July Painting Challenge: Day #26. . .

The unit in question this (Sunday) morning. Very nearly there with just three days left of July.

The following update should have been posted two days ago on Friday morning, but my camera needed charging for photographs, and then the day got away from me with mowing and assorted yardwork outside followed by a shower, change of clothes, and an evening out for dinner, just the two of us, with The Grand Duchess. Anyway, here is the update from Friday morning:

The Young Master had an early eye exam at 8: 10 this morning, and his mother, bless her, took him. So, I had some unanticipated free time and took the opportunity to refill my coffee mug and head down here to Zum Stollenkeller and get to it!

Lots of niggling little details at this point as we near the finish line. I spent about an hour working on the drums carried by the two drummers who are part of this 33-strong grenadier battalion. While I took care of the brass shells yesterday, the heads, hoops, and cords needed doing. This is one of those times when you don't breathe and brace your hands to keep them as still as possible. Especially when it comes to those tiny diagonal stripes of contrasting color on the drum hoops!

I went with conjecture and gave the Wurttemburg Hausgrenadiere drummer yellow hoops with black diagonal stripes for his drum, while the Hessen-Kassel Hessenstein drum hoops were painted white with orange diagonal stripes, according to the information presented on the Project Seven Years War website for this particular regiment.

The process of painting drumhoops never seems to get much easier, but 28mm drummer figures are preferable to work with compared to 'true' 15mm miniatures, like the Minifig 'Super Detail' Napoleonics on which I cut my painting teeth many years ago. Still, I don't think I took a breath for the better part of an hour as I worked on the two drums, but they came out reasonably without that many errors to touch-up. Strangely.

Afterwards, it was time to give the enlisted figures their mustaches (Not too much trouble here!) with my trusty old 000 sable, still useful after more than two decades, before moving on to things like: wigs and queues, gaiter buttons for the half of the battalion in off-white gaiters, officers' swords and knots, sword scabbards,white sleeve cuffs (where visible), and officers' gloves.

That, according to the almighty To Do list should just about get things to the touch-up and glossing stages. Just five days left in July. . . Can I make the deadline of Midnight on July 31st?

-- Stokes

Sunday Morning P.S.
By my reckoning, the remaining items to paint before glossing and permanent basing include:

1) Whale Bones on the rear of the mitre caps (not looking forward to these)
2) Officers' sashes, gloves, and any remaining gorgets
3) Scabbards (hilts, tips, highlights, any visible straps)
4) Wigs/Hair
5) Queues
6) Gaiter buttons on the half of battalion with white gaiters.

Mercifully, the half of the battalion in coats with (yellow) Swedish cuffs do not seem to have that tiny sliver of shirt cuff sculpted/visible, making my work a little easier.

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

Independentwargamesgroup said…

Well they're coming along fine now Stokes.As Ive said before they are a lot more difficult to paint than RSM etc but do come up really well. I've had a battalion of Saxon grenadiers sat on my table for nearly two years now, I just havent had the inclination to complete them especially as I moved onto easier projects. Stick at it they look great.

12:44 PM

WSTKS-FM Worldwide said…

Thank you! Still a few things to do yet, but almost there. Of course, they'll probably run away in the first game they're used in. ;-)

Best Regards,

Stokes

7:39 PM

The Grand Duchy of Stollen

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