Dipping the Ol' Toes Back in to Test the Water. . .

A gun crew made up of Minden Prussians in the foreground, who have been painted in Palatinate uniforms, supported by another crew of RSM95 French artillery, painted, more or less, as mid-18th century Saxons.

Puttering around Zum Stollenkeller this afternoon, not really doing much, but enjoying myself nevertheless.  It occurred to me that I might get back into the swing of things by shooting and uploading a few photographs of those RSM and Minden gun crews that I've blathered on about (please forgive my rather conscious attempt at British diction here, but I've always loved the word 'blather') off and on for quite a few months now.  So, here they are with the not-quite-finished guns in the background.

The figures were finished in March earlier this year, and the painting was done with a combination of oil and acrylic washes over a white basecoat with full strength acrylics used for detailing. When everything was finished, some judicious black lining was added, the figures were glued to bases cut from artist's illustration board, which was painted the same latex green as my tabletop.  Then, everything got two coats of gloss varnish for that nice, pleasing old school appearance.  Voila!  Is it 1972?  Or is it 2012?  Freaky deaky, man!  

The completed figures are not minutely detailed, shaded, and highlighted-to-death museum pieces, of course, but I am rather pleased with their Doug Mason-like appearance, which was my intention.  They bring to mind many delightful photos of Mr. Mason's brushwork -- sure, those were usually Napoleonics -- that graced the pages of Miniature Wargames and early issues of Wargames Illustrated so many years ago.

Here's an aerial shot for good measure, inspired by the famous opening scene -- done in a single take mind you -- in Orson Well's Film Noir masterpiece A Touch of Evil.  Hmmm. . .  I need to find a 30mm Janet Leigh and Charleton Heston!

Finally, lurking in the background, you can see a few of those Minden and RSM Croats that I'll work on over the next couple of months in the latest painting challenge.  And if things REALLY move along nicely this summer, I might even have a go at tackling some of those mounted officers just behind the bottles and tins of paint.  This time, I am thinking of doing several small command vignettes of two and three figures, very much in the style of Mr. Mason and Phil Olley, to add some visual interest to the tabletop, etc., etc.

And one final shot of the two gun crews, which will form a composite battery, or operate independently of each other as the case may be in my ongoing Grand Duchy of Stollen campaign.