The Grand Duchy of Stollen

  A n afternoon session in the painting chair followed later by an evening session after a long post-dinner walk around the neighborhood.  Most of the minute brushwork today focused on the squadron officer, trumpeter, and standard bearer.  Very few mistakes to fix, but I managed to wick those away with a clean damp brush before the paint set in all by one instance.   Even managed to nail the trumpeter's sleeve chevrons without too much trouble.  The trick is to adopt a feather-like touch, almost like what I imagine a surgeon must use and tease the paint onto those tiny details.  And hold your breath. I had to use quite a bit of creative license, especially on the trumpeter since I lacked detailed information for the early 1730s-era uniforms beyond the illustration shared earlier, but I'm reasonably pleased with the results so far.  In a few days, everyone will get gold buttons simply because I like the added glitter they give to tabletop units, es...

A gray, intermittently rainy Saturday here in the Grand Duchy.  The perfect excuse to get myself into the painting chair for a couple of sessions devoted to various and sundry small, even minute details on these 14 Eureka Saxon cuirassier castings.   These included 13 mustaches (Vallejo 'German Camo Black-Brown'), valise straps (Vallejo 'black'), and highlights on all of the leather cartridge, sword belts, and gauntlets (Vallejo 'Flat Earth').  I also busied myself with some additional touching up/highlighting to the visible turnbacks in the facing color (Army Painter 'Fur Brown').   Again, probably a bit light for the 'coffee brown' facing color of the regiment during the early 1730s, but we want it to show up on the table.  Wargamers' artistic license as mentioned in an earlier post. But what about the trumpeter?  Here, I also applied Vallejo 'Flat Red' as a highlight to his coat collar, turnbacks, and waistcoat plus carefully pain...

  A fter two days, the hat and saddle cloth lace is done.  Whew!  I also highlighted the visible facings/turnbacks with Army Painter 'Fur Brown.'  Probably lighter than the actual coffee brown described, but artistic license and all you understand.   Next up three more tiny details: the gold loops holding the white ribbons onto the hats, mustaches, and the cuirass waist belts.  After that, gunmetal and brass  on the carbines and slightly lightened 'Leather Brown' highlights on the shoulder belts and gauntlets.  Somewhere in there any visible buttons [and sword baskets] as well.   The trumpeter and his mount will be two of the last things to tackle before final touch-ups and eventual glossing.  I'm aiming to have 'em all done by month's end, just two weeks and a bit more away.  Can he do it?  Stay tuned to find out. -- Stokes   

A pplying brown highlights to the carbine and pistol stocks where visible this (Saturday) afternoon, and thought I'd continue by tackling the yellow lace on one of the troopers.  You know.  Just to see what that might look like.   As I have tended to do in the recent past, I used Army Painter 'Basilisk Brown'  to avoid anything more garish and glaring.  Must admit I kind of like the results.  Much more businesslike than, say, a bright yellow that might have been more at home on the sets of The Bugaloos, H.R. Puffenstuff, or Sigmund and the Seamonsters .  Showing my age there you understand! But I'm getting ahead of myself a bit.  Or perhaps behind?  Still quite a few bits of brown and brown highlights to attend to first.  Back to the salt mines as my grandfather used to joke once the (reheated) coffee break concludes. -- Stokes

  T hree (relatively) short sessions in the painting chair yesterday at different points between early afternoon and early evening after dinner and a walk around the neighborhood with the Grand Duchess.  Still no earth shattering progress, but the 14 figures (riders AND horses remember) are coming together bit by painstaking bit. No question about it though.  Painting cavalry units is a challenge given the sheer amount of metal or plastic to cover in various layers of paint.  Whew!  But 12-14 cavalry at a time seem manageable.  A large enough chunk to make a dent in the infamous Drawer o' Lead, but not so many figures and horses that you despair and give up. Remind me of that when I dive into those 36 or so Minden Austrian hussars, still waiting in their shipping box(es) over in the closet here in Zum Stollenkeller .  Jim is highly astute with his periodic sales and promotions, which is what led me to conclude that I "needed" another regiment of hussar...

  Must retouch the shoulder belts I notice.  This is what happens when you have three or four different bottles of 'Leather Brown' from different manufacturers and neglect to record which was used for the initial coat.  Grrr.   K eep those brushes paintin'.  Rawhide!  Or something to that effect.   The 14 Eureka Saxon cuirassiers, taking shape as a squadron of the von Polenz, ca. 1733, are coming along slowly but surely.  Here's where things stand as the (Sunday) morning of July 6th.  Gotta finish highlighting the reds with Vallejo 'Flat Red' after the Army Painter red wash applied yesterday (Saturday) along with the off white wigs and queues.  And the mustaches of course. Following that, the most pressing and tedious task is the carbines slung upside down, which need their barrels, firelocks, and at least some of the more visible brass metal work seen to after that.  And then possibly the sword blades and scabbards  Thing...

  H ere's where we stand on the morning of July 3rd.  A tiny bit of progress yesterday evening with the primary belts across the left shoulder of most figures with a lesser strap across the right shoulders after about 70 minutes in the painting chair.   I did not manage the facings or black touch-ups as promised in yesterday's post, so some mockery and derision from readers is in order.  But I will jump on that this evening.  I know, I know. The illustration I am using as a guide shows this particular unit with natural leather belts rather than whitened hence the "Leather Brown" from two different manufacturers.  Once that is done, the next steps with be a return to the heads and necks of the troopers/officers and musician. Namely, mustaches, hair/wigs, and neckstocks.   Might as well get these tedious parts out of the way.  To be fair, most of the latter already look reasonably good -- I think I tackled those back in May. -- but a few ...

  S ounds like a Merchant-Ivory film from the 1980s, doesn't it .   June was a busy month here and gone before I knew it.  And here we are in July after a conference in Washington, D.C. with a visit to my sister, intense work on a summer podcast series aimed at college professors, and topped off by an all too brief vacation with the Grand Duchess and Young Master in Northern Michigan outside of Traverse City on the banks of the Betsie River.  You'll note, as clear as the water is, that it looks brown rather than the odd shades of blue on commercially produced river  and lake sections.  Only deep water on sunny days, for example Lake Michigan and the other Great Lakes, appears dark blue.  A dark blue-gray on cloudy days. In any case, time now to dive back into the painting fray and make some progress with my version of Saxony's von Polenz Cuirassiers, circa 1733.  I am throwing my gauntlet on the ground at my own feet and issuing a painting ch...