Minden Hussar Update: Photo Coming Soon. . .

In the meantime, here is an image, presumably of 18th, or very early 19th Century vintage, of a Swedish hussar. A member of the Crown Prince's Regiment no less.

Happy to report that I am nearing completion of the first dozen of those 30 Minden Prussian hussars that I've been moaning about here for months. That should leave me with just over a month to complete the remaining 18 (in three batches of six) before the completion date of November 5th. . . the day before my 45th, er. . . um. . . ah. . . 29th birthday!

Anyway, my wife actually asked how painting was going the other evening about 9:30pm when we joined each other on the front porch for a few moments of quiet and calm. Caught off guard -- because the Grand Duchess almost NEVER asks about my soldier hobby -- I almost choked on my single malt and spluttered that things were going well, but if I had it to do over again, I would have purchased hussar figures from Spencer Smith, something I will do in future since my desire for more hussars on the tabletop never fully goes away. It's just painting the darn things!

Don't get me wrong, the Minden castings are exquisite works of art, but I've always felt they are so chock-a-block with tiny details that they intimidate all but the very best painters. They have certainly absolved me of any smugness I might have had at one time about my own ability to paint wargaming figures to a convincing standard. Just my two cents. That said, for personality figures, they are without equal, and I hope to add a few more of them to my collection at some point. Christmas is on the horizon after all, and it's time to start thinking about that annual letter to Santa Claus/Father Christmas.

Comments

Mosstrooper said…

The great advantage of Spencer Smith is that YOU paint the detail on yourself !.I'm 'sold' on them !

12:55 PM

Bluebear Jeff said…

While I admire the detail on fine figures like the Mindens, I prefer simpler castings.

Perhaps it is because I am not a particularly good painter and I don't like "details", but give me figures without a lot of detail please.

-- Jeff

1:50 PM

Conrad Kinch said…

All I would say is that you have an audience of one to please and there is simply nothing to do beyond that.

9:16 PM

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 ...

Sunday Morning Coffee with AI. . .

A rmed with a second cup of fresh, strong coffee, I messed around a bit this morning with artlist.io using its image to image function in an attempt to convert my hand-drawn map from September 2006 to something that more resembles an old map from the mid-18th century. And just like my experiments with Ninja AI in June, the results are mixed. The above map is pretty good, but Artlist keeps fouling up the place names and has trouble putting a faint overlay of hexes across the entire area. Hexes, admittedly, are not likely to be found on any genuine maps from the era in question, but there we are. Frankly, I prefer the appearance of the Ninja map, but there were problems getting it to correct its errors. Grrrr. As is the case with so much having to do with the various AI's out there now, the output generated is a direct result of the prompts entered. For text alone, and when you develop a lengthy, highly detailed prompt, it is...

Warboss Green Bases. . .

I t's amazing how something as simple as applying two coats of Citadel 'Warboss Green' (ex-Games Workshop 'Goblin Green') can enliven a unit of figures and get 'em that much closer to glossing and completion. In much the same way that applying fleshtone early in painting process helps bring the figures to life. Just some limited dry-brushing to bring out the manes, tails, and some equine musculature, and I'm calling my version of Saxony's von Polenz Cuirassiers, circa 1733, done and dusted. Longtime visitors to the Grand Duchy of Stollen might recall (the blog will turn 19 years old in September) that I generally go for an old school approach when it comes to unit bases and paint them a nice, bright green. Exceptions include command vignettes, skirmishers of one kind or another, transport, camp followers, and various other civilian one-offs. The approach is not to everyone's taste, but I like the cheery toy soldier appearance once everything...

The Grand Duchy of Stollen

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