Ugh -- I'b stupped ub wid a cold!

Well, if the badly composed student essays weren't enough to delay my painting output the last couple of weeks, depressing me somewhat in the process, the nasty cold that I've had for a few days now is the hat trick! All I've had energy to do in the evenings is to hit the sack after arriving home and having supper.

Following a bit of painting progress early in this passed week, my poor Jaegers zu Fuss have had to wait patiently untouched on my painting table since Tuesday evening. The fever is gone and the cold is waning, but I still don't feel 100% like sitting down to concentrate on painting. Maybe I'll do some easy painting work later this evening?

I can relate, however, that the light blue facings and turnbacks look marvelous against the dark green coats. Initially, I wasn't sure how the two colors would work together, but it turns out that my mind's eye was not far off the mark this time. Nice when that actually happens.

I've painted the pom-poms on the tri-cornered hats too, differentiating between each company -- dark green over yellow for the first company and red over yellow for the second.

All hands and faces are complete as well. I've used a big tube of Windsor Newton Alkyd flesh for about six years now and like it very much. I'll be 40 in early November, so that tube of paint will probably outlast me!

Anyway, one coat of flesh does it. This color actually looks like "real" flesh tone too. Best of all, alkyd-based paints dry to the touch in 24 hours! The gaiters on the figures will remain black, so no further painting is needed there, barring any unfortunate mistakes with the brush when painting another color onto the figures.

Taking a pointer from the Grimmariner over at his Grimsby Wargaming blog, I though I'd give you a brief description of my own painting plan for the next several months too. By the way, check out Grimmariner's new batch of a dozen 25mm horses that he's just finished at: http://grimsbywargaming.blogspot.com/ They look great!

Ok, enough blathering on -- must be the cold medications ;-). Here is my own project plan:

October 2006: Complete the Jaegers zu fuss (32 figures) and paint two mounted generals plus an aide de camp.

November 2006: Prepare and paint a two gun battery of artillery, including a mounted officer. Total strength will be 13 figures plus two wonderfully massive MiniFigs 25mm cannon. Speaking of figure size and compatibility, my 1/72 Revell figures work very well with MiniFigs' ordinance!

December 2006& January 2007: Paint Stollen's dragoon regiment (I haven't decided yet whether to give them white or mid-blue coats). Regardless of the precise color scheme, I’ll order a MiniFigs 25mm trumpeter figure from Tom Dye at GFI since I want another musician in the regiment besides the mounted drummer. Total regimental strength will be in the neighborhood of 30-34 figures.

Second half of January-February 2007: Prepare and paint my version of The Erbprinz Regiment (i.e., grenadiers in metal front mitre caps). What can I say? I like the light blue coats with red breeches and small clothes! However, my Erbprinz regiment will not be marching at a stately pace like Peter Young's or John Preece's. Instead, they'll be charging forward like the Prussian grenadiers as portrayed in that famous painting of the assualt on Leuthen.

March 2007 and beyond: Paint a correspondingly small force for the Electorate of Zichenau, so I can have some preliminary small battles.

Summer-Fall 2007: Add more infantry and cavalry units to each force until strengths are approximately equal to, or slightly larger than, Young and Lawford's order of battle used for Sittangbad, approximately 6-9 units per side. And no, I don't plan to reenact Young and Lawford or The War Gamers' versions of Sittangbad, tempting though it might be! However, I will try various Table Top Teasers by Charles Grant and CS Grant as well as some altered historical scenarios.

Here and there, I'll also take small breaks from painting, to make 6-10 buildings for my imaginary 18th century forces. Since my imaginary countries are between eastern Prussia and the Baltic region, and inhabited by a German-speaking upper class and petty nobility, it's only fitting that the buildings are based on the red brick, gabled Gothic "Hansa-style" houses, churches, etc found across Holland, Northern Germany, Poland, and the Baltic countries.

This particular architectural style made quite an impression on me when I saw it up close during visits to Bremen and Luebeck in the mid-80s and early-90s. Since then, I've collected quite a few pictures of various buidlings across Northern Europe (former Hansa and/or German inhabited areas) that are architecturally interesting. I've simply had no excuse before now to try my hand at reporducing some of these BUA's in miniature. I'm looking forward to it. Quite a nice difference in size and style from the La Haye Sainte, Papelotte, and Hougoumont models I've worked on in the past for my 15mm Waterloo era armies. How refreshing is that?