Steady Spencer Smith Cavalry Progess. . .

Above, you will observe the first two squadrons plus regimental staff of Zichenau’s Grenadiere zu Pferd, led by Colonel Stein von Pilzenkopf, charging past the edge of Zollamtstadt where they are billeted for the winter. Rumor has it that the regiment was, in fact, not on maneuvers. Rather, they were racing to the other side of town to make the acquaintance of a gaggle of curious peasant girls from several nearby farms outside of town!

Whew! I just finished a marathon session, putting the finishing touches on the middle batch of eight Spencer Smith cavalry as well as going back over the first lot of 12 to add some of the same details which I left out for expediency’s sake last month. Today’s work included the metallic colors (silver and brass) on the swords, sword hilts, scabbards, horse snaffles, and martingales plus a light brown on the leather bits – the girths that hold the saddle on the horse and pass beneath the animal around its ribcage and the stirrup leathers. There were also, of course, the obligatory touch-ups with black to cover a few metallic mistakes due to a caffeinated painting hand. ;-)

In general I’m very pleased with the way these figures are coming along although I have spotted some areas on the horses that need some additional touching up with black before I can give them a couple of coats of Future acrylic floor polish. Since Spencer Smith figures are heavily stylized, it’s important to strive for overall impression rather than minute detail on each piece. While my work will certainly not win any painting competitions, the general effect of the massed regiment is rather nice I think. Just a final squadron of nine figures to go. . . and then I can get to those RSM French musketeers that I was nattering on about earlier today. Charge!

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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