Here's another neat nutcracker. . .

Gentlemen, it’s official – I am caught up in the Christmas spirit! Time to set aside my usual veneer of cynicism and pessimism for a few weeks and treat myself, along with everyone else ;-), to a rather more jolly spirit than is usually the case. With my unabashedly joyous feeling in mind, here’s another wonderful example of a nutcracker. Enjoy!

Today’s schedule will include reading several student papers, tallying of final grades, along with a few errands this afternoon, and maybe some time on my bike (indoors, of course). After dinner, the Grand Duchess will attend her weekly yoga session, so I will have a couple of hours for continuing work on the Spencer Smiths.

I’ve also got to prepare 13 Revell 1/72 plastic artillery crew and an officer’s horse in a jar of vinegar and quickly assemble two 25mm MiniFig cannon. If I get into high gear, I might be able to get enough finished for my first imaginary 18^th century battle just after Christmas when things calm down just a bit – The Action at Zollamt Bridge. The planned scenario will be based loosely on Young and Lawford’s Battle of Blasthof Bridge but with a few of my own additions/twists. Stay tuned for the continuing details and photos!

Comments

Bluebear Jeff said…

Aha! I look forward to reading about this "action" and to seeing the pictures too.

Pete and I will be taking a crack at Grant's Table Top Teaser #3 this evening if all goes well.

-- Jeff

12:03 PM

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...

Basic Reds Done at Last. . .

S till quite a way to go with the current batch of 20 human figures and a horse (of course), but they're actually starting to look like something after all of the red distinctions. Quite a bit of painting in hour-long sessions the last week as and when time has allowed. Mostly applying the basic dark red to facing areas and turnbacks followed by the inevitable touch-ups to clean up wobbly edges and those misplaced, minute splotches of Citadel Khorne Red. They're looking like so many Austrian infantry regiments of the era at this point, but the eventual flags will turn them magically into the Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment, more or less, of the AWI period. But I'm getting a bit ahead of myself. One frustrating point (ahem) of sad discovery. I've started trying to use those Winsor & Newton 'Series Seven' brushes (#1 rounds) purchased last spring, and the blasted things simply will not keep a point. Very frustrating since I have heard over the y...

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

The Grand Duchy of Stollen

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