Skip to main content

A Friedrich and von Seydlitz Update. . .

This is one of the illustrations I've used a reference for the painting of my Minden Frederick figure.

Not long now before the ol' Frederick and von Seydlitz in 1/56 scale are finished and ready for varnishing.  I broke out the tubes of oil-based silver and gold yesterday afternoon for some careful painting of saddle cloth fringe, sashes, lace, and other assorted metallic trim on both figures.  Armed with a brush with a sharp point, I managed to apply silver to just the raised areas of said items, and the results look amazing. . .  to my  eyes at least.   Touch-ups -- the bain of wargamer-painters -- were minimal at the time thanks to a steady hand, something that is unusual here at Stollen Central given my love for cups of fresh Java.  

Still horse furniture, sword hilts/scabbards, and a little bit of the waistbelts to do, and then these two figures will be just about done.  Then, it will be time for the varnishing and terraining stages.  But everything has progressed very nicely so far, and I don't think I've ever had command figures look this good.  Really.  But then with figures like those produced by Minden, it's hard not to do a pretty decent job on them.  Watch for photos in the next few days

In other news, there was a question on The Miniatures Page this morning about the ongoing Battle for Neu Sittangbad.  Something like, "Will this battle ever end?"  Well, as long as our friends de Latte and von Tschatschke have a stock of good Cuban cigars and fine single malt whiskey within easy reach, plus an attentive household staff to pick them up from the floor when they overindulge, I foresee the battle, as well as the flurry of sarcastic barbs flying through the air between the two men, continuing to rage for a little while yet.

A more familiar (and rather dashing) portrayal of von Seydlitz by Knoetel, one of several to which I have referred during my painting.

Comments

My Dear Prince Ulrich,

Your frequent and excellent postings have been received by Us and Our many followers with great delight.

It will be amost salutory and pleasurable event to witness your most recent painted additions to your collection. Your work with metallic oils is most anticipated!

Be well and Our best regards to the Royal Family.

Gerardus Magnus
Archbishop
Tomo said…
"Horse furniture..." lol

Popular posts from this blog

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...