Christmas Is Two Weeks Away. . . Yikes!!!

The usual delightful Minden castings, already looking pretty good although considerable brushwork remains.

Taking a couple of days this weekend for myself after two weeks of galloping through life following the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday weekend. Best of all, I have returned to the painting bench to continue work on the two-gun battery and crew of Russian SYW figures for The Young Master this Christmas.

The figures are reasonably far along and at the detailing/touch-up stage. But it was time to get a jump on the cannon themselves. Here is where we stand after half an hour or so of dark undercoats to de-emphasize all of those troublesome nooks and crannies that go hand in glove with artillery pieces.

The models already had been based coated with a mixture of white acrylic gesso and gray acrylic paint. Doing so kills two birds with one stone and provides a nice, solid base for later paints, regardless of type (acrylics, solvents, oils, etc.).

So, very dark brown on and around the barrels with dark red for the gun carriages. Looks pretty good so far, but I might apply a second thin coat of each just to be sure no missed specks of bare metal peek through later. Agh! Know what I mean?

In other news, planning to set up the tables late next week, so that Young Master Paul and I might enjoy a game Christmas Week, and he can try out his artillery. Given his incredible dice throws in previous games, I fully expect the new Russian battery to mow down any of my cavalry or infantry foolish enough to attempt capture of them.

And on that note, I continue to refine the morale rules shared here a number of weeks back. Finally came across a passage on page 34 of Featherstone's Complete Wargaming (1988) that has helped me nail down a few nagging points on shaken and disordered units. Some clear language there that I may very well borrow wholesale into my rules before Paul an I play our game.

Of course, if we have enough snow on the ground, everything will be delayed since the family will strap on the ol' cross-country skis and hit the trails. We'll have to see, but a degree of flexibility is called for during the winter months since skiing takes priority if and when the weather cooperates.

-- 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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