Sigh -- A Dreary Easter Monday. . .

The Grand Duches and I watched an interesting movie last night. So, if you enjoy 18th Century period pieces, rent The Affair of the Necklace (2001) with Hilary Swank and Adrian Brody among others.

Set in France of the 1780s, the film has its basis in historical events, which, we are told, contributed to the French Revolution of 1789 in no small way. Well, I suppose that sort of statement can always be disputed, but 18th century buffs will enjoy the movie for at least two additional reasons. There are lots of interesting, very nicely done examples of daily dress, at least among the upper classes and royalty. And there are even a few sequences featuring French infantry and cavalry of the period.

Historical accuracy notwithstanding, you might like this movie too. It's an enjoyable way to kill two hours when you just don't feel like visiting the painting table. Significantly, though, your mind and imagination nevertheless remain in period, which is a good thing.

Comments

littlejohn said…

Yes sometimes only a little visual immersion in a period get the fires going again. The battle scene in "Barry Lyndon" can drive me back to the painting table (18th c that is..) in short order... ;)

--best
Dave

7:35 PM

CWT said…

I always liked Amadeus - not military in any way, but very big on (late-ish) period feel - if you can get past the American accents in downtown Vienna

12:37 AM

tradgardmastare said…

I love "Barry Lyndon" the candlelight scenes and, of course, the battles...
We watched "The Duchess" last weekend and were rather disappointed .What did you think?
Alan

1:15 AM

Bluebear Jeff said…

Stokes,

How did the Indras' gig go?

-- Jeff

PS, you have my wife's email so you don't have to wait until my computer is back online to start the game . . . unless you can get some reinforcements painted in time to add to the Stollen troops.

4:03 AM

Giles said…

Sounds interesting - I hadn't heard of this one. I watched "The Duchess" on the flight back from NZ last month, and was less than impressed - there siomply isn't much of a plot, or in fact a story...

Giles

4:15 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

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...

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 Grand Duchy of Stollen

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