An hour with the hussars!

Sounds like a grand book title, doesn't it? Anyway, I managed to get in a bit of time late this afternoon before dinner with the Grand Duchess. You'll see that I've colored the saddlecloths and mirliton wings crimson. I also completed the hair on the troopers and two officers, The former have plain brown while the latter have the usual "powdered" white. I also had enough time to apply the yellow lace to the trumpeter's saddlecloth. Troopers will have yellow lace, officers gold.

Now, I have a questions for those of you with more experience painting 18th century hussars. Was the top of the felt/cloth mirlton colored? Or was the rest of this peculiar headwear, besides the wing, left black? I'd sure appreciate any information you might be able to provide. None of the various books I have on the subject provide any information, visual or text description, on the matter. Thanks in advance for your help. And now, unfortunately, it's on to a stack of student papers. But I'll revisit Battlegames #14 later as a reward for my pains!

Comments

MurdocK said…

I have found some images to answer your Mirlton question Stokes.

Check out: MurdockS MarauderS

1:07 AM

tradgardmastare said…

Excellent work Sir!I await their riding across the table with enthusiasm.
best wishes
Alan
p.s thanks for answering my fantasy question.

2:20 AM

abdul666 said…

A grand book title... or a confessed wish from some (Monte-Cristan?) lady?
Now, let other Arms of Service ignore envy: we have in France a traditional song from Lace Wars times about "La Marquise et les 80 Chasseurs"...
Hour hussars look more and more glamorous!
Cheers,
Jean-Louis
--
to be honest 'Chasseurs' in this song means 'hunters', NOT 'Jaegers', alas...

9:07 AM

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

Search This Blog