Fresh Coffee Must Be Good for Headcolds.

Happy May 1^st everyone! The headcold seems to be on the wane this morning, BBC World Service is online, and I’m enjoying a large mug of fresh, strong coffee in Zum Stollenkeller. The semester is just about over, the weather for today will be warm, and life seems pretty good at the moment.

Painting has, unfortunately, not been happening this week although I did get basecoat onto those RSM figures Sunday evening. Hopefully, this weekend will see me returning to the painting desk since we are supposed to have chilly temperatures and lots of rain, which plays havoc with bicycling and work in the backyard (“back garden” for UK and Commonwealth visitors).

Head congestion notwithstanding, I’ve been able to enjoy lots of great painting work via some of your blogs and the Old School Wargaming Yahoo group. It of course has got me thinking several months ahead about upcoming painting projects here in Stollen Central.

You might recall that I’ve got about 32 Revell plastic Prussian infantry in line to be painted as a pioneer battalion after the RSM’s are finished. Then, I think it will be time to tackle a cavalry regiment again. Thanks to some judicious purchases from PB Toys in Germany and Ebay, I have a load of Revell plastic Prussian hussars, which I clipped from their sprues and organized into at least three 30-figure regiments last winter. Though my first regiment of planned hussars will be more flamboyant than Von Belling’s hussars shown above, I thought that this was a suitably interesting illustration with which to liven up today’s post. Enjoy!

Comments

tradgardmastare said…

Stokes
And a happy May day to you too! The hussars sound very interesting indeed and should look very impressive upon the wargames table.
Are you going to give us a sneak preview into some of the chapter headings or the themes of the OSW book you are writing?
best wishes
Alan
p.s the rain here in Scotland has been vile of late holding back the garden and our morale too.

1:04 PM

Bluebear Jeff said…

Stokes,

My Saxe-Bearstein Hussars will be based upon the two uniforms of Hanover's von Luckner's Hussars.

The first was in green; the second white and red. Both, of course, had interesting laces and trimmings.

You should have fun in deciding what you want your three units to look like.

Will they have a common thread? Or will they all differ greatly?

Either choice would be good . . . you get to decide. Better yet, ask the Grand Duchess for her input on the matter.

Have fun and enjoy your coffee.

-- Jeff

5:47 PM

Fitz-Badger said…

Glad to hear you're feeling better!
I haven't done much painting for a while (guests, hot weather, and other projects).

8:12 PM

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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