Skip to main content

You could hear a pin drop. . .


In a bit of a painting slump here at the moment.  What else is new?  Hasn't that been the case since late winter?  These Minden hussars are kicking my tail, figuratively speaking, and have me completely psyched out.  Hopefully, the painting inspiration will strike again before too much longer, but it won't be this weekend I'm afraid.  Too much else to do in the way of domestic bliss (??!!) and tomorrow too much reading and preparation for Monday's classes.  Sigh.  It's like being back in graduate school all over again.  And to add insult to injury, I had to take down part of my wargaming table here in Zum Stollenkeller yesterday afternoon, so that we could use two of the folding tables for a departmental picnic that we hosted outside on the patio yesterday evening.  Grrrrr.  Sometimes, life just doesn't go the way you want it to.

Comments

Paul said…
Hi Stokes

I know that the mindens have wonderful detail ect
but in my opinion Spencer Smith
or Holger E figures look more dramatic and are a simple joy to paint
just my two cents worth

Paul
10:30 AM
Steve-the-Wargamer said…
Stokes - sometimes the only thing you can do is sit down and paint yourself out of the funk - may take an hour, but just sit down, pick up the damn brush and set to..... usually works for me.... if that doesn't work - have a game, or go to a wargame show soonest... they all seem to get the juice flowing again....
10:31 AM
A J said…
Hi Stokes, I found painting to be a chore until I broke the lead mountain down into groups of 16 or less. The chore seems to go much faster then.
12:14 PM
marinergrim said…
We all go through this, sometimes several times a year in my case. Right now there are twelve Persian cavalry sitting on the painting table waiting to be finished - over a week now - and they only need weapons and metals! My tonic will be a trip to the Newark wargames show next week.
6:42 AM
WSTKS-FM Worldwide said…
Gentlemen,

Thank you for your words of encouragement. You are correct on all counts. I'll try breaking my batches of nine figures down into three, and just work on those. . . But the pull of HE or SSM hussars just might win me over in the end! There's no arguing with their charm and comparative ease of painting as Paul points out. Paul, where did you purchase your HE hussars? I haven't ever noticed any on the HE or SSM websites.

Best Regards,

Stokes
2:48 PM
Paul said…
Hi Stokes

The HE hussars are no longer made, I purchased 11 old stock from ebay and tradition Scandanavia, for the rest of the unit I am using SSM hussars these are the exact same figure but with the bonus of weilding a sword.

The HE hussars are wearing a mix of Hats but the SSM are all in busby

With modern figures I struggle with all the superb detail and quickly lose interest, with HE type figures I actually enjoy painting them so much I find it hard to put the brush down especially if I imitate the talented Mr Preece and dont consult a uniform book. Just use bold colours that suit the figures.
Best regards
Paul
8:19 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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...
8 comments
Read more

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...
3 comments
Read more

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
2 comments
Read more