July Painting Challenge: Day #5. . .

Still quite a way to go, but the figures are beginning to look like something. Not sure what, exactly, but something.

Managed to squeeze in some painting on the evenings of July 3rd and July 5th. The 4th was taken up with family stuff in celebration of Independence Day here in The United States. The photograph above illustrates where things stand currently.

Moving forward it seems most prudent to block in the very narrow black and white (gray with a tiny white highlight) neck stocks first before slapping on the basic dark blue coat color.

Eventual breeches will be white (gray with white highlight) for the Hausgrenadiers of Wurttemburg on the left and blue (dark blue with medium blue highlight) for the Hessenstein Regitment on the right, with the various command figures shown split between the two. Waistcoats white and yellow when I get to that point.

I might paint the drummer for the Hessenstein Regt., at right, in the older fashion of reverse colors, that is a yellow coat with dark blue facings, which makes more sense since I'm basing them on Mr. Knoetel's illustration showing a grenadier in 1749. As a reminder, I've included it below. Not yet sure in which uniform I'll paint the mounted officer though.

-- Stokes

The illustration on which I'm basing the right half of my present composite battalion of grenadiers above.

For good measure, I've also (re-) included a couple of illustrations from Kronoskaf -- Project Seven Years War -- showing Wurttemburg's Hausgrenadiere Battalion. This first one is from about 1763 I believe. The site has proven to be an invaluable resource for less commonly known uniforms, flags, standards, and guidons that simply are not presented in many books on the subject(s).

And the second illustration is the one I'm using as a guide for the left half of my composite grneadier battalion above. The green facings and darker red turnbacks are particularly attractive against the dark blue coat I think.

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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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