How We Suffer for the Hobby. . .

Backtracking a bit here for the white clad Hessen-Darmstadt Leibgrenadiers at right, a frustrating exercise, but this is where we are as of 3:59pam Eastern Standard Time on Sunday afternoon.

Time spent this morning and mid-afternoon redoing the white gaiters and garters on the Hessen-Darmstadt half of my composite grenadier battalion (Argh!!!). I've taken the opportunity to add the basic brown horse color for the mounted officer as well as the red (Khorne Red, Evil Sunz Scarlet, and very sparse pure Scarlet atop that)breeches, waistcoats, and saddle cloth for the officers plus the drummer's coat for the Kurkoeln Wildenstein drummer.

And now, it's time to do something that actually helps pay the bills (and purchase life's essentials. . . more brushes, paints, military history or wargaming hobby books, and soldiers). No more putting it off. No way. No how. I absolutely must see to some preparation for tomorrow's two classes before returning, hopefully, for an hour or so this evening. Keep your fingers and toes crossed!

-- Stokes

I managed to locate a larger version of this lovely Knoetel print online, which not only shows an enlisted man of Hessen-Darmstadt's Leibgrenadierekorps, but also an officer in the near background. While text references are handy, nothing helps during the painting process like one or two good visual references. To borrow a term from one Mr. Conrad Kinch, click on the illustration to "embiggen.".

Comments

Matt said…

The mind does wander when painting block colours-I have been tempted to listen to an audio book to see if that can get me through the tunics, breeches and webbing stages. Not sure if I would find that too distracting though and defeat the object.

4:03 PM

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...

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 ...

Presenting the Anspach-Bayreuth Kuirassiere!!!

Here they are, with the rearmost nine figures still drying, three squadrons of the Anspach-Bayreuth Kuirassiere, now in the service of the Grand Duchy of Stollen. And now, it's onto that artillery!

The Grand Duchy of Stollen

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