The Grand Duchy of Stollen

Really beginning to come together at this point through more careful (ok, tedious) painting.  You know.  To remain within the lines. I 've spent about three hours during the last couple of days plugging away at these 19 RSM95 Prussian musketeers.  We're getting into th at less than exciting multitudinous tiny detail painting territory now.  Sigh.  This means lots of straight lines: shoulder belts, bayonet scabbard, hair queues, musket stocks, musket straps, gun barrels, etc., etc., etc.  You get the idea.   It's funny what goes through your min d as you zone out during the zen of painting , and why it has never occurred to me before now is anyone's guess.  But these items all require the careful painting of dashes and lines of various len gths and thi cknesses.  Not the most exciting part of figure painting in any scale.  Still, things are coming together, and I've managed to accomplish quite a bit in short spurts of activit...

  The basic ingredients.  The pepper mill (along with the matching saltshaker) sat on my maternal grandparents' dining table all of my life.  Granny gave them to me when I was in my early 30s.  To make the thin, red, Piedmont-style sauce for the later consumption of the sandwiches, mix (more or less) equal parts ketchup, sugar, and white vinegar.  I like slightly more vinegar, which keeps everything from tasting too ketchupy-sweet.  Add plenty of course-ground black pepper regardless.  Season to taste with the Lea & Reginald Perrin's.  Blend everything together well using a plain old table fork, and store in a shaker bottle, or an old clean plastic ketchup bottle.  Whip up an extra batch of the sauce to pour over the finely chopped cabbage, turning it into Red Slaw. N othing says 'Summer' 'round these part s better than whipping up a batch of my maternal grandather's Central North Carolina pulled pork barbecue and red slaw, which w...

  Here they are, with the thinned alkyd oil yellow freshly applied.   In about eight hours, they should be dry and ready for the next step.  The obligatory mid-distance shot, featuring some of my paints, brush soap, palette paper, and thinning medium. And a third shot of the same.  I must admit that I am pleased with the way these have come together so far.  T he 19 figures here are starting to look like something by this point. T he yellow is all done now, and I managed to plow through the job in one longer than usual sitting this (Saturday) afternoon without making any irreparable mistakes.  It does not always happen that way!  I used a very thin wash of Winsor & Newton Griffin alkyd oil London Yellow, which was mixed with three drops of runny Liquin Fine Detail solution, and applied using a #2 round with a decent point.  Next up, the white shoulder straps, drummer's various straps, and, perhaps, also the black necksto...

White basecoat retouched, the troops now stand poised to receive their yellow particulars. A nother hour and a half, or so, last night enabled me to clean up the accidental "slops" in preparation for the application of yellow distinctions this evening and tomorrow (Saturday) evening.  90 minutes seem to be a good length of time in the painting chair for yours truly with, occasionally, two full hours.  That is a short enough span of time to avoid an attack by the dreaded tedium demon, yet long enough to make some visible progress on whatever I happen to be painting at the moment .  What about you?  How long do you typically like to spend in the painting chair?  At what point does additional time beyond that become counterproductive? -- Stokes

Here is where things now stand with the final batch of that 80-figure composite regiment. 9 0 minutes last night finishing up the application of thinned Prussian Blue and applying black to several previously missed cartridge pouches.  Since even a very tiny dab of alkyd oil paint becomes a larger puddle once thinned with my usual Liquin Original, I also took care of the hats and two senior officers' coats on two diferent command vignettes of Minden figures that have been sitting around in the painting queue for, oh, 12-24 months.  As usual, it was a very pleasant way to end the day, aided and abetted by the delightful faint aroma of oil paints.  You didn't realize painting could also function as aroma therapy, did you? This evening, following the Young Master's bedtime and our reading about insects (one of his current fascinations), I'll touch up the white basecoat in a few places before starting with the application of thinned London Yellow alkyd oil paint to th...

The 19 RSM95 Prussian musketeers in question, awaiting their blue coats. I managed -- almost -- to finish applying thinned alkyd oil Prussian Blue to these figures last night, but Father Time marched on rather more quickly that I was aware given the fun I had while painting.  Just after 11pm, the Grand Duchess informed me that she had chocolate milk prepared  and another episode of Inspector Lewis all cued up on Amazon.  I know, I know.  We live out there on the bloody edge here at Totleigh-in-the-Wold.  Avant garde bohemian libertines and all that.  So anyway, I had to stop and clean my brush with only three more to go.   This evening then, I'll give the officer, musician, and company NCO their blue coats, apply a dash of thinned black to a few cartridge pouches that I somehow missed the night before last, and then touch up a few turnbacks with white before moving onto applying a thinned coat of yellow to the breeches, waistcoats, cuffs,...

Not 'The 300'. . . but rather 'The Final 19 ' (of 80) awaiting their washes of fleshtone and black followed by washes of Prussian Blue and yellow for the breeches, smallclothes, and facings before detailing takes place. A hhhhhh. . .  Hear that?  It's Saturday afternoon.  And the final 19 figures of that 80-figure monster battalion of  that I began in January 2015 are underway.  Today, the various and eventual black parts of the figures are getting undercoated in gray prior to the application of a wash of black alkyd oil paint.  Depending on how my time goes, I might also apply a wash of alkyd oil fleshtone to the faces and hands of said figures this evening.  Ok, break over.  Back to the painting table.  Stay tuned! -- Stokes   Here's what the figures will look like when finished.

Lord Rumpey-Pumpey, the new English ambassador to the Grand Duchy of Stollen, practices international diplomacy along the route to his new assignment in Krankenstadt. A fairly quiet though somewhat tense Saturday in May has dawned over Krankenstadt Palace.  The Grand Duke Irwin-Amadeus II and his man Hives still await the arrival of the new English ambassador to the Grand Duchy of Stollen, one Algernon Sinclair Churlish-Speddington, 3rd Duke of Rumpey-Pumpey, whose entourage was due to arrive Friday afternoon.   He has been inexplicably delayed somewhere along the way however.   The household of the Grand Duke is puzzled and waits on pins and needles.  Where could Churlish-Speddington be we wonder? -- Stokes