the figures were done with this particular step.  After a haircut this morning, I'll return to finish these, do the white waist belts, and add some sparing highlights for the brown  shoulder belts.  This evening, musket straps, which s…

Look closely.  The brown and gray undercoats on all shoulder and waist belts are finally done!  Fairly easy (???) now to go back, hold my breath, and add sparing white or lighter brown highlights here and there.

Not much time in the painting chair yesterday (Sunday), but I did manage to apply the rest of my usual light gray to the white shoulder belts and waist belts late in the afternoon.  Today is earmarked for highlighting these with dashes of white following an appointment in the periodontist's chair, and some time straightening the garage.  Oh, joy! 

It makes sense to take care of the musket straps and shoulder straps (on the left) after that (must check on the colors for those) before then coming back to the brown shoulder belts to highlight those very carefully and SPARINGLY.  I have found over the years that one of my annoying painting habits is to flood the brush (and area) with color.  It still happens, even now after almost four decades of painting 15-25mm figures when m…

Not quite at the halfway point of the month, but things are progressing well I'd say.

Painting time has been a bit less plentiful the last couple of days, and I took a night off on Friday, but I've still managed to get in some time at the ol' workbench.  Progress has been so steady the last week or so, that it seemed like a good idea to spend some with The Grand Duchess and Young Master for a change! 

On Saturday afternoon and evening, however, I returned with renewed vigor for a couple of sessions to start trimming in the shoulder belts on my current battalion of composite grenadiers.  Another fairly slow step to avoid possible later touch-ups. 

In the photograph above, I'm down to applying very light gray to just a dozen remaining figures before I can go back and add sparing white highlights to the white belts supporting the cartridge pouches/drums.  I'll then go back and repeat the process but on the brown shoulder belts/haversacks before adding some additional re…

Little by little, the figures take shape.  Still lots to do though.  Next up?  Shoulder belts and straps.

Another two or three fairly brief session in the painting chair yesterday afternoon and evening (Thursday), working primarily on adding some highlights to coats, breeches, the tips of toes, insteps, and the upper half of the right rear calves on all of the figures.  Areas that would catch the light on a a typical sunny day in this particular pose.  This part of the painting process is, for me at least, slow work as I take care not to get any errant splotches of paint where they should not be.  It's better to minimize later touch-up work whenever possible. 

At the same time, I must make sure to let enough of the darker undercoat show through, in this case a very dark Ral Partha blue, a midnight navy really, to give some depth to everything.  It looks weird up close under the painting lights during the actual painting, but once everything is dry at arm's length, or so -- stand…

Here's where things stand as of the morning of July 11th.  Still a way to go, but things are coming together.

Not quite as frenzied a flurry of painting yesterday, but still managed two, or perhaps three  (But who's counting?) sessions in the chair blocking in the turnbacks and lapels on all of the coats except for the drummer in yellow, darn it, which I'll address later this morning following breakfast with The Young Master.  

I mentioned the white shoulder belts yesterday, but once I thought through the step, it made more sense to paint the lapels before the shoulder belts rather than try to wiggle a tiny brush into that space between the musket and left arm after the fact, to put color onto the sliver of lapel visible there.  As always, I adjust and modify the painting process based on, not only the particular figures in question, but also previous experiences with the brush.  Painting lots of figures in one go is always an education of sorts as you learn what works best.…