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| Arrrgh! Gotta go back into camera settings on my iPhone to bring all of the frame into focus. Blast! |
Painting is underway on the 60 or so Minden Austrians, which are slated to become my version of the Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment of AWI renown. More or less indistinguishable from Austrians of the era really, right down to the red facings and turnbacks, but the eventual flags (already in my files) will set them apart.
I went ahead and based-coated all of them over a couple of days lthe last week of August, using a mix of light gray and white acrylic gesso, before next applying my usual basic alkyd oil flesh tone to the faces and hands. In a day or two, I'll hit that with Army Painter Flesh Wash to tone things down a bit and bring some definition to the faces and hands.
As usual, the plan is to focus on about 20 figures at a time, splitting the regiment roughly into thirds along with the color party and regimental staff. Depending on how things go, I might jump ahead to the next batch in the queue to tackle larger and easier areas before bouncing to take care of more detailed bits as the mood strikes me. We'll see. Sometimes, and despite best intentions, one needs a mental break from the attending to the tiny details. Larger, relatively mindless areas of the figures provide a chance to catch one's mental breath while still moving forward with the project.
Now, the eagle-eyed among you will note that a few figures remain in their natural metal state. That is simply because I have yet to drill out their hands for pole arms and flagpoles. But given their small number, it will be relatively easy to base coat these figures once that step has been addressed and catch 'em up to the rest of the unit.
And as a final caveat, based on a mistake I am really too old to have made, use brushes with good points! After painting the flesh tone yesterday, I stupidly grabbed a cheap brush to paint the black items late in the evening. While painting the hats around the faces, flecks on black from stray bristles got all over the foreheads and cheeks on several figures. What was I thinking?
Turns out, I wasn't.
I should have stopped immediately and switched to one of my Winsor&Newton Series 7 brushes at that point. But do you think I did? Oh, no. I foolishly forged ahead continuing and compounding the problem several times over. Which means that today, September 1st, I'll need to redo the faces of several figures before moving onto the next step. Grrrrr.
The phrase 'ass backwards' keeps going through my mind this morning.
And the morale of the story? Well, there are probably several. But always, always, always use good quality brushes with good points for everything other than base coats and varnishing. Oh. And even experienced painters can make mistakes. The clouds of quietly muttered blue language from last night are still hanging in the air this morning here and there in Zum Stollenkeller. Kids, don't try this at home.
Stay tuned!
-- Stokes
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