Slower Than Molasses in Janaury. . .

The now finished Prussian Blacksmith vignette, which I call 'The Thrown Show.' Figures are from the amazing Minden Miniatures range while the mobile field forge and tools are by Berliner Zinnfiguren. The table was scratch-built using the ends of round toothpicks for the legs and a couple of pieces of white illustration board along with very careful cutting and gluing. Holding one's breath is always extremely helpful with tiny stuff like this.

How's the painting coming along, old man? Thought you'd never ask. Slower than molasses in January to be frank. The usual stuff associated with my courses and students I'm afraid, but I did manage to wrap up an article and send it along to the people waiting on it last weekend. I also managed to finish, finally, the Prussian blacksmith vignette above (the table and tools), and take a bunch of photographs of various things completed earlier this year to send along with the article.

So, while no painting occurred, Saturday was a delightful late morning and afternoon of miniature photography, followed with a bit of careful editing using Photoshop Elements 9 to brighten, sharpen, correct color cast, and crop everything. Hopefully a few of the pictures might be selected for eventual publication.

Miniature photography is almost as absorbing a pastime as painting and wargaming. Needless to say, it is fascinating to learn about how we might present our collections to their best advantage photographically speaking, and when I think of my early attempts at photography back when the Grand Duchy of Stollen blog started. . . Well, let's just say that my pictures have improved ten-fold during the last year or so. Still lots to learn and try, of course, but the rapid progress is nice to see.

With that in mind, I thought I'd include one picture from yesterday's batch of the blacksmith vignette for your viewing pleasure. As for today (Sunday), I am taking some time for myself, darn it, and will sit down to work some on the harnesses and traces of those final half dozen or so wagons and carts. They have sat idle and patiently behind me on the painting table for the last three weeks, but I want to get 'em finished because there is an 80-figure unit of RSM95 musketeers that I want to start.

The plan for these is to paint them as the various contingents of Ernestinisch Saxon infantry, part of the Reichsarmee, with each of the four planned companies in a slightly different uniform. That should help keep things moving forward without too much drudgery. I don't know that I can again face the thought of painting 80 figures in nothing but white uniforms like the two such regiments that already exist in my collection as part of the Army of Zichenau.

In the meantime, let's harness up!

-- Stokes

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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