Further Croat Progress. . .

Another 90 minutes or so in the painting chair yesterday evening once the house was still. The session saw very slow painting with a fairly new #1 synthetic round in which I carefully applied acrylic colors to the capes slung over the shoulders of most of the Minden figures comprising this 14-figure company. The RSM95s in the firing pose have their capes fashioned into overstuffed bundles atop their upper backs. I've turned a couple of these around to show them here.

Most figures had a coat of GW Khorne Red applied to their capes while the others received light gray, a yellowish leather brown, or dark brown. The red, leather brown and light gray will get corresponding Army Painter washes this evening if time permits. Since I pull out of here tomorrow morning for another solo cr0ss-ocuntry skiing jaunt two hours north, a bit of grip and glide waxing is in order for two pairs of skis, so we'll have to see how things progress.

In any case, next week is our Spring Break Week here at MSU, which means nine slightly more relaxed days largely to myself here at home. With that in mind, the next painting session will be devoted to applying careful washes again, to the capes and muskets before moving on to the numerous small details. Hair locks, queues, and mustaches probably make the most sense for a start.

-- Stokes

A Found Figure Thursday Afternoon P.S.

Well, I just KNEW there were 15 Croats, and this afternoon during a quick break between Zoom meetings, I thought to peek into the clear acrylic box over on the other desk where in-progress figures stay between painting sessions. And what do you think I found?

Yep. The missing (overlooked?) RSM95 Croat in the standing and firing position but still in his bare metal state. Grrrr. I thought it was odd that the current in-progress batch had just 14 figures, and was all set to blame the cats for its disappearance, but sometimes the mind plays tricks on us. So, next week once I am back from skiing up north, it will be time to bring him up the same level of completion of the other 14 figures in the batch.

I am semi-pleased to have found him, yet also mildly annoyed that a few extra hours will be necessary to get him up to speed with his fellows. I know, I know. First World problem.

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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