Starting Squadron B

Another lovely snowfall this morning! 3”-7” predicted, so we might be able to ski along the bicycling trail later today. Seems we’re actually having a real winter this year in our part of Illinois, with genuine cold temperatures (it was -8 degrees Fahrenheit yesterday morning) and several snowstorms. And I love it!

Got down to business with the second squadron of the 4^th (Trakehnen) Dragoons yesterday evening. Painted the first coat of GW Goblin Green on the bases, two coats of red on the coats, the white plumes on the hats, and the gold edging “tape” on the officer’s tricorne.

This evening, I’ll paint the wigs, faces, white gauntlets, and red breeches. But I’ll start with a second coat of green on the bases. The following session, I plan to complete the saddle clothes and valises (light blue edged in yellow) and then carefully trim in the reddish-brown for the horses before moving on to the smaller details. No more photos until the entire regiment is finished and ready for parade. Hopefully before long. But I must give you something to look forward to, right? Stay tuned right here!

Comments

Mr. Fox said…

Snow...lucky...

I always found it fun to go out, get cold, than come inside and have cocoa and paint models. VERY relaxing.

DwarfMan

10:40 AM

Bluebear Jeff said…

Many years ago I was working as an actor in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.

They had a "muzzle-loading biathlon" (cross-country skiing and muzzle-loading shooting). One of the plays in our repertory was "She Stoops to Conquer" and I was playing Tony Lumpkin.

I got permission from the theatre and competed in 18th century wig and costume. I'm not very good at skiing, but I did win a medal as the second best shot in the competition.

So there is indeed a connection between skiing and the 19th century.

-- Jeff

3:22 PM

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

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...

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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