The Calm before the Storm?

A progress photograph, to illustrate where Irwin-Amadeus II stands at present with the first twelve of thirty Holger Eriksson dragoons.

The von Grandin family has arrived at Krankenstadt Palace, to much fanfare and production! Thus far, the Grand Duke has engaged in a variety of quirky and rude behavior, as Hives suggested, in the presence of his guests, to little apparent effect. Inexplicably, the Lady Leonora Christina von Grandin and her parents remain pleasant, even familiar, and enthusiastic about the expected announcement of an engagement. . . much to the chagrin of Irwin-Amadeus II.

Today, the entire von Grandin contingent has ventured out en masse for some final Christmas shopping and seasonal cheer in the shops of downtown Krankenstadt, leaving the Grand Duke to his own devices for a few hours. Meanwhile, Hives and the rest of the household are busily organizing the scheduled Christmas ball, to be held this evening in honor of the von Grandin family's visit.

Thanks to this disruption of routine, the Grand Duke has been able to steal away to his private study where he continues painting that regiment of Holger Eriksson cavalry. "Oh, I say, these are fun, fast figures to paint." muses Irwin-Amadeus II, "Hmmmm. . . Maybe I'll try my hand at painting a lobster claw on the obverse side of their standard!"

Comments

Anonymous said…

Can't wait to see these guys in action Stokes. Is there to be another battle soon, with photographs?

--Steve

1:28 AM

WSTKS-FM Worldwide said…

Hello there, Steve,

Thanks you! Yes, I hope to stage a small battle (an advance guard scenario) during Christmas Week. Stay tuned. Hopefully, I can get these first HE cavalry finished in time. Keep your fingers crossed.

Best Regards,

Stokes

10:24 AM

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

Search This Blog