A bit nippy here in Zum Stollenkeller today. . .

A somewhat atypical image for the GD of S blog at this time of year, but nevertheless appropriate as both the Grand Duchess and I await the various gifts we've ordered for each other and the Young Master Paul.

A fun couple of hours at the painting table last night after the Young Master's bedtime. The almost finished Fife & Drum British general and ADC are looking amazing (If I might be so bold) after I redid the dark blue facing colors in oil and fixed the white turnbacks on one of the figures. I also took care of powdered wigs, white breeches and shirtfronts, and reins/harnesses on their steeds plus white markings on the latter's muzzles and legs. Just a few things left to do now, chiefly metallic items and lace plus some touch-ups to their crimson sashes. Hopefully, I can wrap that up this evening. Then, General Pipeclay Higgenbotham-Bulling and his ADC can assume command of a wing of the Stollenian army arrayed just outside Neu Sittangbad. . . after receiving a coat or two of something glossy and shiny of course.

Let's finish off today's post, however, with a Victorian image of Santa Claus/Father Christmas. So far this year, I think that this one is my favorite.

Later. . .

For those of you with an interest in such things, the guide I am using to paint my vignette of British General and ADC can be found in Jon Mollo and Malcom McGregor's Uniforms of the American Revolution (Blandford Press, 1975). It's the very first color plate in the book, following the text, entitled 'British Staff Officers.' Many thanks to Rob G. for sending me the image below from Messrs Mollo's and McGregor's book!

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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

A Little More Brushwork. . .

A little more brushwork on the first batch of (my version of) the Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment yesterday (Saturday). Taking a different tack this time and addressing many of the details first before the white coats and other larger areas of uniform. The eagle-eyed among you will notice that I've painted the (dark) red stocks of the enlisted men. Always a difficult and frustrating item to paint, it made sense to paint from the inside out as it were and get that particular detail out of the way first rather than try to paint it in later after much other painting has been accomplished. Trying to reduce the need for later retouching of other items on the figures you understand. Hopefully, I will be able to get back to these later today after a second trip back to the Apple Store for help with a couple of new iPad issues and, following the return home, some revision of Google Slides for tomorrow's meetings with my students. -- Stokes P.S. And according t...

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 Grand Duchy of Stollen

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