A Wargame Figure Painter's Things-to-Do List

Agh! It’s finally Friday, and I can’t do any painting! Life is so unfair sometimes. We have a couple with whom we are good friends coming over for wine, pizza, dessert, and good conversation this evening. All fine and dandy. The bad part is that I need to swiffer and vacuum the apartment plus clean the bathroom before they arrive at 7:00. If we didn’t actually LIKE this couple, I’d be more upset, but they are interesting and good company, so I guess it’s not too bad.

And then we’re going to Chicago early tomorrow for a day and dinner in the big city, so it’s unlikely that I’ll feel up to painting when we get home tomorrow night. I think the Grand Duchess must be involved in some sort of silent grand plot, along with other wargaming wives and girlfriends around the world, to keep me from finishing the Zichenauer infantry! Hmmm. . .

Sunday is November 11^th, Veterans’ Day (originally Armistice Day), the day on which general fighting ceased on the Western Front in 1918, and which is usually thought of as the beginning of the end to WWI, at least as history is taught here in the USA.

I always think of my maternal grandfather on this day. He was a paratrooper during WWII (13th Airborne Division), a tall, handsome, fair-haired North Carolina boy, who was drafted almost immediately after the

entered WWII. Luckily, he saw no combat and survived to come home and start a family with my grandmother. His two brothers and three brothers-in-law also made it home relatively unscathed. Pretty amazing when you think about it. We didn’t always see eye to eye on everything, but as an adult, I often ask myself how he would have handled various situations that come up in everyday life. He was quite a guy.

Finally, the 30 Spencer Smith cavalry figures, in the classic charge pose, are waiting for their basecoat of artists’ acrylic gesso as you know already. I just have to finish the Zichenauers first. Let’s see, we have about a month and a half of 2007 left, and I’d also like to paint a two-gun battery of artillery with 13 crew, General Phillipe de Latté and his two staff -- you’ve seen them lurking unpainted in many photos for the last several months -- and two medieval bell tents from Magister Militum, which arrived last March.

The question naturally begs, can I actually do it? Well, you never know unless you try, right? Or, as an old Pennsylvania lottery commercial used to say in the early 80s, “You’ve gotta play to win!” So, I think I’ll make a painting challenge to myself, and see if I can get all of this “stuff” finished by December 31^st. If I am unable to meet the challenge, you Grand Duchy of Stollen regulars receive full crowing and cajoling rights up to and including actual mockery and derision. Hopefully, that won’t be necessary though. ;-) Happy Weekend everyone!

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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