A Most Enjoyable Zoom Chat. . .

A David Morier painting of a mounted grenadier from the Batthyani Regiment of Dragoons, circa 1748 or so. I think I may give my officers red breeches and saddlecloths just to distinguish them a bit more from the enlisted men.

Up and at 'em early for a Saturday this morning (6:30am) to join The Virtual Wargames club organized by Phil Olley in the U.K. and presented via Zoom. Terrific fun to finally see some faces and hear voices of quite a few wargamers whose names and blogs I've known and enjoyed for, in some cases, going on close to 15 years! I believe this will become a fairly regular meeting of the minds, so if you would like to join in, visit Phil's blog -- Phil's War Cabinet -- and let him know of your interest, so he can send you an invitation and Zoom link as the next meeting approaches. I feel safe in saying that we had an enjoyable (and very funny) chat all around.

It's funny how some things will be just the kick in the seat of the pants that you need sometimes. After the meeting this morning, I feel (re-) inspired to get moving with the basecoat on these 36 Minden dragoon mounts sitting over on the painting table. To move things along, I plan to combine the base-coating and undercoating into a single step by mixing tan acrylic paint into a healthy dollop of white acrylic gesso and applying to said steeds. If that works like I hope, then the oil-based Sepia and Burnt Umber can be applied afterwards, worked around, and wiped off to produce a large body of mostly mid-brown chestnuts with a few bays sprinkled around and one or two greys, which are of course treated a bit differently. But that's a subject for another post.

I've seen elsewhere online that the Litko base people have restarted production of their laser-cut bases and filling/shipping of orders, albeit at a somewhat reduced capacity given a backlog of orders to complete and reduced staffing at the moment, so a slightly longer turn-around time until orders arrive is to be expected. Still, that sounds like it might be time to see if I need any additional cavalry-sized bases and possibly send an order, so that I've got them on hand when the time comes for permanent basing once painting and glossing is finished.

But enough talking about it. Time to get moving with all of this if I want to get the 36 horses (and riders) finished by August. The figures won't paint themselves!

Happy weekend, please look after yourselves everyone, and stay healthy.

-- Stokes

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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