Squiggles 'n' Blops on a Lazy Saturday. . .

The title of an over-sized Jackson Pollock study in color and texture? Noooooo! Just a description of the piece of palette paper on which I've been thinning and mixing my alkyd oil paints for a couple of evenings as I apply the colors to my Prussian and British officers and horses. The addition of London Yellow this morning -- to approximate the yellow of an officer of Prussia's 2nd Kuirassiere -- just seemed to pull everything together. It's funny the things that cross your mind as you paint. And as I thinned the blob of yellow with several drops of Original Liquin earlier today, it occurred to me that the mix of puddles of various colors had a pleasing effect. At least to my eyes. Hence the reason behind, and the title of, this post.

Now, lots of wargamers and figure painters state that they have always avoided using oils because of, among other things, the perception that it takes a long time for the paints to dry, preferring the convenience of acrylic hobby paints of one brand or another. Fair enough. Especially if you are using old-fashioned oils thinned with something like Linseed Oil, which can take weeks to dry out.

But, alkyd oil colors, like those produced by Winsor-Newton, dry to the touch overnight, and the Liquin thinner itself also speeds up drying times appreciably. Using the two together mean that it's safe to begin the next painting step on a batch of figures within 24 hours and sometimes even sooner. So, if you're after something slightly different with your miniatures painting, I urge you to give oils a try. They can produce some really nice effects applied over a white undercoat.

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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...

Basic Reds Done at Last. . .

S till quite a way to go with the current batch of 20 human figures and a horse (of course), but they're actually starting to look like something after all of the red distinctions. Quite a bit of painting in hour-long sessions the last week as and when time has allowed. Mostly applying the basic dark red to facing areas and turnbacks followed by the inevitable touch-ups to clean up wobbly edges and those misplaced, minute splotches of Citadel Khorne Red. They're looking like so many Austrian infantry regiments of the era at this point, but the eventual flags will turn them magically into the Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment, more or less, of the AWI period. But I'm getting a bit ahead of myself. One frustrating point (ahem) of sad discovery. I've started trying to use those Winsor & Newton 'Series Seven' brushes (#1 rounds) purchased last spring, and the blasted things simply will not keep a point. Very frustrating since I have heard over the y...

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

The Grand Duchy of Stollen

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