One More Painting Step Finished!!!

Here's another "Kodak Moment" photo update, to show where we stand with the final nine cuirasseirs this evening.

Just a quick note, to update you on the third squadron of the Anspach-Bayreuth Kuirassiere. All of the red areas have been painted, leaving only the white areas, touch-ups, and varnishing left to do. Accordingly, I've updated the progress "chart" below:

1) Black basecoat -- Done
2) Black undercoat on horses. -- Done
3) Flesh, hair, figure bases. -- Done
4) Drybrush horses with dark blue. -- Done
5) Brown girths and stirrup leathers on horses. -- Done
6) Metal bits on horse halters, martingales, stirrups, and spurs. -- Done
7) White markings on horses. -- Done
8) Tan undercoat on officers' and troopers' coats. -- Done
9) White/Silver lace on saddlecloths. -- Done
10) White belts, straps, and cuirass lace trim. -- Done
11) Red facings and turnbacks. -- Done
12) Swords, sword baskets, scabbards. -- Done
13) Carbine stocks, barrels, firelocks. -- Done
14) Metal cuirass shoulder straps. -- Done
15) Fill in saddlecloths/valises/ breeches with red. -- Done
16) Fill in gauntlets and coats with white.
17) Touch-ups to fix inevitable paintbrush blunders.
18) Varnish with Future/Klear acrylic floor finish.

It's been a slow plod through the figurative mud, rather than a charge, the last week or so. Beside the painting fatigue troll and the tedium demon, both of whom I mentioned in my previous post, we've been helping Young Master Paul grow more accustomed to sleeping alone and putting himself back to sleep when he wakes in the night. . . under pediatrician's advice, of course. But it ain't exactly easy listening to your child cry hysterically for the better part of an hour before he finally drops off to sleep. Whew!

I'll be glad when this latest bit of training takes hold. The Grand Duchess and I feel like zombies at the moment. And I thought the first couple of weeks in November, just after we brought Paul home from the hospital, were hard. At any rate, it's on to the white coats and gauntlets tomorrow evening. We're getting there, slowly but surely.

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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