Gaiters Undercoated

I managed to get about 90 miutes to paint yesterday evening, so I started the gaiters. With a black undercoat like I use, I find that the white parts of uniforms work better when I undercoat with a very light grey first. For about 10 years, I've used the same bottle of Armory "Confederate Grey", which seems to last and last without drying up.

Anyway, I then follow with a coat or two of white paint. These are actually thin washes, to prevent that notorious clumping, to which acrylic whites are prone, on the figures. Or the bristles of my #3 or #2 brushes. Tonight, I'll add the white to the gaiters and maybe start on the lovely red breeches.

Now, if you look really closely at the sergeant of this particular company (all the way in the rear rank at the right of this photo), you'll see that he has black garters already. Initially, I figured that I would paint carefully enough to leave thin lines of black showing, to represent the garters holding up the gaiters. Well, that took so long with one figure that I realized it would just be easier, and certainly take no more time, if I simply painted those in later, following completion of the figures. So, much as I did with the first company of RSM's, these final bits of detail are things that I'll add once the rest of the figures are done.

Stay tuned right here for the next painting step on the 2nd company of Stollen's Leib (Grand Duchess of Sonja's Own ) Grenadiers!