Slowly Climbing Back into the Painting Saddle. . .

A melee between the small cavalry forces of the Grand Duchy of Stollen and the Electorate of Zichenau. Figures by RSM95, Spencer Smith, and Holger Eriksson.

It has been, despite my good intentions, a slog getting back into the painting mode since our return from Mexico last week. As many of you undoubtedly know already, playing catch-up following a vacation along with other unforeseen things (sick wife and child, etc., etc.) tends to sap any available free time that might otherwise be applied to painting. I had considerable time yesterday evening, following dinner (the Grand Duchess sat with me but did not feel up to eating), but, frankly, retiring to bed with a book was a more attractive prospect by the time 8pm rolled around than was painting. So, I spent several hours instead reading Deception (2010) by Jonathan Kellerman, a true master of psychological suspense.

However, I have had a chance for several moves in a solo game that I've had set up here in Zum Stollenkeller for a couple of months, and things are finally starting to get interesting at the close of Move 6. A large cavalry melee has taken shape on the northern end of the battlefield, while the infantry and artillery of Stollen and Zichenau's advance guards elsewhere are now within range of each other. Move 7 should be even more interesting once the dice begin tumbling (thank you, Mick and Keith), and the smoke clears.

This small game is based on Phil Olley's 'Vanguards Collide' scenario, laid out in the first Classic Wargamers' Journal from last year, and whichever army wins the day, it should help set the scene for the next tabletop encounter in the ongoing struggle between the terminally befuddled Grand Duke Irwin-Amadeus II of Stollen and his nemesis, the conniving Princess Antonia III of Zichenau.

Comments

A J said…

Welcome back. I hope your family feels better soon. Looking forward to the resumption of the game.

2:26 PM

Conrad Kinch said…

You'll get back in the saddle - the inspiration always comes back. I'm in the middle of a game of vanguards collide myself.

Hope the family get well soon.

4:48 PM

Bluebear Jeff said…

I hope that your family soon recovers from their unfortunate illness.

Good to see a post from the environs of Stollen once again.

-- Jeff

7:18 PM

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

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...

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 Grand Duchy of Stollen

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