Putting the Cart before the Horse. . .

Well, you knew it would happen, didn't you? Yes! Although I have several other units in-progress, as well as within the painting queue, I am already thinking ahead to which uniforms I might paint onto that final 60-figure unit of Stollenian infantry sometime during 2011. My own travels and related interests make me partial to using the red-coated infantry from the Free Hanseatic Cities of Hamburg, Bremen, and Luebeck as models for the last unit of RSM95 Prussian musketeers, which has been in the pile of lead here at Stollen Central since early 2009, courtesy of a fellow long-distance voyager in Arizona, USA.

So, besides a brief referral one evening last week to my Funcken volumn on the subject, which shows two SYW-era grenadiers from Bremen and Luebeck respectively, I've been trawling the trusty ol' Internet (many thanks to former Tennessee senator and one-time vice-president Al Gore for inventing it) for additional illustrations of similar troops. Surprisingly, I turned up about half a dozen. All make for very interesting perusal and slooooow reading (my German is very rusty), but my favorite is the Knoetel print above, showing two very slight variations in the uniform of Luebeck infantry, worn during the 18th Century. An unmistakable North German cut to the uniform along with a pleasant contrast between the red coat and white facings, breeches, etc. make this an easy decision.

To put all of this into context then, the Stollenian capital of Krankenstadt, as a very minor member of the Hanseatic League (eclipsed in the history books on the subject by larger Riga to the north as well as Memel to the northwest), will furnish a similarly clothed regiment to the Army of Stollen, based on the above, making for a colorful addition to the army. And when I think of all the various Hanseatic-themed flags that might be used as the basis for their standard, well, it's almost too much to bear. But patience is a virtue I am told. Still, lots to daydream about in the coming months as I work through the final units of the initial project.

Comments

A J said…

They're a handsome bunch of troops and would look very nice as a wargames unit.

1:30 PM

ColCampbell50 said…

Stokes,

Can't go wrong with some more red-coated fellows.

Jim

4:47 PM

Der Alte Fritz said…

I really like the uniforms of the Hanseatic League cities and have always wanted to paint up a little army with those units. I kind of had the feeling that you too would find your way down this path. Go for it.

Jim

4:56 PM

Martin said…

Go for it Stokes! As a unit, they will really stand out on the tabletop. Keep us posted (and pictured?) on their progress.

6:51 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 ...

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

Search This Blog