We're almost there. . .

Well, I managed to finish quite a bit in just two hours this evening as you can see in the photo: stirrup leathers, girths, holsters, blue coats, and the sword blades. Oh, and a few more selective black touch-ups to better define certain parts of the figures. All that remains now are the stirrups themselves plus the bronze bits on the scabbards, sword hilts/pommels, and silver bits on the bridles.

Other than a few black touch-ups on the horses, I hope to wrap these babies up by Saturday, when I will give the entire regiment of 30 a clear coat of Future floor polish, snap a photo or two for posting here, and then carefully pack the unit in a Rubbermaid plastic box, already waiting just out of sight on the painting desk. Ah, moving. . .

You’ll also notice that the ol’ painting desk is looking a bit Spartan these days. I got around to dismantling all of the radios, tuners, speakers, and assorted wires/cables last Saturday afternoon. I must say, I am enjoying the extra elbow room when I paint, so I might seriously consider a new table arrangement in Der Stollenkeller.

Tomorrow evening, we get a break and will see Love’s Labors Lost by William Shakespeare over on campus. The university student drama productions are usually of a very high quality, so we’re looking forward to it. And maybe back to some painting on Wednesday or Thursday evening? We’ll have to see. Now it’s off to dreamland gentlemen (and ladies). Sleep well!

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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