A Painting Update for July 27th. . .

Here's where things stand by the evening of July 27th.

A couple of pleasant painting sessions in the ol' chair yesterday. One in the afternoon, and another during the mid-evening after The Young Master's bedtime and a walk around the neighborhood. Still lots to do, of course, but the first 32 of the musketeer figures are coming together.

A couple of painting points. One, various sources differ on the color scheme of the hat pompoms and tassels of the Schaumburg-Lippe-Bückeburg Infantry. Some say these were plain white, others suggesting red and white. I've opted for the former (actually white atop a light gray undercoat).

Likewise, when it comes to the jacket lapels, sources indicate either red, blue, or none at all. After double-checking, I went back and repainted them dark blue, highlighted sparingly with a mid-blue to match the rest of the coats. Neck stocks too seem open to question when it comes to color. I went for red this time around as a change from my usual default black.

The second painting point was. . . Well, darn it. I've now forgotten the second observation, which clearly must have been very important! Either a senior moment, or not yet enough coffee to clear the early morning fog. It is just before 8am here in The Grand Duchy.

In any case, I think it's time to finish the leather shoulder straps for the remaining dozen figures in the forefront of the picture, and then add hair-queues, mustaches, hat lace, and visible buttons for all 32, making sure everything is at the same point and finished, before moving onto the next 16 bare metal castings in the back of the room.

Ideally, I'd like to finish painting and glossing this unit and get them affixed to their Litko plywood bases by September 1st when the fall semester kicks off. Let's see if that actually happens. In the meantime, "Charge!"

-- 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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