Squadron B Nears Completion

Got a lot of painting done on Squadron B of the dragoons during a late morning session and an evening session yesterday – and still had time for a lovely afternoon Nordic skiing tour of a nearby state park!

From the photo at left you can see that I still have to paint the yellow trim along the light blue saddle cloths, the leather girths and stirrup leathers, the horses, and the metalics (silver stirrups and swords, brass sword pommels and scabbard tips). Probably another two evenings’ worth of work, maybe a little bit more. And then it’s on to the third and final squadron. Just think, I might actually get this unit painted and varnished before the end of the month!

Oh, and the skiing? Well, we had sun yesterday, about 20 degrees Fahrenheit, and snow that was still powdery because it’s been so cold this passed week -- with a thermos of hot cocoa waiting in the car at the end of the jaunt. All in all, it was an ideal day for skiing through woods, fields, and along the shore of Lake Evergreen. More snow is predicted for us in the next day or so. This is the best winter weather I’ve seen since leaving Minnesota two years ago!

Comments

guy said…

Thought you may be interested to know that I met Peter from PB Toys Germany on saturday at the Plastic Warrior show in Richmond England. I bought a stack of Revell Prussians from him after your recommendation. There were a number of other dealers with lots of Austrian infantry, dragoons and artillery but regretfully no Prussian hussars and Peter said Revell had no plans to re-issue them.

Regards,
Guy

6:38 AM

WSTKS-FM Worldwide said…

Hello Guy,

Thank you for your kind message. Neat to learn that you met Peter. He seems very nice judging by our few e-mails back and forth last winter. And I'm vicariously happy that you have lots of Revell Prussians to work on yourself! Too bad Revell is not planning to issue more hussars as these seem to be the hardest to find -- and correxpondingly the most artificially inflated where prices are concerned. Anyway, enjoy your treasure trove of plastics! Best Regards,

Stokes Schwartz

9:28 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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