Happy Fourth of July!

A selection of soliders from The Continental Army. I doubt they looked this clean after traipsing through the woods though.

Happy 4th of July from The Grand Duchyof Stollen! Before we can dig into the batch of North Carolina Pork BBQ, red slaw, and hush puppies for dinner the evening, I've got a cabinet door to rehang after one of the hinges broke early this morning. That's on top of mowing the grass, which I've taken care of already and various other "suburban dad things" as my sister says. And, of course, I plan to get back to the current batch of Minden grenadiers, which are my July painting challenge project.

In the meantime, I thought it might be fun to share a few suitably appropriate images representing soldiers of the various combatants who partook in the Revolutionary War as we call it here in the United States. Have a fun day, but please be careful should you plan to set off any fireworks.

-- Stokes

A fusilier and hussar from Lauzun's Legion.

A Royal Welch Fusiler, ca. 1781.

An infantry man of The British Legion.

A fusilier from the Von Ditfurth Regiment, linear descendant of the War of Austrian Succession-era Hessenstein Regiment of which I am basing part of my current composite grenadier battalion.

Comments

The 18th century? What's the Fascination?

Hessian musketeers by All the King's Men Toy Soldiers of Snellville, Georgia, U.S.A. Just a quick post post today, but I thought the above question might be interesting food for thought. Obviously, there is an array of possible periods, theaters, and conflicts that might catch our eyes. But what is it about the era 1700-1799 -- either real, or imagined? Is it the commanders and politics? The fairly straightforward tactics? The myriad of uniforms and flags? The variety and scope of the conflicts? The patchwork of various and sundry petty states, (at least in Central Europe)? I'm very interested to learn your thoughts. Don't be a lurker! Please leave a comment -- or even two or three. Have a nice day everyone!

An Early July Hussar Update. . .

Marginally neater in appearance with green bases, girths, and ivory horse markings added, but I need to neaten up some hooves now before moving onto the rest of the tack. W here in the world did June go? While I still ponder the answer to that question, how about a quick painting update on the first batch of 14 Minden Austrian hussars and Nadasdy? Good. I'm glad we are of a like mind. Still on the sloppy side, but I've managed to move things along, painting the green bases, white (ivory) horse markings, and beginning the miles and miles of tack adorning the various horses. I always like to begin with the girths spanning the horses' ribs which helped hold the saddles in place. Even with the figures mounted individually on temporary painting bases, these can be kind of tricky to access, but there we are. I've also used various Army Painter washes (Mid-Brown and Strong Tone) as well as their Speed Paint (Grim Black) to make the manes and tails of the horses a bit m...

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...

The Grand Duchy of Stollen

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