Ah, another 29th birthday. . .

A rather idealized portrait of the Duke of Cumberland.

Today is again my "29th" birthday -- funny how quickly these seem to come around -- and, in celebration, I've ordered myself three new Richard Ansell sculpts, sold by Crann Tara Miniatures in the United Kingdom. With any luck, the Duke of Cumberland, Lord Albemarle, and Henry Hawley, plus their steeds, should wing their way to my doorstep before too many days elapse. Once here, they'll form another wonderful little staff vignette, which I'll paint up during the long Christmas Break. I'm looking forward to it. Can you tell? The remaining six wagons and carts are just about done by the way, and afterwards, there is a rather large regiment of RSM95 infantry in the painting queue. Sigh. No rest for the wicked!

-- Stokes

Later. . .

Thank you for your kind birthday wishes, everyone! It has been a low-key, but nonetheless joyous birthday celebration. In silent observance of the occasion, I even wore a recently acquired double-breasted, drape cut wool flannel suit in cream and charcoal Glen Plaid to campus today. Admittedly, I felt a bit less like Cary Grant and more Jimmy Cagney, or perhaps a young Edward G. Robinson (but taller), albeit without the requisite fedora and nickle-plated heater inside my coat. "You dirty, rat! You killed my brother! Yeah, you! See? Yeah!"

Undoubtedly, I looked like a complete freak to my students (we don't see too much of this sort of thing in my neck of the woods, you know), but I felt good, and this must be one of the most comfortable suits I've ever worn. It's almost like having nothing on at all, and yet it is surprisingly warm on a blustery, raw day like we had today. Sorry, guys. No photographic evidence since the darn battery was dead in the camera. Next time, ok?

An early dinner out with the Young Master and Grand Duchess followed this evening, and then chocolate cake, cards, and a few gifts at home afterwards. These included the recently released Maurice de Saxe vignette from Minden Miniatures, given to me by the Young Master, and some of the new limber horses and civilian riders (to finish the supply and pontoon train) as well as some of the agricultural laborers, from the Grand Duchess. As I always say, a birthday with model soldiers, especially when they are as high quality as these are, is a good birthday. Come on Christmas Break!

And the 28mm version of the Duke by Crann Tara, soon to be making its way to Zum Stollenkeller along with Lord Albemarle and Henry Hawley.

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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