Trimming and Pinning Dragoons

Last night, I spent about two hours trimming flash from the next squadron of nine Revell Austrian SYW dragoons -- one officer and eight troopers. I followed by drilling tiny holes in the bottom of each figure (yes, yes -- ha, ha you cheeky money!) and a corresponding hole in the saddle of each horse before pinning the two together. The total ready for a layer of white glue and base coating is now 21 -- two squadrons of nine figures each and three regimental staff (colonel, guidon bearer, and drummer).

Sonja, The Grand Duchess of Stollen, had a girls' evening out yesterday, so I had some extra time to fill afterwards. Naturally, my attention turned to the buildings that I've recently put together. I spent another hour or so painting white and various shades of Burnt Sienna acrylic colors onto the walls of several houses and the church. The latter makes a really nice shade of dusty reddish-brown when white is mixed with it -- perfect for a North German (or Belgian) brick effect.

On a few of the gabled ends of the townhouses, I'll use colors like ochre, very light blue, and light green. These are colors you'll still see on houses in Lübeck, Gdansk, Stockholm, Riga, and various other old cities and towns across the north of Europe. I’ll have some pictures of how things are shaping up with my BUA’s – plus a few other photographic goodies -- later today. Stay tuned!

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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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