Can't See the Forest for the Trees. . .

Here is an example of what I'm blathering on about below. I've included the 1/56th versions of von Moritz and von Ziethen for size comparison. Incidentally, some of the smaller Litko terrain bases might also be just the thing for command vignettes, which is, now that you mention it, another idea I've had banging 'round inside the ol' noggin lately.

During freer moments over the weekend, I plugged away at bases for 72 or so cake decoration trees, long in my possession and have featured occasionally in games over the years. I attached these to Litko terrain bases of various dimensions and then painted said bases in a Glidden latex (emulsion) color otherwise known as 'Deep Shaded Green.' The color seems only right for shaded forest, wood, copse, and thicket floors .

Due to a minor miscalculation on my part -- something that never, EVER happens in my universe I assure you. . . ahem -- I have yet to affix my two dozen or so Strelets (???) Russian evergreens to bases simply because I ran out of bases and must order more. Sigh. Still, you can see from the accompanying photograph what my thinking is with these various tree bases which are in the spirit of Charles Grant Sr., however with more random (much less straight) edges denoting wooded areas than was the case with his bases of two-three Merit trees as seen in The War Game and in the peripheries of various magazine photos way back when and once upon a time.

For some months this last winter, on a related note, I toyed seriously with the idea of adding grassy terrain cloths to cover my table and give it a more realistic look. Then I realized that doing so would require more realistic looking trees, buildings, and so forth. I must admit that I kind of like all of the stylized, scratch-built buildings I have amassed during the last ten years of so, and the cake decoration trees aren't that bad. In the end, I decided to remain with my stylized, old school look as an homage, of sorts, to departed wargaming greats like Charles Grant Sr., Young and Lawford, and, of course where the basing configuration of my units is concerned, Peter Gilder. It works for me.

Just a few larger bases of trees to assemble and paint this evening ater the Young Master's bedtime, and then it's onto a slew of Minden/Fife & Drum artillery limbers, horses, and riders for the rest of June and July. Tally ho!

-- Stokes

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...

Basic Reds Done at Last. . .

S till quite a way to go with the current batch of 20 human figures and a horse (of course), but they're actually starting to look like something after all of the red distinctions. Quite a bit of painting in hour-long sessions the last week as and when time has allowed. Mostly applying the basic dark red to facing areas and turnbacks followed by the inevitable touch-ups to clean up wobbly edges and those misplaced, minute splotches of Citadel Khorne Red. They're looking like so many Austrian infantry regiments of the era at this point, but the eventual flags will turn them magically into the Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment, more or less, of the AWI period. But I'm getting a bit ahead of myself. One frustrating point (ahem) of sad discovery. I've started trying to use those Winsor & Newton 'Series Seven' brushes (#1 rounds) purchased last spring, and the blasted things simply will not keep a point. Very frustrating since I have heard over the y...

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

The Grand Duchy of Stollen

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