A Shameless Plug. . .

A musketeer of the Blau Wurzburg Infantry. I'll be painting up conjectural flags to go with a regiment of 80 figures already in the GD of S collection, who sport a strikingly similar uniform.

Just a quick post to plug Fife & Drum Miniatures for those of you who are not yet converts to this particular range of figures. Easily some of the nicest, most cleanly molded and best proportioned mid-18th century models on the market.

A rather large order of Minden Austrian infantry and some Russian cannon with crew arrived today, part of a (late) 50th birthday present to myself. Everything was packaged (taped into bubble wrap and with foam peanuts surrounding everything), labelled very carefully by proprietor Jim "Der Alte Fritz" Purky, and it arrived safely just a couple of days after the order was filled and sent. Now all I need is the time to paint them.

In any case, these are the miniatures you want for the War of the Austrian Succession and the Seven Years War in my view. If the mid-late 18th century is your thing, you cannot go wrong with these particular figures. And of course they work well with those by RSM95, Crann Tara, Eureka, and the Fife & Drum American War of Independence range too.

On another note entirely, the three of us managed to get out on skis or a while early this afternoon. It was a perfect day for it here in Mid-Michigan with cold temperatures, powdery snow, and almost no one else around save for one woman who passed by us twice, said hello, and skied on her way. Just quiet woods, an occasional breeze in the trees, and stillness all around. One of my most favorite things to do.

The Young Master is coming along nicely too. Not exactly fast yet, but he has the diagonal stride of classic Nordic skiing down, can glide forward, climb hills, and schuss down the other side without falling. Not bad for only two previous winters on skis. Not bad at all.

-- Stokes

The Grand Duchess and Young Master on skis earlier this afternoon.

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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A Little More Brushwork. . .

Basic Reds Done at Last. . .

It's Early Days Yet. . .