Cuirassier Painting Update. . .

Managed to find about 90 minutes of painting time yesterday evening, and so beat a hasty retreat to Zum Stollenkeller for some time with the little metal men while the Grand Duchess spoke to her parents on the phone, and young David Paul I slept. As the Grand Ducal Feline lounged contentedly in my lap, I finished painting the tack on the horses: girths and stirrup leathers, using a ten-year-old bottle of Ral Partha "Leather Brown" that still flows nicely despite its age. Then, it was onto the stirrups, bits, and silver/brass buckles on the halters and reins, for which I used newer bottles of Citadel's (ex- Games Workshop) "Mithril Silver" and bronze. So, the horses are basically finished for the second squadron of nine figures, barring a few of those inevitable touch-ups. Grrrrrrr. . .

Next up, the white gauntlets, tunics, and shoulder belts on those same officer and troopers. Then, it's on to the red facings and saddle cloths. Hopefully, I'll get some more painting time in before too many days go by, but there is a batch of student papers that needs to be finished by this evening, and then the usual parental things too. By the way, I'm amazed at how fast I can change a diaper now! Who would have thought? Anyway, I'll have a photo update on the cuirassiers once I get my computer back and set it up again. Hopefully, Tech Services will have finished debugging it by Monday morning (tomorrow). Gee, and they have only had it for three weeks!

Comments

Bluebear Jeff said…

Ah, Stokes . . . you had me worried there for a moment.

You were writing about how fast you could change a diaper . . . and then about a photo update . . .

Photos of the cuirassiers, yes . . . but please no photos of the diaper changing.

*grin*

-- Jeff

3:30 PM

WSTKS-FM Worldwide said…

Jeff,

Rest assured, NO photos of diaper changing will appear here! That's a new area of my life that I'd just as soon pretend didn't exist.

Best Regards,

Stokes

3:52 PM

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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