Painting Jackdaw 18th Century Aristocrats. . .

And a most enjoyable Sunday afternoon it was.

For a few hours yesterday afternoon, I almost felt like Jackson Pollock as I mixed, applied, and dripped oil and acrylic colors everywhere. It was glorious. Most of the large areas of color on 18 Jackdaw and two Minden figures -- plus a couple of Minden horses -- are done now and it's simply a matter of applying lace trim and some other smaller details where necessary and appropriate. Oh, and the vague hint of oils and thinner still lingered in the air early this morning when I brought a mug of coffee down to Zum Stollenkeller. The two aromas mingled for a little while before I began the week in earnest. Somehow, it made Monday morning a little less painful. Know what I mean?

On other related fronts, a Swedish client (and friend), for whom I did a bunch of editing and proofreading recently, had trouble transferring money from her bank account in Budapest to my Paypal account this weekend. She sent me several anguished e-mails expressing annoyance and asked me if I had any idea what we might do to solve the problem.

Without missing a beat, I replied, "W-e-l-l. . ." I hummed and hawed, not wanting to propose anything too radical, "You could just pay me in an alternate form. How about I send you an order for some Holger Eriksson figures (a firm she is completely unfamiliar with) that's comparable to your balance outstanding, you place and pay for it, and send the box of figures on from your parent's home when you visit them in Sweden this summer?"

Problem solved! She was indeed agreeable to the idea of barter (more or less). I think some charging cavalry might be just the thing.

Comments

El Grego said…

Aroma-therapy miniatures gamer style - how appropriate!

10:12 AM

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...

Presenting the Anspach-Bayreuth Kuirassiere!!!

Here they are, with the rearmost nine figures still drying, three squadrons of the Anspach-Bayreuth Kuirassiere, now in the service of the Grand Duchy of Stollen. And now, it's onto that artillery!

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 ...

The Grand Duchy of Stollen

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