Six Finished Stollenian (Prussian) Limber Teams. . .

 Three views of the now FINISHED half-dozen Minden Prussian limber teams, which have tormented me since late summer last year. 

Time to start those additional line infantry drummers and replacement standard bearers and those several new units of cavalry beyond that.  No more transport for a while.  Whew!

-- Stokes

Later that Next Day. . .

And now for some technical details!  Here they are:

1) The 3mm thick ply bases are from Litko and measure 165mm long by 50mm wide.  Well worth the wait of a few weeks after ordering late last winter.  I don't know why on earth it took me so long to discover laser-cut wooden bases!

2) Once painting and glossing was done, last weekend, I used an old brush to apply liberal amounts of Liquitex acrylic matt medium and then covered each base in sand -- collected during the summer of 1984 from my maternal grandparents' creek bed in Berks County, Pennsylvania where yours truly spent his formative years -- tapping lightly to dislodge the excess and then setting everything aside for 24 hours to dry.  Using matt medium as an adhesive is a trick I learned 20 years ago in a book on creating scenery for model railways and dioramas.

3) The second night, I applied dark brown acrylic ink -- Liquitex Burnt Umber -- thinned with a bit of Liquitex flow enhancer using another old brush.  

4) The third evening, heavy dry-brushing with light tan acrylic paint followed. . .  I've learned over the years by observing the various ways Der Alte Fritz finishes his painted figures in Hesse-Seewald.

5) The limber teams were finally wrapped up yesterday night, following the Young Master's bedtime, with the sparing application of more acrylic matt medium with careful sprinkles of Woodland Scenics scatter grass material and the odd tuft of more coarse foliage.  The trick, I have learned by trial and error over the years, is to use very small amounts of grass and foliage material.  Less is more as the saying goes.

Of course, given the color of these limbers, I'll have to bring my existing cannon in line by (re-) painting my gun carriages.  Or replacing most of the guns with new models from Minden.  Now, there's an idea!