Groan -- Let's try again!

Well, for some reason yesterday, Blogger was presenting all kinds of problems each time I attempted to make a new posting. So, keep in mind that the following was intended to appear YESTERDAY -- Saturday, October 28, 2006. . .

Another, crisp breezy fall day – but the kind with sunshine, so it’s really pretty outside with orange and yellow leaves falling from the trees and formations of birds flying to the south. I wish we had a fireplace because there’s nothing like the sight, sound, and smell of a wood fire inside. Kind of makes me nostalgic for the days of my youth and adolescence when we lived with my grandparents in rural southeastern Pennsylvania. They had a 200 year old stone farmhouse with three fireplaces! Yep, nothing like a wood fire in a fireplace.

So, what’s on tap here at Grand Duchy of Stollen Central this weekend? Well, numerous little things. First, in about ten minutes, I’m going to paint the final bits of the Jaegers zu Fuss – silver musket barrels and brass trigger guards.

Then, I’ll set those to one side and go to work on the 25mm MiniFigs three mounted officers and two SYW cannon, which will become Stollen’s generals and an ADC plus a two-gun battery. There are a few mold lines and a bit of flash to trim from the three officers and their horses, but not much, so the job should be fairy quick and easy. A quick base coat might be a possibility too.

The cannon are a bit more complicated because they require some assembly and, of course, “super glue” to make that happen. Wheels, axels, barrels, and some smaller “fiddly bits” although I must say that I’ve never seen field piece models as nicely detailed! But then I've only ever worked with smaller 15mm sized figures and field pieces before this year.

Finally, while all of this other stuff is happening, my plastic Revell Austrian Horse artillery figures, who will man the two guns, will soak for 24 hours in a bowl of water and Dawn dishwashing liquid. Tomorrow, I’ll scrub 'em, take ’em out, dry ‘em off, and trim mold lines from the figures in question.

Then, if there is enough time, I‘ll fix the 13 figures to temporary 1” square bases with a dot of Elmer’s glue and slap a thick coat of Liquitex black over them. Oh, and I’ll drill holes and place a pin into the mounted officer and his horse -- to provide a firmer, longer lasting connection before gluing the two together with special cement for soft plastic figures.

Hmmm, there’s quite a bit to do! Looks like I’d better get started. "Nach Schmitten!!!" said the soldiers of Stollen to their generals. . .

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It's Early Days Yet. . .

M aking some early progress with Batch A of the Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment over the last several days/evenings. Nothing terribly exciting just yet, but the basic black, brown, and flesh areas are done as are the green bases, and gray undercoat. The latter two areas needed some careful retouching early in the week. Next up, the neck stocks. I might just do these in red for the enlisted men although some of my source material suggest they were black, but I always look for an excuse to shake things up a bit. Any errant splotches of red (or black) can be covered with another application of light gray before I move onto the next step. "Giddy up!" as one Cosmo Kramer might have said. -- Stokes

And We're Off!!!

Arrrgh! Gotta go back into camera settings on my iPhone to bring all of the frame into focus. Blast! Painting is underway on the 60 or so Minden Austrians, which are slated to become my version of the Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment of AWI renown. More or less indistinguishable from Austrians of the era really, right down to the red facings and turnbacks, but the eventual flags (already in my files) will set them apart. I went ahead and based-coated all of them over a couple of days lthe last week of August, using a mix of light gray and white acrylic gesso, before next applying my usual basic alkyd oil flesh tone to the faces and hands. In a day or two, I'll hit that with Army Painter Flesh Wash to tone things down a bit and bring some definition to the faces and hands. As usual, the plan is to focus on about 20 figures at a time, splitting the regiment roughly into thirds along with the color party and regimental staff. Depending on ...

The Eventual Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment. . .

The Anhalt-Zerbst regiment musters in the drill square to sort themselves into platoons and companies during the coming weeks Fall maneuvers if you will. A large dose of real life the last few days with the start of classes next Monday, various preparatory meetings, and finishing up a few other things this week. But, I managed to sort out 60 or so Minden Austrian infantry from the pile and get 'em stuck to temporary painting bases. Must carefully drill out the hands of several NCOs for flagpoles and pole arms this weekend before the usual basecoat. I'm thinking of mixing the usual white gesso with the usual light gray to kill two birds with one stone so to speak. Applying both base- and undercoat in one fell swoop as my grandmother used to say. In the meantime, the recently finished squadron of Saxon cuirassiers has been placed carefully in one of the clear acrylic boxes on my shelves until I have the suitable flag to affix. -- Sto...

The Grand Duchy of Stollen

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