Revell Austrian Grenadiers on the Starting Block!!!

Recruiting has been picking up in the Electorate of Zichenau the last few evenings! The 80 figure (Von Ermland) Garde Granadiere have had their mold lines trimmed away and now await a coating of artist’s acrylic gesso, followed by a black undercoat.

The 1/72 Revell SYW Austrian grenadiers were a pleasure with only light mold lines/flash on most figures. And I might possibly be getting just a bit better at working with plastic figures, because the trimming went easily and quickly this time -- I was able to get about 20 figures finished per evening. Amazing what a sharp X-acto blade will do!

Organizationally, Zichenau infantry units are a bit larger than their Stollenian counterparts. The Von Ermland Grenadiers comprise four companies of nineteen figures each plus staff of four (mounted colonel, adjutant, standard bearer, and RSM) for a total of 80 figures. As I mentioned here a few days ago, I’m hoping the mainly white uniforms will mean that the painting process proceeds with great precipitance. ;-) We’ll see, I guess, but I do want to get on to that lovely Spencer Smith cavalry that the Grand Duchess brought home with her from Europe before too long.

Anyway, since the projected Zichenauen army is somewhat smaller than Stollen’s, I felt that their guard and line regiments could stand to be a bit larger than the usual three company establishment of the infantry regiments I’ve been painting for the last year or so. Light infantry battalions will stand firm at a two company establishment, just like the Grand Duchy of Stollen’s green-coated Jäger zu Fuß that I painted during October 2006.

Finally, I hope to get a photo of the entire regiment posted here once they have been covered with gesso and a back undercoat. In the meantime, “Charge!!!”

Comments

Bluebear Jeff said…

I'm sure that we all look forward to seeing the completion of this unit . . . not only for the pictures, but also so that we can see the Spencer Smiths in uniforms too.

-- Jeff

4:28 AM

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...

The Grand Duchy of Stollen

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