A Truly Wonderful Day. . .

Today has been a day of simple pleasures. A few inches of snow remain on the ground outside, making everything look and feel like many of us think December should here in the Northern hemisphere. We slept late since it’s Saturday, and then I made us a big breakfast to celebrate the end of the academic term. We’ve listened to different kinds of popular and classical Christmas music on the stereo all day while Sonja prepared some goodies for a small party we’re having this evening.

Meanwhile, I worked a bit more on preparing the Spencer Smith cavalry for basecoating and painting. Still have about dozen to do, but here’s a photo of those who are ready and on their cardboard bases to prevent them toppling over constantly. My painting area is beginning to look like the cover of Charles Grant Sr.’s The War Game, and that’s not a bad thing here in the Grand Duchy of Stollen!

Comments

Fitz-Badger said…

As someone who has not seen the Spencer Smiths in person it's interesting to see how non-detailed they look in bare metal, especially in light of all the great pictures of painted ones I've seen. It increases my respect for those of you achieving such wonderful and even detailed-looking paint jobs!

(and you don't have to deal with the issue of what to do with separate riders and mounts! lol)

7:06 PM

tradgardmastare said…

Sounds a super day - often the simplest are the best! I look forward to charting the painting progession on the Blog.

9:22 AM

Bluebear Jeff said…

Ooh, I sounds like a wonderful day . . . hope the evening gathering goes as well.

I'm up very early (for me) and it seems like we got an unexpected dusting of snow overnight. Should be a nice day today here too.

-- Jeff

9:41 AM

peterfarmer57 said…

Are these miscasts?

3:32 PM

WSTKS-FM Worldwide said…

Hi Peter,

Nope, so far as I know these are not miscasts. Spencer Smith figures do not have the high level of detail that we have become used to with modern lines like Old Glory or Foundry for example. They are rather more stylized in form, leaving painters free to add or leave out as much detail as they would like.

What is especially attractive about SSM figures is that their proportions are correct -- no tree stump legs, baseball mit hands, pumpkin-sized heads, or deep, craggy folds in garments. Instead, you have figures that look like miniature people and horses. Frankly, that's what I'm after with this project.

Best Regards,

Stokes

5:24 PM

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

And We're Off!!!

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 ...

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...

The Grand Duchy of Stollen

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