Saxon General and Officers Finished. . .

Three Saxon officers surround their Major General -- Not a Lieutenant General as reported wrongly yesterday.  Too much gold lace on that one! -- as he points to something in the distance. 

Submitted for your viewing pleasure -- or, at the very least an example of how NOT to go about painting your figures -- the promised Saxon staff and aide-de-camp.  The coats and saddlecloths look redder in these photos than is the case in person where they are very much more Alizarin Crimson than they seem here.  Likewise, the good general's horse is less orange that it appears in this series of photographs.

Another shot, this time made with a crane borrowed from the late Orson Welles.  Call it my own Touch of Evil moment.  Believe it, or not, this series of shots was done all in one continuous take.

And sometimes, nothing seems to go right.  As I was applying the Liquitex acrylic gloss varnish last night before bed, what do you think happened?  Yep.  Knocked over the whole darn bottle and spilled about half of it all over one end of the painting table.  Luckily, none found its way onto the radios or any figures, but. . . rats!  Just rats!  Then, this morning, while applying the clumps of shrubbery, the small tube of super glue gel seemed to get a mind of its own and kept oozing everywhere.  Absolutely everywhere.  One more time, though, I was fairly quick on my feet and managed to avoid getting any of the stuff on the figures you see here.  Oh, the unmitigated hardships we endure for our hobby. 

And one final photograph of the Saxons.  But, oh bother!  I could not get Janet Leigh's people to return my calls.  I had hoped to have her pose in the middle of the three-figure vignette.  And then, I discovered that she passed away in 2004.  Rats!  Skunked again.

Bad things happen in threes, though, right?  So I think the wisest thing to do would be to take an evening off from the painting table, retire early to bed with a wee dram of single malt (purely for medicinal purposes of course), and allow the air to clear before beginning on the next vignette.  A Minden Austrian hussar officer peering through the mist across the battle while an RSM Croat takes pot shots at some unseen nearby enemy.  Not a general officer or ADC, but simply a nice display piece to enliven some corner of the table top.