Musket Barrels, Dapple Grey, and Horse Bits Done. . .

Here is where things are with the 14-figure cavalry squadron that has been on the painting bench since at least September.

Still a way to go with the current unit of cavalry, but I had a reasonably favorable experience doing the trumpeter's dapple grey mount two evenings ago.

Instead of blazing, sun-bleached bone white for the dappling, I used Antique White, applied it with a crummy, not-so-good brush that doesn't hold a point, and used a stippling motion. In addition, I was careful not to have very much paint at all on the bristles and smudged it around as soon as it had been applied before the acrylic dried.

Knowing when to stop is, in my view, an important and sometimes overlooked part of developing as a figure painter. Sometimes, I notice figures online and in magazines that look a little overdone, almost like the painter didn't quite know when to put down the brush. The popular three-shade methods, while they have many followers, too often veer into this land of the overwrought. To my mind, the power of suggestion tends to yield a more realistic and pleasing appearance t0 units of 15-40mm figures than does trying to paint every last button, fold, and nostril of our small lead and plastic soldiers with a base color, shade, and highlight. Just my two penn'oth you understand.

That said, I am tempted to try some additional very light dry-brushing in the area of the horse's right shoulder (facing the camera) and on it's lower muzzle to tone down the dappling and black just a wee bit before calling it done. See the photograph below, which I found online and used as a visual reference. You'll notice here that the nose-lips area and much of the rest of the horse's coat have an ever-so-slight dusty, undefined appearance without crisp edges. That leads me to think some very light dry-brushing might further enhance my rendition of said steed at the bottom of this post.

Anyway, my trumpeter's horse is far from perfect, but at arm's length, I think, it gives an almost reasonable approximation of a dapple grey, which is a nice change from my more usual (and simpler) damp or dry-brushing of light gray or white over a darker undercoat.

Ok, almost time to get the boy ready for the school bus. It's 8:17am here. Hustle, hustle!

-- Stokes

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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