Vitally Important Painting Updates

So what's been happening in the Grand Duchy of Stollen lately? To borrow a word from Jacob Marley's ghost, "Much!"

Currently, Oberfeldwebel Klatschen is leading the Golden Grenadier Painting Competition by two votes. As I wrote in response to Jeff Hudelson’s comment here a few days ago, “Come on, come on, come on! Go Oberfeldwebel Klatschen! Ruuuuuuunnnnn!!!

Otherwise, I’m almost there with the first batch of RSM95 grenadiers. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to get too much work in during the last couple of days due to writing, teaching, and family commitments.

The Grand Duchess Sonja sang in a municipal chorus last night, supporting an Illinois state symphony through a production of Beethoven’s 9^th Symphony (you know, the European Union anthem) here in Bloomington at the new Center for the Performing Arts. Needless to say, it was a rousing evening of music that was over all too soon. And we were able to walk home – no parking woes necessary!

Tonight, Sonja’s choral group is off by chartered bus to repeat the performance in Springfield (the capital of Illinois for you non-US residents), so I’ll have several hours to work on the RSM figures as I’m not expecting Sonja home before midnight or 1AM Sunday morning. Meanwhile, I’m quite sure they’ll be living like rock stars down in Springfield, like the Who or Van Halen in their heyday – TV’s out of hotel windows, limousines driven into swimming pools, chorus groupies, etc., etc. ;-)

All kidding aside, here’s what remains of the grenadiers for me to paint:

* Bayonets/officers’ sabers/musket barrels/flintlocks/metal fronts on mitre caps (silver)

* Whalebones on rear of enlisted men’s mitre caps/drum cords (white)

* Scabbard tips, short sword hilts, badges on ammunition pouches. Drum shells (brass)

* Mounted colonel’s horse (white) and saddle cloth (red, trimmed light blue)

* Standard. A basic Hessian model from Warflag, but heavily altered by careful and judicious use of acrylic paint colors, so that it more closely resembles that carried by Brigadier Young’s famous Erbprinz/Poltava Guard unit as seen in Charge!.

I think that’s about it. Of course I’d like to think that I can get everything finished today, but realistically, I’m guessing that we’re looking at another 2-4 days of work to get these figures finished. I’ll keep you posted in any case. Stay tuned right here for further developments!

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

Bluebear Jeff said…

I'm staying tuned . . . and give my best wishes to the Duchess as well as my congratulations for her singing.

-- Jeff

11:48 AM

Snickering Corpses said…

Add my congratulations and best wishes also!

5:46 PM

marinergrim said…

Sings, cooks, writes. Is there anything your good lady can't do?

Congratulations to your lady.

3:44 AM

WSTKS-FM Worldwide said…

And she repairs bicycles too ;-)

Best Regards,

Stokes

5:08 AM