Waterloo Day 2019. . .

The composite battalion of grenadiers nears the finish line. Almost. Besides the white trim on the red silk bags, you'll notice that I've added a dark gray highlight (now, there's an oxymoron) to the edges of the officers' cocked hats and the upper reaches of the other ranks' bearskins.

What would Waterloo Day be without a little toy soldiering in the form of painting? So, after lunch, I held the ol' breath for half an hour or so and applied thin lines of white to the latest batch of six enlisted men (the back row of figures in white uniforms at right), specifically the red silk bags atop the bearskin bonnets.

The brief session went reasonably well with only two or three very small touch-ups necessary, despite The Young Master and one of our cats playing nearby, which diverts the concentration considerably. Ahem.

In any case, I'll tackle the final six figures this evening, and then all that remains to do are the two brass drums. I will probably not attempt to apply brass faceplates to the bearskins, as worn by the Kurkoeln and Hessen-Darmstadt troops on which these are based for two reasons. First, the bearskins on the Minden Austrians that I have used, and of which I have scads remaining in the lead pile, do not have that particular feature sculpted onto them. Second, given that, the better part of valor is to be satisfied with how things are coming along and not risk fouling up what has so far been a reasonably good paint job.

You know? Why risk time consuming mistakes with the brush at this late stage?

In other news, The Grand Duchess left this morning for a conference in Hawaii. A week in Hawaii! No matter. The Young Master and I will continue enjoying our summer vacation together in her absence.

He has been finished with school for about a week and, besides playing outside, the occasional bike ride with Dad around the neighborhood, practicing his piano, various appointments of his own, plus a visit to the periodontist for Dad's stitches to come out this morning, has started his own school. Menagerie Elementary School began yesterday.

Young Master Paul, in the role of teacher, takes his animals through an attenuated day, teaching and reviewing all manner of subjects like mathematics, science, reading, and social studies as well as keeping his animal students in line during class time and supervising them at both lunch and recess periods. For a child who complains loudly about school and compares it to prison, he sure seems to like/miss it already.

Clearly his 3rd Grade teacher Mr. H. really made quite an impression this year. Who knows? Maybe we have another (future) educator in the family?

-- Stokes

Menagerie Elementary is in session! Mr. Paul getting his animals ready to start the school day this morning with The Pledge of Allegiance.

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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