Carry on and Keep Painting!

The squadron of Wurttemberg horse grenadiers as of late last (Tuesday) night.

Things are progressing slowly but surely with the current batch of cavalry figures here in Zum Stollenkeller Mk II, bet we're getting there. Though I finally had to quit last night about 10:15pm after making a second or third mistake. These flubbs with the brush were fairly easily corrected, but it was time to stop and head off to bed for some reading.

I'll leave highlighting until just about everything else is finished. I've also decided on black reins, bridles, and straps this time around with some sparing dark grey highlights ala Doug Mason's work. And I'll attempt to add some cavalry carbines last of all when everything else, including a white colonel's standard (presumed), has been added. Horses will be mostly bays with a chestnut or three for variety plus, of course, the grey ridden by the regimental trumpeter near the lower right-hand corner of the photograph.

The second squadron of the composite regiment, just visible at lower right, will have dark blue coats and will be based on one of the German heavy regiments in bearskins that fought for the French during our era, that is the mid-18th century.

Last of all, a closing thought on the will to keep painting.

It occurred to me several days ago that so much of our craft involves painting straight or curved lines. Many, many, many times over. While highly impressive in appearance once everything is finished and varnished, you'll at once grasp why so many of us -- Guilty as charged, your honor! -- struggle with painting from time to time. In other words, it's not always the most exciting thing to sit down and do. Tedious and repetitive come to mind. It's far more fun, sometimes, to sit down a look at the pretty pictures in our books and magazines isn't it? But if you manage to keep a stiff upper lip, switch your mind to autopilot, and just get on with it, the end results speak for themselves I think. Just my two cents on the subject.

-- Stokes

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

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 Eventual Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment. . .

The Anhalt-Zerbst regiment musters in the drill square to sort themselves into platoons and companies during the coming weeks Fall maneuvers if you will. A large dose of real life the last few days with the start of classes next Monday, various preparatory meetings, and finishing up a few other things this week. But, I managed to sort out 60 or so Minden Austrian infantry from the pile and get 'em stuck to temporary painting bases. Must carefully drill out the hands of several NCOs for flagpoles and pole arms this weekend before the usual basecoat. I'm thinking of mixing the usual white gesso with the usual light gray to kill two birds with one stone so to speak. Applying both base- and undercoat in one fell swoop as my grandmother used to say. In the meantime, the recently finished squadron of Saxon cuirassiers has been placed carefully in one of the clear acrylic boxes on my shelves until I have the suitable flag to affix. -- Sto...

The Grand Duchy of Stollen

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