Just about ready for glossing, here is where things stand this morning with the current batch of 20 RSM95 figures. Nothing fancy, and far from perfect show-piece painting, but not too bad either. More important, they are almost finished!
Sometimes, the stars line up and time spent at the painting table goes off without a hitch. And that's how yesterday evening's two-hour session -- #8 for this particular batch of figures -- went. Mostly. I first touched up the rear of the shoulder belts where necessary after painting in the black ersatz pigtails and followed with a tiny, careful dab of white on the chests to suggest a bit of shirt peeking out from beneath the blue coats just below the red stocks.
Then, it was time to hold my breath and carefully line the hats with white 'tape'. Only two minor slops, which were easy to fix with some very thin black afterwards, but I think the point of my Cottman #1 round has seen better days, and the brush needs to be replaced. As I moved through the painting process last night, I also attended to bits and pieces on the drummer at far left and the officer right next to him. These both need a bit more detailing this evening, but then the entire batch will be ready for the usual acrylic gloss treatment. But get a load of those shoulder wings! I managed to get 'em right the first time with my tiny 001 sable spotter brush (20+ years old), which does not always happen.
So, what's next? Well, I'll next make a slight detour and see to 24 Minden military laborers and a mounted officer, which I'll paint as two companies of pioneers. I need to get these done so that the finished figures can be photographed and submitted with a piece I must write and send off in the next several weeks. Hopefully, my pioneers will go as quickly as the previous two companies of Minden pontooniers did back in November of 2014.
Besides the picks, shovels, axes, and adzes that come with the Minden laborer figures, I've got a ladder, a wheelbarrow, and some (balsa) boards to glue into the hands of a few figures prior to basecoating, so the finished unit should be interesting and varied in appearance. Right now, I am mulling over possible ways to base them so that each base is a mini-vignette of two or three figures engaged in some kind of shared activity. I might fool around with some potential configurations this evening following the Young Master's bedtime.
Anyway, it's then back to the 80-figure regiment, which will eventually consist of contingents from Kurmainz, Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, Saxe-Coburg, and Saxe-Hildburghausen. And I'm really feeling like three squadrons of cavalry after that. Maybe some RSM95 Prussian dragoons that have been in the leadpile for, oh, the last seven years or so? Or perhaps the eight Minden Uhans de Saxe as escorts for General von Bauchschmerzen and his coach? I'll know when I get to that point I suppose, but the journey and musing along the way is at least half of the fun.
-- Stokes
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