Saturdays are (or should be) for painting. . .

The 2010 Weihnachtsmarkt in Greifswald, Germany (photo taken by Johannes Koepke). Maybe one day, we'll be in Germany for the Christmas season? Until then, I'll enjoy images like this one.

A late night last night. My amateur rock & roll band The Indras played a date at a nearby town, and it was after 1 o'clock by the time I returned home and unloaded the car. The Grand Duchess and Young Master Paul went somewhere this morning, so I have been able to sleep late -- a real treat these days -- and I am now having coffee at the computer and listening to some seasonal music online.

While there is still some stuff to do relating to the recently concluded college semester, and a small translation I really should start on, today I plan to paint, paint, paint. "Finish the current four Luebecker musketeers and make considerable inroads with the next batch of four" is the mantra for the afternoon and evening. Oh, and somewhere in there, I need to run an errand, to assist Sankt Nikolas, who will be leaving a few small edible treats for the Grand Duchess and Young Master Paul in their shoes on the night of December 5th. But then, it's back to the painting table!

Comments

Steve-the-Wargamer said…

Meant to ask - how's the book coming on..??

12:04 PM

WSTKS-FM Worldwide said…

Sigh. I shelved that project some time ago when it became apparent that I wouldn't be able to produce/publish anything as nice as Charles Grant's recent titles. Very disappointing, but sometimes you have to bite your tongue and know when to walk away from a project.

Best Regards,

Stokes

1:25 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

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

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