Glossing Over a Few Final Things. . .

The Minden Bosniaks mid-glossing, after the first coat. Hmmm. Mid-glossing. Sounds like a village just up the road from Badger's Drift on Midsomer Murders.

Well, we are nearing the end of the Bosniak tunnel at last. I've spent the afternoon applying the first coat of acrylic gloss with #3 and #5 rounds. Pretty spiffy if you'll pardon my saying.

As always, gloss varnish makes the colors pop even more. I am especially pleased with the black kaftans highlighted in very dark blue, the red with scarlet highlights, and the horse coats. Not quite Doug Mason ca. 1983, but they'll work well enough for me.

What's that? About 800 Minden Austrian dragoons thundering toward the painting table, you say? Come, come now. It's really just 36 riders and horses to paint. There will be times, I am certain, where it FEELS like 800 of them.

Ok. Enough chit-chat, everyone. Looks like I've got my work cut out for me. Chaaaaaarge!

-- Stokes

An Easter Sunday P.S.
A second coat of acrylic gloss was added earlier this afternoon, the figures above now look like little jewels, and they have been placed carefully in one of the large plastic storage tubs in which I keep the painted figures. I think a small game with The Young Master might be in order next weekend. We'll see what he thinks about it. In the meantime, 36 Minden horses stand ready for base-coating over on the painting bench. Stay tuned. The painting insanity is about to begin. Yes, I know. I've come completely unhinged.

Comfortable Rules for Games of Glossy Toy Soldiers in the Old Style. . .

Introduction A Tangled Mass is a game of toy soldiers in the old style, set more or less in the middle part of the 18 th century. Our miniature forces are colorful and, we hope, glossy. Although the latter, like so much else, is up to the discretion of the players. But it is the modeling, brushwork, and unit organization of hobby greats like Gilder, Mason, and Robinson that provide our visual touchstone and continue to inform "the look of the thing" even now. Tabletop armies in A Tangled Mass can be historic, semi-historic, or whimsically fictitious, but the more flags and mounted officers, the better. Formations, while bearing some resemblance to their historic precedents, are generic: column, line, or extended order for lighter types. Squares, while possible, are less common than during all of that later Napoleonic madness with its guillotines and Spanish ulcers. And we'll simply choose not to mention patent leather dancing pumps, or that unseemly bedr

Finding Inner Peace in Toy Soldiers. . .

F inding inner peace in toy soldiers is something that I expect non-wargamers, painters, and collectors would not quite understand, but it helps calm me as we prepare to return to campus and business as usual (??!!) tomorrow morning. Faculty, staff, and students have been advised time and again by our university, in the wake of Monday evening's shootings here at Michigan State University, to practice self-care and find joy/peace/calm/salvation in ways that work for us. So, with that in mind, I made the decision to press on yesterday evening and this (Sunday) afternoon with wrapping up my version of Austria's Wied Infantry, which I've been tinkering with since last August. Time to get back on the horse and get 'em done. And they are almost there. Just a few remaining teeny, tiny things to touch up -- details no one but me will ever notice -- and then Bob's your mother's brother. I'll call 'em done and get moving with that company of 15 generic ja

The Grand Duchy of Stollen

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