A Bright, Sunny, and Cool Fall Day. . .

The Indra Club on the Grossefreiheit in Hamburg, Germany, where the Beatles played for 48 consecutive nights, before the police closed it due to noise complaints, from August to early October 1960. The band then was moved up the street to the larger, wilder Kaiserkeller Club where they continued almost until being deported at the end of November that year.

Although I am (before Young Master Paul arrived two years ago that is) an avid Nordic skier (avid, but definitely not Olympic material by any stretch of the imagination) and enjoy the winter, Fall is my favorite season. Here in the Grand Duchy of Stollen, we have one of those incredibly blue days with cool temperatures, and the leaves are starting to change colors and fall from the trees. Ahhhh. . . Reminds me of when I was a child and teenager, growing up on my maternal grandparents' place in rural southeastern Pennsylvania about two hours outside Philadelphia.

Which is just a roundabout way of saying that I managed to get in a couple of hours of painting last night on the current batch of nine Minden hussars. They are starting to look like something though there is still much to do before they are all finished. I fear I might run out of Citadel (ex-Games Workshop) Goblin Green though, which is the color I usually apply to the bases of figures. Now that I think of it though, I do have a quart of Olympic Grassy Meadow, that I use on my tabletop and hills, which might be just the ticket if I thin it a bit with some water. We'll see how much painting I can complete this afternoon.

Tonight, however my amateur rock & roll band The Indras has yet another date (we've been averaging two-three gigs a month for the last 18 months or so). Click on the highlighted link to be transported magically to out website, which yours truly designed some months ago. The cold that all three of us have suffered with during the last three weeks here at Stollen Central finally seems to be all gone, so I should be able to manage Long Tall Sally and Kansas City/Hey, Hey, Hey pretty well tonight. But I digress.

Be sure to check back in here later today, or tomorrow for a hussar painting photographic update. Only three weeks to go until the November 5th Painting Challenge deadline. Will Stokes make it, or perish in the process with a paintbrush in his hand?

Comments

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

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 Eventual Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment. . .

The Anhalt-Zerbst regiment musters in the drill square to sort themselves into platoons and companies during the coming weeks Fall maneuvers if you will. A large dose of real life the last few days with the start of classes next Monday, various preparatory meetings, and finishing up a few other things this week. But, I managed to sort out 60 or so Minden Austrian infantry from the pile and get 'em stuck to temporary painting bases. Must carefully drill out the hands of several NCOs for flagpoles and pole arms this weekend before the usual basecoat. I'm thinking of mixing the usual white gesso with the usual light gray to kill two birds with one stone so to speak. Applying both base- and undercoat in one fell swoop as my grandmother used to say. In the meantime, the recently finished squadron of Saxon cuirassiers has been placed carefully in one of the clear acrylic boxes on my shelves until I have the suitable flag to affix. -- Sto...

The Grand Duchy of Stollen

Search This Blog