More than Half of Von Flickenhoffer Fusilier Regiment Completed!!!

Save for a few very minor touch-ups with some GW Goblin Green to the figure bases, slightly more than half of the Von Flickenhoffer Regiment of Fusiliers (Die Blauen) is finished! I made the push today to apply the gaiter buttons, touch up the black hair queues, and apply the coat of Future/Klear acrylic floor finish since the Grand Duchess and I are off to Mexico for Spring Break at the end of the week to visit good ol' Mom. . . the real artist in the family!

Here is an aerial photograph that provides a very nice idea of how much work has been
done. . . and how much remains before this monster unit is completely painted and finished. At this point, I've completed 42 of 80 figures, leaving just 38 to do in two batches of 19 figures each. While the glossy treatment is not necessarily to everyone's taste, I really like it for at least two reasons. One, it imparts that old school "toy soldier" look very nicely, just what I want for this project. And two, a glossy coat seems to make all of the colors richer and more vivid. Not a bad thing when we are talking about figures that are 1"-1.5" high. And of course a bright green gaming table surface helps too. I'll bet Jeff Hudelson can't wait to command these babies in our upcoming refight of Sawmill Village!

Here's another close-up of Feldwebel Drapp, now wearing his shiny coat of "varnish".

And here, we have a photo of Colonel von Flickenhoffer himself riding behind the line and observing the regimental color party with detatched interest. Next up: the 3rd and final squadron of the 11th (Prinz Albrecht's) Hussars -- Plastic 1/72 Revell Prussians. They will probably have to wait until after Spring Break though, but this week I will at least glue another company-sized batch of the RSM fusiliers to the plastic bottle caps, which serve pretty well as my temporary painting bases. 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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