Bang! Pssssssssss. . .

I'm afraid that my lack of painting opportunities the past few months are to the far right here!

Sooner, or later, I suppose it happens to everyone in the miniatures painting and (war-)gaming hobby. Real life gets in the way early on and will not budge and get out of the blasted way. You know? Kind of like when you are racing to make a connecting flight across a large airport in another terminal building, and you get stuck behind someone with lots of carry-on baggage and numerous drifting children on one of those moving sidewalk thingies. But the people who are walking over to your right or left, those smart souls who chose the old-fashioned method of simply walking on the non-conveyered tiled floor, are zipping by at a much faster rate. It's simply maddening when you think about it too much. Know what I mean?

Anyway, that is what has happened during the last few months, as the autumn term has worn on, here at Stollen Central. The sheer number of student drafts and final papers for my three writing intensive courses this semester have come at such a pace and been so relentless that, very frankly, I have simply lacked the mental energy by the end of the day to fathom picking up a paintbrush most evenings or weekends. And the work has even intruded upon bedtime reading, which is the usual method of escape for a couple of hours most late evenings before turning out the bedside lamp. Grumble, grumble. Whimper, whimper.

Oh, sure. I've done dribs and drabs of brushwork here and there in tiny fits of paniced energy as the water has risen to first to me chest, chin, and then nose. But of the 20 or so Fife&Drum, Minden, and RSM95 mid-18th century generals and staff officers I pledged to complete in the current painting challenge between my collection of wargaming friends and acquaintances, I have only managed to finish two. Almost. The rest remain silently and steadfastly at the ready, still in their two coats of white basecoat on the painting table behind me here in Zum Stollenkeller.

Still, chin up, eh? The nice, long American Thanksgiving holiday weekend is just about here, and things will calm down once classes conclude at the end of the first week of December. That should give me a bit more time than has been the case since late August. And when classes resume in January, my teaching load will be a little lighter. Mercifully. And who knows? Maybe I can get the 20 or so figures currently on the painting table taken care of by Christmas? But enough about my hobby tales of woe. It's time to do a little planning for today's classes. Sigh.

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...

Basic Reds Done at Last. . .

S till quite a way to go with the current batch of 20 human figures and a horse (of course), but they're actually starting to look like something after all of the red distinctions. Quite a bit of painting in hour-long sessions the last week as and when time has allowed. Mostly applying the basic dark red to facing areas and turnbacks followed by the inevitable touch-ups to clean up wobbly edges and those misplaced, minute splotches of Citadel Khorne Red. They're looking like so many Austrian infantry regiments of the era at this point, but the eventual flags will turn them magically into the Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment, more or less, of the AWI period. But I'm getting a bit ahead of myself. One frustrating point (ahem) of sad discovery. I've started trying to use those Winsor & Newton 'Series Seven' brushes (#1 rounds) purchased last spring, and the blasted things simply will not keep a point. Very frustrating since I have heard over the y...

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

The Grand Duchy of Stollen

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