Wet Snow Falls in the Grand Duchy. . .

He's not done yet. . . Here's another Victorian, or Edwardian image of Father Christmas in keeping with the season. The overflowing sack of fruit and other treats in his left hand is a nice touch.

About an inch of wet snow arrived during the night here at Stollen Central (our first snow was a dusting on December 9th). Not really enough to do anything with, and given the warm temperatures so far this season, it will probably melt away as the morning progresses, but it is beautiful outside our windows at the moment. Here's to the small pleasures in life.

The current batch of ten RSM figures is just about finished. Touch-ups will be applied this afternoon, following Young Master Paul's lunch and going down for his afternoon quiet time. Actual naps no longer seem to be on his daily agenda. Anyway, the next ten figures were glued onto their temporary bases during yesterday evening's painting session, and tonight after supper, they will receive the usual treatment of a white basecoat.

Finally, I'm going to order volume four of Wargaming in History: The Seven Years War by Charles Grant plus some of those RSM pandours/croats/grenzers this afternoon. I might even make it to the local artists' supply and craft store to purchase some new paintbrushes with some of that Christmas windfall, but there is no hurry. If one is able to, it's nice to slow down and avoid going anywhere, or doing anything during Christmas Week if at all possible.

Later. . .
Just finished those ten RSM musketeers! 36/61 figures finished. . . 25 to go. White basecoats for the next ten of those this evening after supper. Just under three weeks to go until the January 16th deadline!

Comments

Der Alte Fritz said…

How about some piccies of the first 36 figures that you have completed so far?

9:15 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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