The Grand Duchy of Stollen

Hmmmm. . . I think the Grand Duchy or Stollen, or maybe its mortal enemy the Electorate of Zichenau, needs an eventual regiment of uhlans in its cavalry branch. But which manufacturer can provide suitable 25-30mm figures? Can you believe we are in the homestretch for the month? And two entire weeks have flown by without much work in Zum Stollenkeller . Well, that's not entirely the case. There has indeed been "work", real work that is, but precious little of that has had anything to do with soldier painting or writing. Sadly, it's been the usual litany of reading student essays, assigning grades, dealing with a few students who felt they deserved better grades somehow, and various small (and boring) administrative tasks associated with that. But that has sucked up considerable time. When I've had a free hour or two, and that has actually occurred, but I just haven't felt like sitting down to the painting table. I think it's the same hobby funk t...

Here's all I use to paint faces and other flesh areas on my figures. . . a #1 "round", in this case a synthetic brush by Cottman that I've used for four or five years, and a tube of Griffin Alkyd color. The latter offers all of the advantages of oils (brilliance, etc.), but dries to the touch overnight. It is a bit glossy, but you can either spray your figures with Testor's Dullcote later, or not worry about if you varnish your figures with something glossy like I do. Griffin Alkyd colors are available from the better art supply shops and yield a much nicer fleshtone than most hobby acrylics or enamels. Ok, let's talk faces and fleshtones today. There are many methods for doing faces and just as many different kinds of hobby paint fleshtones on the market. Since the mid 1980s, when yours truly began painting 15mm Waterloo-era Napoleonics, I've always used either oil fleshtone or, since 2000, alkyd-based fleshtone. When the teen-aged Stokes began p...

Well, here are the 29 Huzzah miniatures I've been working on so far -- roughly half of the regiment. AS some of you might recall, I was persuaded to paint them in the rather more colorful uniforms of Wurtemburg's Garde zu Fuss rather than the dour dark blue uniform of Prussia's Garrison regiments. Not much time for blogging the last several days, but I have managed to squeeze in some painting here and there, and I thought is was time for a photo update. So, here we go. I'll say a little something about how I like to paint the faces on my figures in tomorrow's post, honest! Here is a close up shot of the unit's mounted colonel so far. Still much to do before he and his command are all finished. Here's one of the unfinished drummers up close. Can anyone supply information on the actual uniform worn by the drummers of Wurtemburg's Garde zu Fuss? The Project Seven Years War (Kronoskaf) website does not shed any light on this part of the unit. What ab...

Issues #1, #2, #8, and #10 of Miniature Wargames from the early 80s gathering dust? Better yet, would you be willing to part with them for a REASONABLE price? I am trying to complete the first year of this magazine, which began life as the Battlegames of its time, and these are the issues I still need. Please let me know. Alternately, I might be persuaded to part with at least some of the old Wargames Illustrated issues in my pile, from the late 80s and/or sporadic issues from the 1990s, in exchange for those old issues of MW. We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming .