Christmas Week Tinkering. . .

Another old seasonal image, this time wishing us good luck in the new year.

A bit of tinkering at the painting desk yesterday afternoon, opening and sorting several new packets of Minden French artillery, pioneers, a mounted officer, and two 8pdr. French cannon, which were given to me by the Grand Duchess this Christmas Day. Most of these are destined to be painted in the uniforms purportedly worn by the artillery contingent of Lauzun's Legion during the American War of Independence. Some shade of blue (probably darker to mid-) and lemon yellow facings.

Eventually, these figures will become the artillery arm of a small legion or freikorps that I envision, consisting of battalion of line infantry, a company of lights, a squadron or two of cavalry, and said artillery. Rather than make up uniforms of my own, I think I'll depend on actual uniforms from historical formations since there are so many eye-catching examples out there. More on this anon since it now seems like I have various 18th century irons in the fire without actually having done very much the last 12 months or so. 2018 has to be better.

-- Stokes

Comments

CelticCurmudgeon said…

Hi Stokes,
For your legion you might try looking at the Perry Brothers AWI range. They have all the various types of figures including a few grenadiers that you might want to add to the line infantry perhaps to match the company of lights. Their cavalry is also quite good. I had a commission done for Lauzan's legion and the painter used a medium blue color for the gunners which was really quite nice.
Happy New Year,
Jerry
(A/K/A Gerardus Magnus)

8:16 AM

WSTKS-FM Worldwide said…

Thank you, Jerry! All great ideas. Thank you too for the tip on the medium blue for the eventual artillery arm. As much as I love the light blue o the Lauzun infantry and hussars, somehow it does not seem quite right for the artillery. The lemon yellow facings, however, are just the thing. Not the same old dark blue and red.

Happy New Year,

Stokes

9:56 AM

Chris Gregg said…

Great idea Stokes. You might like to be reminded of the Imagi-nations Lauzun's Legion I did a few years ago http://notjustoldschool.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/an-imagi-nation-legion.html
Chris

6:13 PM

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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