Careening toward the OSW "September Challenge" Finishline!

I managed to finish the orange turn-backs on the final company this morning. In addition, I went ahead and painted the white cords on the now almost completed drummer for the third company. As predicted, with its orange hoops and white cords, the drum is striking. It’s even more impressive with the drummer! Next step: the white straps and shoulder belts, followed by the blue highlights for the coats, and finally the white loops of lace on the coats. Miraculously, I've made no serious mistakes with the paintbrush! Go Figure -- Hey, was that a pun?

Later. . .

I’ve just finished painting the white straps for the haversacks and knapsacks. Yes! My wife and I are headed to a colleague’s for drinks this evening, so the shoulder belts and blue highlights on the coats will have to wait until tomorrow evening. Still, I feel like I’ve managed to get in a couple of good painting sessions today – unusually for a Thursday! You know, I might actually just be able to get these little guys finished by September 1^st!

On another note, stay tuned for a campaign map of the Grand Duchy of Stollen and its neighbors. I’ve sketched one that I’m happy with and will scan it shortly for posting here

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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...

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

And We're Off!!!

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 ...

The Grand Duchy of Stollen

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