A Small Painting Breather. . .

These two figures have been hanging around for several years now.  Since 2013 or '14 maybe?  High time then to do something with them!

A piece of sage advice came from one visitor (Wellington Man?) to the Grand Duchy of Stollen during the last few days, who suggested that I reward myself for finally getting the monster cuirassier regiment done by painting something small next.  Hence the command vignette above, which I worked on in two short bursts of painting yesterday and another slightly longer session during the evening, just post-bedtime for the Young Master.  The figure in red at right is intended to be, or at least is based upon various illustrations, portraits, and a painted 40mm flat found online of Charles de Rohan, Prince of Soubise.  

Still blocking in the main base colors and highlights in acrylic at this point, but I must admit to feeling very pleased with the way the basic horse colors turned out.  As usual, these are oils -- Van Dyke Brown and Sepia -- applied over yellow and a leather tan hobby acrylic bases respectively.  I further wiped off the excess and then feathered over each with a clean, dry brush to soften the remaining color.  Awfully time consuming for, say, a regiment of 30 horses, but the extra time and effort is worth it for a command vignette.  Stay tuned in the coming days to see how things shape up with these two.

In the meantime, the 30 cuirassiers in bearskins have been placed in a plastic container for safe keeping while a few remaining tiny bits finished in oils dry to the touch before I apply two coats of acrylic gloss.  I've also set up 60 or so Minden Austrian (German) infantry for basecoating but have yet to decide whether these will become proper Austrians in 'white', who will march beneath earlier WAS-era flags. . .  Or blue coated Reichsarmee troops (in uniforms of Austrian cut), who will eventually take the field beneath equally flamboyant standards.  I haven't been able to make up my mind quite yet, but daydreaming is the thing as I mentioned in yesterday's post.  

Further back in the painting queue, are some Minden Uhlans de Saxe, I think, given to me by the amazingly wonderful Grand Duchess for Christmas 2016, that really ought to see the light of day on the painting table.  And, given an apparent surplus of Austrian grenadiers in bearskins currently residing in the drawer of lead, if things go well and I actually have some time left during the last quarter of 2019, I might just whip up a smaller tw0-comany composited unit of Grenadiers drawn from a couple of regiments with widely divergent uniform and facing colors.  Given my scarce hobby time and glacial painting production of late, though, that is, without doubt, getting a little ahead of myself.  Let's get Soubise and his aide finished first!

-- Stokes