Austrian Limber Teams at the Halfway Point. . .

The three (almost) completed teams and limbers are at left, those waiting to be finished at right.

Here is a close-up of the three ready-ish for glossing.

After almost two hours addressing tiny details following supper this evening, the first three of six Austrian limber teams are juuuusssst about finished, ready for two coats of gloss, and some ground cover on the bases. There are a few tiny things I want to fix tomorrow evening before moving onto the horse collar, straps, and harnesses, bridle, and reins on the fourth team. Phew! Painting draft horses is not for the faint of heart.

-- Stokes

Comments

Der Alte Fritz said…

They are coming along rather nicely! I think you really nailed the fawn grey color of the uniform coats.

Jim

8:14 AM

CelticCurmudgeon said…

My Dear Heinz Ulrich, Greetings!

Why does your group of limbers at the half way point put those completed efforts of others to shame? Your work has been excellent thus far and I speak for the rest of the community which follows you, that we look with great anticipation upon the final project. Just a quick question - will the battery have a mounted commander?

Stay well.

Gerardus Magnus
Archbishop Emeritus

9:52 AM

WSTKS-FM Worldwide said…

Thank you for your kind word, men! The fawn coats are a thin wash or plain old tan over a white acrylic gesso basecoat. The lining underneath the arms long the torsos and up the front of the coats next to the buttons is very think dark brown applied with a tiny brush and much breath-holding. Just enough to offset the tiny buttons.

Best Regards,

Stokes

11:38 AM

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

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...

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 ...

The Grand Duchy of Stollen

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