"Red skies at night. . ."

“Red skies at night (red skies at night) – Whoa-oh (whoa-oh) – Whoa-oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. . . “. If you remember that cool song by The Fixx from late 1982-early 1983, my hat’s off to you. Why aren't there any groups writing songs like that anymore? Sigh.

Anyway, that’s just what I’m seeing after completing ALL of the red parts of the final batch of Stollen’s Leib (Gand Duchess Sonja’s Own) Grenadiers, during several shorter painting sessions last night, today, and this evening. Everything red – breeches, collars, cuffs, turnbacks, vests, counter epaulettes, and the cloth part at the rear of each mitre cap-- has had a good coat or two of GW Blood Red. In an earlier post, I mentioned that Step #2 was all done. Well, let’s call the most recent sessions Step# 2a. Whew!

For those who are curious about the equipment I’ve used to paint these RSM grenadiers the last few days, I’ve used a synthetic bristle #2 round brush for most of the work, and a smaller synthetic #1 round to finish up the front of the coats. For the collars, I used my sable #001 brush, which has slightly long bristles and holds a fantastic point, perfect for reaching into those tight spots -- like between the left shoulder, upright musket, and left cheek/jaw of these RSM figures.

All colors, except the flesh, are acrylics by Games Workshop, which have amazing coverage properties. Even over a black undercoat. For flesh color, I like Winsor&Newton "Griffin" alkyd color. It's similar to oil-based paints, but dries to the touch in 24 hours. Ideal, in my opinion, for northern European fleshtones. I've had the same 60ml (2 U.S. ounces) for almost seven years and have hardly put a dent in it. I imagine that I'll eventually pass the tube onto the next generation of figure painters in the family. ;-)

Tomorrow, I enter my “blue period” (hee, hee), and it’s on to the light blue coats with the one red coat for the drummer. Then, we’re into the home stretch as far as I’m concerned. See you then!

P.S.

That “Old School” pull (some might call in black magic) is too much to resist! Almost forgot to mention that I’m placing a small order for some Spencer Smith and Holger Eriksson cavalry later in the week, which I’ll have shipped to Berlin for the Grand Duchess Sonja to bring along when she returns home in July.

Comments

SteveI said…

They are looking good, I wist I could see the detail well enough on the RSM figures to paint it in as you have!

Steve

5:00 AM

Snickering Corpses said…

Very good indeed. You've picked out details here and there in the last batch that I didn't even know were there.

6:51 AM

MurdocK said…

A real labor of love going there, should be a fantastic looking unit when completed.

1:08 PM

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 ...

Sunday Morning Coffee with AI. . .

A rmed with a second cup of fresh, strong coffee, I messed around a bit this morning with artlist.io using its image to image function in an attempt to convert my hand-drawn map from September 2006 to something that more resembles an old map from the mid-18th century. And just like my experiments with Ninja AI in June, the results are mixed. The above map is pretty good, but Artlist keeps fouling up the place names and has trouble putting a faint overlay of hexes across the entire area. Hexes, admittedly, are not likely to be found on any genuine maps from the era in question, but there we are. Frankly, I prefer the appearance of the Ninja map, but there were problems getting it to correct its errors. Grrrr. As is the case with so much having to do with the various AI's out there now, the output generated is a direct result of the prompts entered. For text alone, and when you develop a lengthy, highly detailed prompt, it is...

Warboss Green Bases. . .

I t's amazing how something as simple as applying two coats of Citadel 'Warboss Green' (ex-Games Workshop 'Goblin Green') can enliven a unit of figures and get 'em that much closer to glossing and completion. In much the same way that applying fleshtone early in painting process helps bring the figures to life. Just some limited dry-brushing to bring out the manes, tails, and some equine musculature, and I'm calling my version of Saxony's von Polenz Cuirassiers, circa 1733, done and dusted. Longtime visitors to the Grand Duchy of Stollen might recall (the blog will turn 19 years old in September) that I generally go for an old school approach when it comes to unit bases and paint them a nice, bright green. Exceptions include command vignettes, skirmishers of one kind or another, transport, camp followers, and various other civilian one-offs. The approach is not to everyone's taste, but I like the cheery toy soldier appearance once everything...

The Grand Duchy of Stollen

Search This Blog