The Grand Duchess and I gave ourselves a day tooling around
I was able to get in about two hours of painting yesterday evening, applying brown to haversacks, musket stocks, and hair. Still not finished with the final batch of Zichenauers though, so tonight I'll begin with the purple facing color on the collars, cuffs, and turnbacks. Hmmm, seems like I just did this with the last batch! Then it's white crossbelts and leather straps, followed by some brass/bronze bits, etc., etc. Since the Grand Duchess leaves for a four-day conference on Thursday morning, I can spend a bit more time wrapping things up at the end of the week/weekend with a relatively clear conscience!
That brings me to my next point of note. While I was puttering around on the computer yesterday afternoon, I received a telephone call from Jonathan Broadus of Hesse-Engelburg! It was great actually getting to speak with another "imagination" aficionado. For about two hours we swapped stories on toy soldiers, painting, online discussion boards, e-bay, our respective jobs, family, and the like. Like all good conversations, ours meandered here and there and back again, covering all kinds of topics.
It was a real privilege to speak with Jonathan, and I hope we do so again sometime. As I mentioned at one point, his
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 ...
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By the way, do you ever find yourself referring to her as the "Grand Duchess" in circumstances other than with your gaming buddies?
-- Jeff
I got your Prussians all packed up and in the mailbox before 9am this morning, then realized about 5pm that it was a postal holiday. So they'll go back in the mailbox tomorrow. ;)
With all this time on my hands,I cracked on with my 2 regiments of Revell Austrian dragoons and some conversions for staff officers/ADC's. To add a bit of colour to the Austrians, one regiment is in the traditional green but the other is in red coats with sky blue waistcoats etc as per the Osprey book illustration. In one weekend I managed to paint what would usually take me a month or so. Also it was a much needed change from regiment after regiment of Prussian infantry.
Painting stopped when I picked the girls up fifthy and hungry but having had a great time.
Regards,
Guy