Evening #2: The Second 20 of 80 FIgures. . .

Still lots to do, but at least they are starting to look like small men.  Sort of.

Two good painting sessions today, the second to last day of a rather long Christmas and Winter break from school.  The first was actually this afternoon, as the Young Master played in the outer room of Zum Stollenkeller and periodically asked to come into my inner sanctum to see what ol' Dad was up to.  The second, concluded a short while ago, about 9:15pm here.    

Anyway, the brushwork completed today really just paves the way for the more interesting colors over the next couple of evenings, which will really help this batch of figures come alive.  For now, painting was limited to fleshtone, gray undercoating of eventually black areas (ala Peter Gilder and Doug Mason), and the green figure bases.  Next up, and in this order, I'll apply the following thinned Winsor&Newton Griffin alkyd oil colors:

1) Ivory Black to hats, shoes/gaiters, scabbards, and cartridge pouches
2) Yellow Ochre to breeches and waistcoats
3) Prussian Blue to coats
4) Cadmium Red (or maybe Scarlet Lake) to facings, turnbacks, and coat tails


Then, it will be onto small details like muskets, musket straps, gun barrels, etc., etc., etc.  Mercifully, the mid-18th century RSM95 figures, while realistically proportioned and rather nice in most cases, do not have much in the way of extra pouches, bags, straps, buttons, and badges that require painting.  Certainly, nothing like, say, most Napoleonic figures on the market in 2015.  I figure the four numbered items above will take me two-four evenings if there are no 'real life' snags along the way before getting to the rather limited detailing.  We'll see.  

It is the final day of vacation tomorrow, and then I'm dropped back in the soup as of 9am Wednesday morning.  Sad to see the break end, and at the same time rarin' to go.  I always have mixed feelings about the end of vacations and lengthy breaks, but that's life I suppose.

-- Stokes