Slower Than Molasses in Janaury. . .

The now finished Prussian Blacksmith vignette, which I call 'The Thrown Show.' Figures are from the amazing Minden Miniatures range while the mobile field forge and tools are by Berliner Zinnfiguren. The table was scratch-built using the ends of round toothpicks for the legs and a couple of pieces of white illustration board along with very careful cutting and gluing. Holding one's breath is always extremely helpful with tiny stuff like this.

How's the painting coming along, old man? Thought you'd never ask. Slower than molasses in January to be frank. The usual stuff associated with my courses and students I'm afraid, but I did manage to wrap up an article and send it along to the people waiting on it last weekend. I also managed to finish, finally, the Prussian blacksmith vignette above (the table and tools), and take a bunch of photographs of various things completed earlier this year to send along with the article.

So, while no painting occurred, Saturday was a delightful late morning and afternoon of miniature photography, followed with a bit of careful editing using Photoshop Elements 9 to brighten, sharpen, correct color cast, and crop everything. Hopefully a few of the pictures might be selected for eventual publication.

Miniature photography is almost as absorbing a pastime as painting and wargaming. Needless to say, it is fascinating to learn about how we might present our collections to their best advantage photographically speaking, and when I think of my early attempts at photography back when the Grand Duchy of Stollen blog started. . . Well, let's just say that my pictures have improved ten-fold during the last year or so. Still lots to learn and try, of course, but the rapid progress is nice to see.

With that in mind, I thought I'd include one picture from yesterday's batch of the blacksmith vignette for your viewing pleasure. As for today (Sunday), I am taking some time for myself, darn it, and will sit down to work some on the harnesses and traces of those final half dozen or so wagons and carts. They have sat idle and patiently behind me on the painting table for the last three weeks, but I want to get 'em finished because there is an 80-figure unit of RSM95 musketeers that I want to start.

The plan for these is to paint them as the various contingents of Ernestinisch Saxon infantry, part of the Reichsarmee, with each of the four planned companies in a slightly different uniform. That should help keep things moving forward without too much drudgery. I don't know that I can again face the thought of painting 80 figures in nothing but white uniforms like the two such regiments that already exist in my collection as part of the Army of Zichenau.

In the meantime, let's harness up!

-- 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...

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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