Skip to main content

Cruisin'. . .

I am really becoming a fan of Santa Claus/ Father Christmas in purple robes.  They give him an almost regal bearing.

As the title of today's post suggests (perhaps?), I am cruising on the current batch of five RSM95 musketeers.  Maybe it is just that have completed enough of them at this point that the slightly revised painting process has become more automatic, requiring less thought as I go through the various steps, and thus speeding up appreciably.  Good!  Things don't always go so smoothly at the painting table.

I tried to shoot a couple of close-ups last night, to show how nicely the thinned fleshtone oils had settled into the surprisingly well-detailed faces of the RSM figures, but the battery on the camera was dead.  Blast!  So, that will need to wait a few hours until I have applied the orange undercoat and the Cadmium Red glaze the the five coats.  And, sadly, today is kind of busy, since I have a meeting after lunch and some late grading to take care of before I submit final grades for the term tomorrow morning.  In any event, be sure to check back later tonight for a photo update of these five figures.  They are turning out to be the five that I am most pleased with to date.

As for today's old-fashioned seasonal illustration, well, what can I say?  Purple is the color of the day!  The more I think about it, I see a company or two of Pandours in my not-too-distant future in brown uniforms with light purple facings. 

Anyway, we've begun telling Young Master Paul about Santa Claus and how he (our son) really needs to watch his P's & Q's in the final ten days before Christmas (not a problem, he is amazingly good for a 25-month old), but I'm not quite sure he understands just yet.  The Young Master has, however, made fast friends this morning with a stuffed Grinch, which I gave the Grand Duchess several pre-Christmases ago, that I placed at one end of the sofa last Saturday afternoon, but it has taken Paul several days to notice or care.  The two of them were, however, very busy together earlier this morning following breakfast.

A rather different pre-Christmas image, but one that has become part of the season in the last half-century since Dr. Seuss's book How the Grinch Stole Christmas first appeared.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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
2 comments
Read more

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 ...
5 comments
Read more

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...
1 comment
Read more