I must be crazy to bicycle 30 miles for ice cream in weather this hot!

Just a quick update this hot, hot, hot afternoon. I just finished the bronze scabbard tips, sword hilts, white waistbelts, and swordknots on the enlisted men as well as the bronze scabbard tips, sword hilts, silver sashes, hat tape, and sword knots on the NCOs and officers of Freiherr Wilhelm’s Pioneer Battalion. Besides the same sword related stuff, the battalion drummer got silver hat tape and a leather-colored apron too.

My partner in crime on Vancouver Island, Jeff von Saxe-Bearstein, asked several days ago about “hat tape”, and this unit will indeed have it. It just seems to make everything look a little more “finished” I think. Admittedly, this is a tedious step, and it's daunting when one has 30-60+ figures sitting on the table, looking up at you as if to say, "Well, where's our hat tape? Get on with it!"

Fortunately, only one small mistake this time around with and NCOs hat, and the problem was easily corrected by soaking up the misplaced paint with a damp brush. I can't count the number of times I've relied on Jim "Alte Fritz" Purkey's paint removal tip in the last year or so. It's been a real help.

Anyway, all that remains is the white hat tape for the enlisted men, the officer’s saddle cloth, and some nice, reddish-brown for his horse, which will be a “chestnut” this time. Hope to finish all this later this evening after a bike ride and dinner. Then, I can make a few touch-ups, apply the Future floor finish tomorrow, and we are all done. Photo update to follow once all work is completed. Stay tuned!

Comments

Bluebear Jeff said…

Stokes,

It depends upon the sculpting of course, but painting hat tape on most figures is very easy.

Don't use the tip of the brush. Instead run the side of the brush over the top edge of the hat brim.

With most figures this does a very nice job of delivering a nice thin line of paint for the tape.

Give it a try.

-- Jeff

8:30 PM

Steve-the-Wargamer said…

I'm with Stokes - I find the hat tape to be the worst part of the whole painting experience though I confess to also using Jeff's technique for doing it.... :o))

Stokes - can you share with us the paint removal technique you mentioned??

6:53 AM

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 ...

The Eventual Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment. . .

The Anhalt-Zerbst regiment musters in the drill square to sort themselves into platoons and companies during the coming weeks Fall maneuvers if you will. A large dose of real life the last few days with the start of classes next Monday, various preparatory meetings, and finishing up a few other things this week. But, I managed to sort out 60 or so Minden Austrian infantry from the pile and get 'em stuck to temporary painting bases. Must carefully drill out the hands of several NCOs for flagpoles and pole arms this weekend before the usual basecoat. I'm thinking of mixing the usual white gesso with the usual light gray to kill two birds with one stone so to speak. Applying both base- and undercoat in one fell swoop as my grandmother used to say. In the meantime, the recently finished squadron of Saxon cuirassiers has been placed carefully in one of the clear acrylic boxes on my shelves until I have the suitable flag to affix. -- Sto...

The Grand Duchy of Stollen

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