Lightbox Photos of the Last Six Carts, Wagons, and Teams. . .

No doubt, the huge casks carried by this wagon contain some sort of cheap rot-gut, which the soldiers of Stollen and Zichenau will nevertheless enjoy during the approaching Christmas Festival.

The first of two wagons that carry loads of lumber used by the pontoon train.

This French Napoleonic caisson was generously donated by our very own Master Conrad Kinch late last summer. Thank you again, Conrad! It fits in well with everything else. I didn't bother staining the sand with my usual wash of acrylic Raw Umber, and you don't really notice much of a difference, so I might just dispense with that particular step in future where command bases, vignettes, or future wagon/cart additions are concerned.

This horse cart carries a payload of items cobbled together from various bits and pieces -- two large barrels of coal, two small casks, three different chests, and a large sack of flour -- added during the last ten days or so, once painting, glossing, and basing were completed.

You can't assemble and paint up an 18th century supply train without including at least one oxcart, can you?

And finally, here is the second lumber/bridging timber wagon. The various wagons, carts, teams, and drivers/drovers shown here come from a number of different 25-30mm (or, indeed also 1/56th) manufacturers, ranges, and periods (in the case of the lumber wagons which are for the American Civil War). . . but I think they all work together rather nicely.

Next up in the painting queue? Glad you asked, Mr. Kinch! 26 or so Minden pontooniers, including a couple of extra pontoons which are being punted into position by four of the gentlemen in question. If the painting muse and Father Time are kind to me, I might be able to basecoat these tomorrow evening following the Young Master's bedtime. Onwards, and upwards!

By the way, and if interested, you can review the second batch of wagons by clicking here, and revisit the first batch completed last summer by clicking here. No more vehicles, horse-drawn or otherwise, for a while. . . barring Colonel von Bauchschmerzen's (Maurice de Saxe's) wicker carriage of course!

-- Stokes

P.S.
Tomorrow is December 1st although today is the first Sunday in Advent according to the calendar. To those of you who observe, Happy Advent Season!

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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