We're almost there. . .

Well, I managed to finish quite a bit in just two hours this evening as you can see in the photo: stirrup leathers, girths, holsters, blue coats, and the sword blades. Oh, and a few more selective black touch-ups to better define certain parts of the figures. All that remains now are the stirrups themselves plus the bronze bits on the scabbards, sword hilts/pommels, and silver bits on the bridles.

Other than a few black touch-ups on the horses, I hope to wrap these babies up by Saturday, when I will give the entire regiment of 30 a clear coat of Future floor polish, snap a photo or two for posting here, and then carefully pack the unit in a Rubbermaid plastic box, already waiting just out of sight on the painting desk. Ah, moving. . .

You’ll also notice that the ol’ painting desk is looking a bit Spartan these days. I got around to dismantling all of the radios, tuners, speakers, and assorted wires/cables last Saturday afternoon. I must say, I am enjoying the extra elbow room when I paint, so I might seriously consider a new table arrangement in Der Stollenkeller.

Tomorrow evening, we get a break and will see Love’s Labors Lost by William Shakespeare over on campus. The university student drama productions are usually of a very high quality, so we’re looking forward to it. And maybe back to some painting on Wednesday or Thursday evening? We’ll have to see. Now it’s off to dreamland gentlemen (and ladies). Sleep well!

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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