Steady Spencer Smith Cavalry Progess. . .

Above, you will observe the first two squadrons plus regimental staff of Zichenau’s Grenadiere zu Pferd, led by Colonel Stein von Pilzenkopf, charging past the edge of Zollamtstadt where they are billeted for the winter. Rumor has it that the regiment was, in fact, not on maneuvers. Rather, they were racing to the other side of town to make the acquaintance of a gaggle of curious peasant girls from several nearby farms outside of town!

Whew! I just finished a marathon session, putting the finishing touches on the middle batch of eight Spencer Smith cavalry as well as going back over the first lot of 12 to add some of the same details which I left out for expediency’s sake last month. Today’s work included the metallic colors (silver and brass) on the swords, sword hilts, scabbards, horse snaffles, and martingales plus a light brown on the leather bits – the girths that hold the saddle on the horse and pass beneath the animal around its ribcage and the stirrup leathers. There were also, of course, the obligatory touch-ups with black to cover a few metallic mistakes due to a caffeinated painting hand. ;-)

In general I’m very pleased with the way these figures are coming along although I have spotted some areas on the horses that need some additional touching up with black before I can give them a couple of coats of Future acrylic floor polish. Since Spencer Smith figures are heavily stylized, it’s important to strive for overall impression rather than minute detail on each piece. While my work will certainly not win any painting competitions, the general effect of the massed regiment is rather nice I think. Just a final squadron of nine figures to go. . . and then I can get to those RSM French musketeers that I was nattering on about earlier today. Charge!

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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