Absent Without Leave!

Well, I’ve been errant and remiss in not adding any posts for the last week or so. Please don't cane me Sir! I was led astray! However, I’ve got a good excuse -- I’ve been hard at work writing an article, which, if the wargaming gods are kind, will soon appear for public consumption. More on this as events unfold. ;-)

Otherwise, I’ve been able to get a bit of painting and varnishing in. Stollen’s Jaegers zu Fuss are now entirely finished, right down to the shiny coat of Future acrylic floor finish. I must admit that I really like the old fashioned “look” brought to my figures by a glossy protective coat. I’ve also started doing the same for the 2^nd (Von Laurenz) Musketeers, which were completed (painting) in early September.

The gloss finish on these early regiments also seems to make the various colors richer, so I think I'm going to stay with this method of protecting my brushwork for a while! Finally off of their temporary bases and lined up in mass, the musketeers and jaeger look really impressive. I’m borrowing a digital camera this weekend and will hopefully have a bunch of photos to post right here next week. Thanks for your continued patience though.

On that note, a special thank you to Jeff Hudelson, the Prince of Saxe-Bearstein, for providing me with all kinds of useful information about digital cameras, batteries, macro photography, and such. If Santa Claus does not come through, I'll be watching the post-Christmas sales very closely.

Finally, the coast looks clear for some extra painting this coming weekend. My wife is visiting her sister in Cincinnati, so it will be me and the kitty here by ourselves. If Rannveig does not spend too much time meowing for attention and her Fancy Feast catfood, I’ll be able to make up for some lost hours the last couple of weeks. I’m going to try to make a real dent in the two-gun battery of artillery and crew that’s been sitting on my painting table since late October. Let’s see how far I can get with 13 figures and two cannon. Stay tuned.

Comments

Bluebear Jeff said…

Stokes,

First, thank you for the kudus, but I was just trying to help.

Looking forward to seeing those photos.

-- Jeff

1:51 AM

A Little More Brushwork. . .

A little more brushwork on the first batch of (my version of) the Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment yesterday (Saturday). Taking a different tack this time and addressing many of the details first before the white coats and other larger areas of uniform. The eagle-eyed among you will notice that I've painted the (dark) red stocks of the enlisted men. Always a difficult and frustrating item to paint, it made sense to paint from the inside out as it were and get that particular detail out of the way first rather than try to paint it in later after much other painting has been accomplished. Trying to reduce the need for later retouching of other items on the figures you understand. Hopefully, I will be able to get back to these later today after a second trip back to the Apple Store for help with a couple of new iPad issues and, following the return home, some revision of Google Slides for tomorrow's meetings with my students. -- Stokes P.S. And according t...

Basic Reds Done at Last. . .

S till quite a way to go with the current batch of 20 human figures and a horse (of course), but they're actually starting to look like something after all of the red distinctions. Quite a bit of painting in hour-long sessions the last week as and when time has allowed. Mostly applying the basic dark red to facing areas and turnbacks followed by the inevitable touch-ups to clean up wobbly edges and those misplaced, minute splotches of Citadel Khorne Red. They're looking like so many Austrian infantry regiments of the era at this point, but the eventual flags will turn them magically into the Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment, more or less, of the AWI period. But I'm getting a bit ahead of myself. One frustrating point (ahem) of sad discovery. I've started trying to use those Winsor & Newton 'Series Seven' brushes (#1 rounds) purchased last spring, and the blasted things simply will not keep a point. Very frustrating since I have heard over the y...

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

The Grand Duchy of Stollen

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