Von Polenz Cuirassiers, ca. 1733: The Reds. . .

A painting muse of another color visited Saturday, so rather than begin the yellow/gold detailing of the saddle cloths, I tried my hand at highlighting the red coats. . . and saddle cloths. The previously applied darker undercoat was Citadel Khorne Red, and instead of scarlet for the highlight I decided to use Vallejo Flat Red for a slightly more understated look.

Bearing in mind my tendency to overdo it with highlights, I used a #1 round and really tried to restricts myself to simply touching the bristles to the highest points of the shoulders, sleeves, saddle cloths, and valises/coats just behind the riders (I have not yet done anything to highlight the coffee brown musician's coat).

Not sure how successful my efforts were, but I am trying to keep in mind Big Lee's point today about painting for the "Three Foot Rule." I may yet add a dot of scarlet, but the jury remains out on that point. See what you think.

Ok, enough shilly-shallying. When I return to the painting table this evening, following outdoor activities tending to the various flower beds, it's saddle cloth trim in yellow (gold for the officers), dark brown undercoat for the carbines, and black rear cuirasses for the officer and standard bearer since they apparently wore these in the Saxon service. That would explain the glaring lack of shoulder straps across their backs. Wish I'd figured that out with the first 16 of these figures! Remind me to go back and add that feature when these 14 are all finished.

-- Stokes

Comments

pancerni said…

Steady on, the unit will be gorgeous.

3:53 AM

caveadsum1471 said…

Lovely progress, I'm working on some Austrian Hussars, cuirassiers and dragoons at the moment, don't know why the Hussars got a capital letter, they just do, I had to restrain myself from adding an exclamation mark!
Best Iain

2:29 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