Feberuary 15th-May 15th, 2013 Painting Challenge Output. . .

The title of today's post says it all! The results of the recent painting challenge.

Here's a photograph of everything I've managed to accomplish in the last three months. . . wife, child, career, students, and life notwithstanding. Approximately 74 figures (if my addition is correct), some horses, musical instruments, picnic items, and artist's equipment either wrapped up, or painted from start to finish, in some cases some scratch-building and/or figure conversion, everything glossed, and scenic effects applied to the bases. A delightful mix of figures by Minden Miniatures, Jackdaw, Eureka, and RSM95 along with a few more by Fife & Drum Miniatures, Miniature Figurines, Spencer Smith, and two or three extra pieces of picnic paraphernalia by Foundry on the lower left-hand corner of the plastic tub shown above.

Among theses are some civilian vignettes as well as those with a more military theme. Each vignette is quite a bit different from its fellows. A refreshing and fun painting challenge all around. This is perhaps the biggest reason why I enjoy the hobby so much. It always provides an artistic outlet of some sort and a chance to practice, refresh, experiment with, and/or refine painting and modelling skills.

Of course, a number of other similar small tableaus wait in the wings here in Zum Stollenkeller in another large plastic storage tub -- 25 figures on foot and mounted plus 19 horses -- but I won't get to those until July. Once May Term is over, the Grand Duchess has another conference for a few days, and then we pack for an almost three week vacation in Mexico, where the three of us will visit my mother in Merida and spend several days at the beach just outside of Progresso on the Yucatecan coast where she has rented a fantastic beach house for the four of us.

In the meantime, I plan to put up my painting feet for a little while and get to some other pressing work, including an article that needs writing and a Norwegian-English translation that needs, well, translating. Coincidentally, today, May 17th, is Norway's National Day. God Nasjonaldag alle!/Happy Independence Day everyone!

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

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