Tarleton and Marion in The Road to Guilford. . .

Banastre Tarleton (left) and Francis Marion (right). Figures by Fife&Drum, painted mostly with Winsor & Newton Griffin alkyd oils, some details picked out with Citadel acrylics, and groundwork done with Woodland Scenics.

All good road movies need a duo of sorts. Sarandon and Davis, Gibson and Glover, Martin and Lewis, Hope and Crosby, Abbott and Costello. . . Tarleton and Marion. Just think of the films those two could have made!

Anyway, here they are, freshly glossed and terrained -- Banastre and Francis. Not hyper-detailed, but enough to make me happy, and, most important, they are done. They'll do fine at arm's length on the table. Tarleton will serve as an officer in the Army of Zichenau, and Marion in the Army of Stollen where his dark blue and red-faced coat will fit right in.

-- Stokes

Francis Marion, aka "The Swampfox" up close and personal. You see here how, if things work like they should, the pigment settles in the eye sockets, just below the nose in the philtrum area, and between the lips, obviating the need for shadows and highlighting.

And here is "Bloody Ban" Tarleton all by himself. I am pleased with the way the horsehair crest, sheepskin, and green feathers turned out. No touch-ups required. Sap Green (thinned considerably with Liquin Original) proved to be a nice, rich color for feathers, coat, and saddlecloth without being too dark. However, he suffers from a pronounced overbite if you look closely. Darn it! Should've resisted the urge to pick out his teeth with a breath of white paint on that 000 sable brush.

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 ...

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...

The Grand Duchy of Stollen

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