The Next Batch of Hussars. . . Tally ho!

Not much to look at in the photo above yet, but after a particularly difficult week, I sat down for about 90 minutes last night and enjoyed applying oil washes (over Humbrol gloss enamel undercoats) to a dozen horses in the Minden hussar queue at a leisurely pace.  This kind of early 'painting' is always fun simply because there isn't a lot of concentration required.  

That, and I have always enjoyed the aroma of linseed oil and other vehicles used with the various pigments to produce oil colors.  I suspect it takes me back to a time, very early in life, at about the age of four or five, when I would come home midday from kindergarten and sit on the floor next to my mother's easel while she worked.  We would chat about our respective mornings, and my sister and I would watch Mom apply oil colors to her various canvases that she had going at any one time.  Funny how the sense of smell can work like that, because that was about 4o years ago!  Doesn't seem like it though.

Anyway, I'm reasonably pleased with the results this morning although a couple of the horses are still looking a bit on the orange side, so perhaps a second wash of oil color to tone that Humbrol orange down just a bit.  So, after I dress and brush my teeth, it's back down here to Zum Stollenkeller to do that and then apply the flesh and hair to the officer and troopers.  If time permits, then GW Goblin Green to the bases and light blue to the dolmans/pelisses/saddlecloths though that last part might need to wait until tomorrow.  We'll see how things go.

Finally, a special hello to Martin in Yorkshire, England.  Thank you for the delightful e-mail, which I read this morning while having my first mug of coffee for the day.  So pleased to learn of your own return to the wargaming hobby after many years and that you are enjoying the Grand Duchy of Stollen blog.  It has certainly added a new dimension to my own enjoyment during the last several years.  Please continue to drop by from time to time and say hello.  

Ok, I'm off (some might say like sour milk).  Have a good weekend everyone, and if you aren't rolling any dice in a game, get thee to the painting table instead, uncap those bottles, and apply some color.  Those figures won't paint themselves, you know.