Pontoniers in Progress. . .

The current unit under the brush, now well and truly in-progress.

Well, the painting muse has decided to kick off her shoes and stay a while, so I've struck while the iron is hot and done a lot of work on the 24+ Minden pontoniers during yesterday evening and early this Saturday afternoon. Still lots to do, but at least they look like tiny humans now. Be sure to tune in again tomorrow, for another painting update.

-- Stokes

And here are the four designated oarsmen, cemented permanently into place within their pontoons and more for display than gaming purposes. Whoops! Just noticed that they still need their fleshtone applied.

Last of all, here is a seasonal image, depicting Santa Lucia, who brings brings delicious saffron buns called lussekatter (and coffee) to sleeping parents in Norway, Sweden, and possibly Denmark on December 13th each year. The Grand Duchess (assisted by the Young Master) will bake a batch for us later today as a seasonal nod to her own Swedish ancestry.

P.S.

The Young Master is five now, so this is the year. I've dug out the large box containing all of my old green and blue plastic soldiers, tanks, and guns. Some of these are 40+ years old now, and I enjoyed many years of imaginative play with them before they languished unused for several years once I discovered things like girls and guitars during middle and high school. I finally packed them carefully away sometime during the summer of 1985. Flash forward to 2014. Among his other gifts beneath the tree this Christmas, these will be waiting for the Young Master. They will become his now, although I suspect he might ask ol' Dad to play along once in a while.

Comments

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

Search This Blog