You see, the thing about long-distance bicycling is. . .

. . . that it boosts your metabolism to such highs that you can wield the paintbrush very quickly indeed. ;-) Sorry Frank, just kidding!

Actually, I am now waist deep in student papers from all of the courses I’m teaching this term, so painting has unfortunately slowed down a bit here at Stollen Central this week. Poor me!

However, I was able to paint the bronze bands holding the musket barrels in the wooden stocks for the 1^st company of Zichenauers, which is now all finished except for the clear coat or two of acrylic varnish. You can see 'em up close and personal by clicking on the photo at the top of this post.

I’ve also included a close-up of Colonel Augustus von Finknottle below. The graininess of his coat (darn those acrylic whites) should be less obvious after a coat or two of Future. Still, I think he’s a dashing fellow at the head of his regiment, “The Newts”. What would Bertie and Bingo say? How about Honoria? And what might Jeeves think?

Last night, I got a jump on the next batch and spent a couple of late hours painting the white coats of the 2^nd company. This is a two-step process, involving a coat of tan, followed by a very thin coat or two of white. The tan provides the shadow, a color closer to raw wool, while the white is the brilliant highlight of course.

I took care to keep the #3 brush and the Ral Partha white very wet in order to avoid the same grainy clumping that bedevils Colonel von Finknottle. I think you’ll agree that the final result is pretty good this time – nice, even coats of white with no graininess.

When I finish wading through these darn papers, it’s onto the white shirt cuffs peeking out the ends of the coat sleeves. And then the purple facings and turnbacks, followed by the crossbelts, etc. I’m trying to break up the obvious monotony of painting an 80-figure regiment by jumbling the process enough to keep things reasonably interesting.

Ok now it’s off to bed. Oberfeldwebel Klatschen sagt, "Gute nacht männer und schlaffen Sie shön! Zzzzzzzz. . ."

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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