A Late August Hussar Update. . .

 

Here's where we are with the current batch of Austrian hussars as we inch along bit by bit toward the goal of an eventual four-squadron regiment of 55-60 men and horses. They're actually coming along pretty well I think.  As usual, my iPhone 15 Pro Max photograph has been cropped slightly, brightened, and sharpened in Fotor.  

No. Before you ask, I haven't attempted the hair, queues, and mustaches (as threatened) since last we met, but a bit more progress nonetheless on the current 15 Minden Austrian hussars and Daddy Nadasdy.  I decided to stick to larger, marginally easier areas for Saturday's two or three painting sessions.  Here's how that brushwork unfolded.  

First, I applied Army Painter Speedpaint 'Black' to the sheepskins followed by very limited dry-brushing with 'Charcoal Gray,' one of several bottles of cheap craftpaint that serves my purposes well when it comes to highlighting anything black.  

Next was basic brown on the carbine stocks, Army Painter 'Oak Brown' in this case, which will get limited highlights with a dash or two of a lighter reddish brown after the metal features have been applied.  Finally, I touched up a few of the saddle cloths with a dab of 'Bergundy' Folk Art craft paint.  That color, as a reminder, is my darker undercoat, which will have a basic Vallejo 'Red' applied later as the highlight.

As for the squadron officer's and Nadasdy's sheepskins, these were painted first with Vallejo 'Ivory' then hit with a wash of Army Painter 'Dark Tone' and finally sparingly touched up with the orignal color using a new #1 round with a good point. My usual Cottman watercolor brushes.  I also gave their yellow boots a wash of Army Painter 'Mid-Brown' before highlighting with the original color once more.  Army Painter 'Basilisk Brown' this time, which, to my mind, is more suitable for yellows in 1/56th (or 30mm) than something more garish. 

The other brush I relied on for much of the day's painting, before I forget, was a fairly new #4 round that still has a reasonably good point. Greg Horne, on his Duchy of Alzheim blog, made the point several years ago, I believe, that using as large a brush as possible (he likes a #6 round if memory serves) to speed along painting, A larger brush with a good point enables you to load more pigment into the bristles and get further along before the need to return to the palette paper, wet palette, or bottle cap for a refresher.

On the subject of painting implements, most of my painting these days is carried out with synthetic Cottman watercolor brushes.  These are either discarded or, for the larger sizes, relegated to the more utilitarian base-coating, glossing, and terrain projects once the points go after a unit or two of miniatures.  It works for me.

Before dinner, I came back one final time to give Nadasdy's uniform and saddle cloth a highlight of Vallejo 'Green.'  It was then time for yours truly to set the table upstairs, a nightly duty that goes back to my childhood days in the early and mid-1970s, when my maternal grandmother showed my sister and me how to do that, both a basic and a more formal place setting with additional flatware, plates, glasses, and so forth. 

But fear not.  I kept things basic yesterday evening since Harry and Megan were not joining us.  ;-)  Just the usual forks, knives, spoons, napkins, water goblets, and dinner plates atop the old cloth placemats we use for the back porch between the start of May and the end of September each year.

Meanwhile back in the kitchen, the Grand Duchess put the finishing touches on a Middle Eastern meal, which we enjoyed al fresco at the table on the screened in back porch.  The Young Master, almost 17 mind you, had other things going on, so the two of us enjoyed a delightful dinner to the sound of light rain accompanied with the occasional cool breeze. We ate and chatted until just after 8pm when we cleared the table, made coffee, loaded the dishwasher, and moved onto other things.

But to return to yesterday's painting for a moment, as I always point out, still quite a way to go with these figures, but some good progress made overall.  Must admit I'm pleased so far.  The thing with hussars, in particular, is not so much that they are any more difficult to paint than other figures. Rather, I think it is more that we tend to psyche ourselves out when looking at all of that braid and the buttons. That's my story at any rate.  More than the Zen of figure painting, I think, it is the psychology of figure painting that comes into play for many of us, both the Marie Louises and Old Grumblers alike.

Hmmm.  That might be an interesting article to develop time permitting.

Happy Sunday afternoon everyone!

-- Stokes