Groan -- Let's try again!

Well, for some reason yesterday, Blogger was presenting all kinds of problems each time I attempted to make a new posting. So, keep in mind that the following was intended to appear YESTERDAY -- Saturday, October 28, 2006. . .

Another, crisp breezy fall day – but the kind with sunshine, so it’s really pretty outside with orange and yellow leaves falling from the trees and formations of birds flying to the south. I wish we had a fireplace because there’s nothing like the sight, sound, and smell of a wood fire inside. Kind of makes me nostalgic for the days of my youth and adolescence when we lived with my grandparents in rural southeastern Pennsylvania. They had a 200 year old stone farmhouse with three fireplaces! Yep, nothing like a wood fire in a fireplace.

So, what’s on tap here at Grand Duchy of Stollen Central this weekend? Well, numerous little things. First, in about ten minutes, I’m going to paint the final bits of the Jaegers zu Fuss – silver musket barrels and brass trigger guards.

Then, I’ll set those to one side and go to work on the 25mm MiniFigs three mounted officers and two SYW cannon, which will become Stollen’s generals and an ADC plus a two-gun battery. There are a few mold lines and a bit of flash to trim from the three officers and their horses, but not much, so the job should be fairy quick and easy. A quick base coat might be a possibility too.

The cannon are a bit more complicated because they require some assembly and, of course, “super glue” to make that happen. Wheels, axels, barrels, and some smaller “fiddly bits” although I must say that I’ve never seen field piece models as nicely detailed! But then I've only ever worked with smaller 15mm sized figures and field pieces before this year.

Finally, while all of this other stuff is happening, my plastic Revell Austrian Horse artillery figures, who will man the two guns, will soak for 24 hours in a bowl of water and Dawn dishwashing liquid. Tomorrow, I’ll scrub 'em, take ’em out, dry ‘em off, and trim mold lines from the figures in question.

Then, if there is enough time, I‘ll fix the 13 figures to temporary 1” square bases with a dot of Elmer’s glue and slap a thick coat of Liquitex black over them. Oh, and I’ll drill holes and place a pin into the mounted officer and his horse -- to provide a firmer, longer lasting connection before gluing the two together with special cement for soft plastic figures.

Hmmm, there’s quite a bit to do! Looks like I’d better get started. "Nach Schmitten!!!" said the soldiers of Stollen to their generals. . .

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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...

Basic Reds Done at Last. . .

S till quite a way to go with the current batch of 20 human figures and a horse (of course), but they're actually starting to look like something after all of the red distinctions. Quite a bit of painting in hour-long sessions the last week as and when time has allowed. Mostly applying the basic dark red to facing areas and turnbacks followed by the inevitable touch-ups to clean up wobbly edges and those misplaced, minute splotches of Citadel Khorne Red. They're looking like so many Austrian infantry regiments of the era at this point, but the eventual flags will turn them magically into the Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment, more or less, of the AWI period. But I'm getting a bit ahead of myself. One frustrating point (ahem) of sad discovery. I've started trying to use those Winsor & Newton 'Series Seven' brushes (#1 rounds) purchased last spring, and the blasted things simply will not keep a point. Very frustrating since I have heard over the y...

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

The Grand Duchy of Stollen

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