Some Painting Progress Photographs. . .

Here is a progress photo, showing the second batch of Huzzah figures on the painting bench. So far, just the larger areas and flesh have been painted along with the hatlace, yellow/black pompoms, and musket slings. If there is any time this weekend (doubtful since we have dinner guests this evening and I've got student projects to review and grade tomorrow), I'll start the red facings and turnbacks.

Bad alliteration notwithstanding, here are a couple of promised photos, showing where I stand with the second batch of Huzzah musketeers. Lately, I've been painting in 30-60 minute bursts (I usually prefer a couple of hours between breaks or other activities) when the baby is asleep during the afternoons, or in the evenings after bedtime. The trouble is that I must then read and plan the lesson for the next day of my May Term film course. So, sadly, there has not been as much painting time as I would like. Still, the Grand Duchy of Stollen project is moving ahead even if at half steam, so I suppose I shouldn't grumble too much.

Once the third batch, er, company, and indeed the whole unit, has been completed in early June, it's on to another two-gun battery of artillery and crew, which I'll paint in either Bavarian uniforms or those of Shaumburg-Lippe. What can I say? I like light blue! And then, it's time to get cracking on that 30-figure unit of Holger Eriksson dragoons, purchased last summer and sent to our apartment in Berlin. I've always admired Phil Olley's units of these, used in the Partizan 2006 Sittangbad refight, so I'm excited by the prospect of painting some myself and further reducing the pile of metal here in Zum Stollenkeller.

Now, some of you might remember that, although I've been sorely tempted of late to add some RSM Austrian pandours to the painting queue, plus replace my plastic Revell artillery crews with RSM figures, I'm holding off on any more purchases until I make a more substantial dent in said pile of unpainted miniatures. Chaaaaaarge!!!

And finally, here is a close-up of an infantry private from the same batch under better lighting conditions. Still a way to go, but they're coming along.

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 ...

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...

The Grand Duchy of Stollen

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