July Painting Challenge: Day #14. . .

Not quite at the halfway point of the month, but things are progressing well I'd say.

Painting time has been a bit less plentiful the last couple of days, and I took a night off on Friday, but I've still managed to get in some time at the ol' workbench. Progress has been so steady the last week or so, that it seemed like a good idea to spend some with The Grand Duchess and Young Master for a change!

On Saturday afternoon and evening, however, I returned with renewed vigor for a couple of sessions to start trimming in the shoulder belts on my current battalion of composite grenadiers. Another fairly slow step to avoid possible later touch-ups.

In the photograph above, I'm down to applying very light gray to just a dozen remaining figures before I can go back and add sparing white highlights to the white belts supporting the cartridge pouches/drums. I'll then go back and repeat the process but on the brown shoulder belts/haversacks before adding some additional related detailing to the latter items. The white belts around their waists should probably be taken care of at this stage too.

We're headed out for a family breakfast at our favorite local quick and greasy in about half an hour, so I'll dive in for more painting a little later today. The weather is sunny, and the mercury is rising today and this week (Spring and early Summer have been delightfully cool and comfortable here so far), providing an ideal excuse to remain ensconced down here in Zum Stollenkeller where it is delightfully cool for more brushwork later this Sunday afternoon.

Just a little over two weeks left in July (17 days to be exact). Can I get these 33 figures and horse all painted, glossed, and based in the time remaining before my self-imposed deadline on the 31st? Stay tuned to find out.

-- Stokes

Comments

Independentwargamesgroup said…

I found that the Minden range was harder to paint Stokes. Clearly RSM are less detailed so were easier to complete. Looking good though.

1:45 PM

warpaintjj said…

Stay focused Sir!
Looking great so far, sounds like you've got your life balance just right, family, food, Stokes Time!
Best wishes,
Jeremy

2:07 PM

WSTKS-FM Worldwide said…

Than you for the kinds words of encouragement, gentlemen! Yes, life-work balance indeed. Easier said than done during the school year though. The Mindens are very time consuming given the amount of detail and gear sculpted onto the figures. RSM's are easier in that regard, and Spencer Smiths even more so. But, I've got a mountain of Mindens to get through, or a drawer full in any case, so. . . As long as the eyesight holds out, here I'll stay.

Best Regards,

Stokes

2:48 PM

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

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 ...

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...

The Grand Duchy of Stollen

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