The Light! The Light!

After some intense brushwork during the weekend, I can report happily that we are approaching the end of work on my version of Austria's Wied Infantry, which has been in progress, albeit haltingly, since, oh. . . Last August? In short, I can see light at the end of the painting tunnel with these 60+ figures.

After fumbling my way through the regiment's three drummers (shoulder wings, drum cords, hops, etc.) on Saturday, and retouching poor ol' Drummer#3 yesterday afternoon, I moved onto touching up the dark brown musket stocks on all musketeers across the three companies. I organize my units more or less according to the guidelines laid out by Young and Lawford in Charge! Or How to Play War Games (1967) for those who might be scratching their heads.

I next moved onto the officers' and NCOs' swords and/or scabbards yesterday evening after the Young Master's bedtime. 45 minutes, or so, later and the unit began to sparkle. All of this is simply a long-winded, bloated, and even self-important way of saying that we are now at the fine detailing stage for the entire unit.

Ahem.

Officers' gloves, hundreds of brass buttons, a few mustaches, and a few small touch-ups here and there before glossing. Once I overpaint and gloss the beautifully striped flags, the better to help them fit in with my general painting style, it will be time for permanent basing. They might, just might be ready to go for the Christmas Week game between the Young Master and myself.

Afterwards, I am torn between jumping right into another 60-figure Reichsarmee infantry unit, a 30-figure cavalry regiment, or perhaps the Russian dragoon squadron of 14-15 figures, which was a gift to my son for Christmas 2021. He has been very patient with 'Bad Dad' (his nickname for me), and my conscience hurts for not getting to them sooner, so I suppose these should be my first hobby priority in the new year.

-- Stokes

Comments

Duke of Baylen said…

These are looking good and I look forward to seeing them complete.

You could let your conscience be your guide - I've gone back to some figures my daughter bought me for Christmas at least 2 years ago!

Alternatively, you could let the roll of a dice make the decision for you!

Merry Christmas,

Stephen

6:12 AM

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

Search This Blog