Vitally Important Painting Updates

So what's been happening in the Grand Duchy of Stollen lately? To borrow a word from Jacob Marley's ghost, "Much!"

Currently, Oberfeldwebel Klatschen is leading the Golden Grenadier Painting Competition by two votes. As I wrote in response to Jeff Hudelson’s comment here a few days ago, “Come on, come on, come on! Go Oberfeldwebel Klatschen! Ruuuuuuunnnnn!!!

Otherwise, I’m almost there with the first batch of RSM95 grenadiers. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to get too much work in during the last couple of days due to writing, teaching, and family commitments.

The Grand Duchess Sonja sang in a municipal chorus last night, supporting an Illinois state symphony through a production of Beethoven’s 9^th Symphony (you know, the European Union anthem) here in Bloomington at the new Center for the Performing Arts. Needless to say, it was a rousing evening of music that was over all too soon. And we were able to walk home – no parking woes necessary!

Tonight, Sonja’s choral group is off by chartered bus to repeat the performance in Springfield (the capital of Illinois for you non-US residents), so I’ll have several hours to work on the RSM figures as I’m not expecting Sonja home before midnight or 1AM Sunday morning. Meanwhile, I’m quite sure they’ll be living like rock stars down in Springfield, like the Who or Van Halen in their heyday – TV’s out of hotel windows, limousines driven into swimming pools, chorus groupies, etc., etc. ;-)

All kidding aside, here’s what remains of the grenadiers for me to paint:

* Bayonets/officers’ sabers/musket barrels/flintlocks/metal fronts on mitre caps (silver)

* Whalebones on rear of enlisted men’s mitre caps/drum cords (white)

* Scabbard tips, short sword hilts, badges on ammunition pouches. Drum shells (brass)

* Mounted colonel’s horse (white) and saddle cloth (red, trimmed light blue)

* Standard. A basic Hessian model from Warflag, but heavily altered by careful and judicious use of acrylic paint colors, so that it more closely resembles that carried by Brigadier Young’s famous Erbprinz/Poltava Guard unit as seen in Charge!.

I think that’s about it. Of course I’d like to think that I can get everything finished today, but realistically, I’m guessing that we’re looking at another 2-4 days of work to get these figures finished. I’ll keep you posted in any case. Stay tuned right here for further developments!

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 Eventual Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment. . .

The Anhalt-Zerbst regiment musters in the drill square to sort themselves into platoons and companies during the coming weeks Fall maneuvers if you will. A large dose of real life the last few days with the start of classes next Monday, various preparatory meetings, and finishing up a few other things this week. But, I managed to sort out 60 or so Minden Austrian infantry from the pile and get 'em stuck to temporary painting bases. Must carefully drill out the hands of several NCOs for flagpoles and pole arms this weekend before the usual basecoat. I'm thinking of mixing the usual white gesso with the usual light gray to kill two birds with one stone so to speak. Applying both base- and undercoat in one fell swoop as my grandmother used to say. In the meantime, the recently finished squadron of Saxon cuirassiers has been placed carefully in one of the clear acrylic boxes on my shelves until I have the suitable flag to affix. -- Sto...

Bluebear Jeff said…

I'm staying tuned . . . and give my best wishes to the Duchess as well as my congratulations for her singing.

-- Jeff

11:48 AM

Snickering Corpses said…

Add my congratulations and best wishes also!

5:46 PM

marinergrim said…

Sings, cooks, writes. Is there anything your good lady can't do?

Congratulations to your lady.

3:44 AM

WSTKS-FM Worldwide said…

And she repairs bicycles too ;-)

Best Regards,

Stokes

5:08 AM