Well, after I finish my post-dinner cup of coffee and then do the dishes, I think I'll sit down and get in some painting on the RSM95 grenadiers sitting over on the painting desk. Inspired by the arrival and vicarious excitement of Jonathan's own RSM95 Prussians over at Hesse-Engelburg, I feel the need to get moving and finish that first 1/3 and a bit of Stollen's Leib (Grand Duchess of Sonja's Own ) Grenadiers. The Grand Duchess actually has a couple of commitments over at the university this evening, so, I'll have some time to fill. . . Actually, I'm just avoiding a batch of student papers that need reading and grades assigned :-(
Next, thanks to Phil Olley for his kind remarks in his latest Broadside update over at Phil's War Cabinet. And he's also been kind enough to supply a link to the Grand Duchy of Stollen, Principality of Saxe-Bearstein, and a few other fictitious 18th century places. Looks like we're stars now Jeff! ;-) All kidding aside, Phil had some interesting observations about imaginary campaigns, mentioning some notes he committed to paper back in 2003, which he entitled "Forward to the Past". Phil, if you're reading this, how about posting those notes sometime over at OSW in the Files section? It would be neat to see your thoughts in more detail.
Last, have a look at Mike Cannon's blog at http://www.miniaturewars.com/, where you can feast your eyes up his latest batch of Spencer Smith infantry. This time, Mike's painted up a whole bunch of white-coated grenadiers, which are part of a larger eventual regiment. Can't wait to see the whole unit lined up! And Mike, you might consider sending some photos of your figures to share in the "Gallery' section of the Spencer Smith website next to some of Henry Hyde's (and a few others') figures.
Anyway, it's really neat to see all of these different guys around the world using various old figure lines around which they create imaginary armies, campaigns, belligerent states, the personalities, and narratives that go with them. Hats off to you gentlemen! It's great to be part of it.
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 ...
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Too bad I'll be many thousands of miles away . . . it would be a great thing to observe.
-- Jeff