A Pleasant Humbrol Discovery. . .

Up very early this morning, after a 4:30am feeding and then suffering from the inability to fall asleep again, I was poking around quietly down here in Zum Stollenkeller. And what do you think I found? Yes, a 21-year old tin of Humbrol Authentic Colour British Rifle Green (in a brown tin) -- purchased at MiniFigs HQ on Graham Road in Southampton during January 1989 when the young, long-haired rocker Stokes spent Christmas and New Year's with his mother and new step-dad in Southampton -- that is still fluid.

British Rifle Green is a pretty close match for the Von Kleist Freikorps artillery uniforms that I'll paint next. The other, newer tins of Humbrol in my collection are either too dark, or too light, or too olive in tone. Oh sure, the old British Rifle Green required some shaking and stirring up, but this is "the little tin that could", and amazingly enough it's still serviceable after all these years. In the two decades I've used this tin, it has provided uniforms for a battalion of 15mm British rifles, a regiment of Napoleonic French chasseurs, another of French dragoons, and the occasional French infantry drummer as well as the Stollenian Jaeger zu Fuss more recently, during the fall of 2006. What a nice discovery since it's just the color I need for the 13 Garrison SYW Prussian artillery crew currently on the painting desk.

I began painting those same figures yesterday evening after supper. Nothing fancy or worth showing quite yet, just the usual Games Workshop Goblin Green on the figure bases. But, the Grand Duchess and Young Master Paul are visiting some distant relatives in Western Illinois today, so I'll have some time to apply the fleshtone and the British Rifle Green. And if it dries to a shiny finish due to age or poor mixing, so what? They'll eventually get the usual high gloss Future/Klear treatment anyway!

On other fronts, thanks to everyone for your kind remarks about the recently finished regiment of Austrian cuirassiers, who are currently serving as part of the tiny Stollenian army. Thank you too for your New Year's wishes, and the same to you and your families. May 2010 bring happiness, health, and prosperity to all of you!

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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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