Keeping Up Christmas Standards. . .

After holding my breath for what seemed like hours -- It was like defusing a time-bomb in some action adventure movie or other -- the standards are attached, in place, and furled reasonably well.

Spent another hour or so at the painting desk yesterday evening after tucking The Young Master into bed for the night. Managed to snap a couple of quick photos just to give you a taste of where things stand at this point after touching up the edges of the standards with some additional GW/Citadel gold acrylic .

I'm pleased with the way things have turned out although I had to go back and tone down the highlights on the blue standard a bit after looking at the pictures last night. But I think things are about where I want them this morning.

Today at some point I need to retouch a few of the fleur de lis, but afterwards, I'll call 'em done and attach the cavalry carbines to the red squadron. Once dry, a few touch ups to those, and then it's onto the acrylic glossing. Charge!

-- Stokes

Another vintage Christmas card this morning featuring some stylized holly, which I wish we saw more of in the U.S. at this time of year. I actually found and gave the Grand Duchess a small holly plant, lovely and green with a number of bright red berries, during Advent.

Comments

Ross Mac rmacfa@gmail.com said…

Well done. Miniature works of art that show the care and skill of the painter.

They should be led by a Colonel Noel and be nicknamed the Yuletide Horse Grenadiers.

6:31 AM

Independentwargamesgroup said…

Congratulations Stokes for completing the two regiments.I do like the RSM range which has stood the test of time, well done and a Happy New Year to you and yours.

7:25 AM

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 ...

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...

The Grand Duchy of Stollen

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