The Completed Mill. . .

 The completed mill, touch-ups included.  Well, I could hardly resist sharing another picture, could I?

Tying up a few small odds and ends here before the start of the new university semester/term next Wednesday.  So, what better way to do that than to bring two small projects to a close?

The first involves our mill, which I played with a bit more before addressing a few final touch-ups with paint and small (old, worn out) brush.  Looking at my photographic references again, I decided to to add some more timbering, using a small plastic ruler and and HB pencil to start, followed by a yellow Sharpie marker, and then a dark brown colored pencil over that.  I am pleased with the results I must say.  

Finished the painting yesterday afternoon in about 20 minutes as The Young Master supervised.  It is clear from his remarks that the mill is his favorite model building in the collection.  He asked all sorts of questions about how I constructed it (and some of my others), including the main part of Lübeck's Hospital of The Holy Spirit (below), which was part of a large building project during the summer of 2017.

Constructed during Summer '17, along with 11 other town buildings, my version of the main building of The Hospital of the Holy Spirit in Lübeck, Germany.  The entire complex is huge, so I went simply with the most striking part of it.  It's now a museum by the way, but elderly people resided and received care there into the early 1970s.

Soubise and aide all grassed up and ready to go.  Oh, I say?  Which way to Sittangbad, please?  Blast!  Boris the dead spider at the center of the base has now been removed.  It must have been the superglue.

And last of all, I finally terrained the permanent base of Soubise and his aide, taking a few minutes to do so earlier in the week.  Most of the painting on these lovely Minden castings was carried out last winter, but the glossing, sand, ink, Woodland Scenics grass, and bits of cork had to wait until this summer.  

The various Minden, Fife & Drum, and Crann Tara personalities and command figures are so well done that they warrant a collection all their own, even if you game the mid-18th century in a different scale than 30mm or 1/56th.  I never miss a chance to snap up new ones as they are released -- or make birthday and Christmas requests -- to add them to the Grand Duchy of Stollen collection.  Once painted and based, they add numerous points of interest when laid out on the table.  

And if you examine old paintings of period battle scenes, you'll notice that there were always pairs and small groups of officers on horseback scattered all around behind their respective lines of the field portrayed, so it makes sense to me to have as many as possible on our tabletops. As I observed in an email exchange yesterday between a certain proprietor and myself, "A guy can never have too many mounted officers."

By the way, the randomly shaped, small 3mm ply bases produced by Litko (and others) make ideal bases for two or three command figures once disguised with your terrain materials of choice.

-- Stokes