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Session Five: The Sap Green

The green facings, turnbacks, lapels, and waistcoats have been completed in one afternoond.  Whew!

A marathon painting session this cold, snowy Sunday afternoon (sadly, not yet enough on the ground for cross-country skiing), so four hours plus spent in the painting saddle carefully applying thinned Winsor & Newton Griffin Alkyd Sap Green.  As usual, a healthy dollop of Liquin Original mixed with a fairly small amount of the Sap Green.  As I gain experience using oils for the bulk of my painting, I find that less color and more Liquin -- No precise measurements, you know.  It's all done by sight and the seat of my pants. --  seem to yield better results, making the color easier and faster to apply and helping the pigment to settle in recessed areas while running somewhat thinner of raised parts of the figures at the same time.

Today, I used a #2 round synthetic Grumbacher 'Goldenedge' brush and went rather slowly to minimize errors that might need later touching up.  Everything went reasonably well, and besides cleaning up a few edges along some of the white shoulder belts with some later sepia brown lining, there are very few areas that will require retouching after the green has dried during the next 18-24  hours.  

Still lots to do, of course, before we can call 'em done, but the back of this particular mini-project has been broken, and it's simply smaller thing now like muskets, barrels, and bayonets, musket slings, wigs/hair, mustaches, the drummer's drum and shoulder wings, etc.  Maybe another two-four painting sessions before I can apply the usual two coats of acrylic gloss finish to these figures, set them aside, and move onto the next company-sized batch of 20 figures in this monster composite regiment of RSM95 infantry.   

Meanwhile, back in real life, the new college semester begins on January 21st for yours truly, so let's see how far along I can get with these before then.  You know, it'll be the same old song and dance as far as available free time goes once I am about five or six weeks into the term.  As the saying goes, I'd better get [painting] while the gettin's good!

-- Stokes



Another one of the several references, a grenadier of the Kurmainz (aka Wildenstein) Regiment, that I am using to inform my painting of the current batch of figures.

Comments

Old School ACW said…
Stokes,

That's looking very, very nice. Excellent work as usual!

Greg
7:36 PM
marinergrim said…
Always interesting to see your work Stokes. Never got on with oils myself but I appreciate the work that you do to promote their use.
9:41 AM
Big Andy said…
Never been able to master assembly line painting myself- but the end results definitely justify the means !
10:31 AM
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