The Moving Forward Mindset. . .

After the Battle of Hohenfriedburg by Carl Roechling. Just about my favorite illustration of 18th century troops. An argument in favor of oversized standards, colors, and guidons for our tabletop troops if ever there were one.

Sadly, this particular weekend -- as feared since the school year kicked off for all three of us here in The Grand Duchy two weeks ago -- leaves little time for soldiering here after about three delightful months of, for yours truly at least, a reasonable degree of painting, modelling, and actual gaming. As will, no doubt be very familiar to many of you coming out of summer holidays and vacation time, you still have to get the same amount of things done with 35-40+ fewer hours of formerly free time each week.

For me, it's mowing the lawn when it dries out enough outside and prep for Monday's classes, plus all of the usual family stuff, which have left precious little time for myself over the last couple of days. Sigh.

Still, onward and upward, eh? Lately, I've been thinking a lot about Austrian flags of the WAS-era. Great stuff, and when I get around to painting more Minden Austrian infantry in 'white' (always a contentious subject), I plan to select three German regiments that had facing colors other than red and give 'em all the older, more varied flag patterns.

I've got a set of Pete's Flags in a drawer somewhere and also scanned them into a pdf file when I purchased them a couple of years ago, since I prefer my flags on white printer paper, which is much easier to shape, furl, and over-paint (ala Jim Purky's method) once dry. But all of that's still down the road apiece.

If I manage to find any spare time today (Sunday), I've got a new squadron of the Minden Bosniaken to sort out and move in the direction of painting preparations. One more squadron of those RSM95 French cuirassiers in bearskins to finish glossing too.

It's all well and good to read and daydream about what one might do next, and that is an enjoyable and even vital part of our hobby, but it doesn't get the figures painted, glossed, and on the table any sooner. Gotta keep the ongoing Grand Duchy of Stollen project on the rails and moving forward this school year with actual production even if that is slowed and more limited somewhat by the usual onslaught of daily Life.

Speaking of which, it's almost 10am here now, and I am off to make Sunday breakfast for The Grand Duchess and The Young Master.

-- 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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