5.1 Dark Blue Undercoat Finished. . .

Here are the initial 36 dragoons and horses, the former with their dark blue undercoat all done.

Here and there, I've managed to tackle two-five dragoons at a time whenever I can't stand staring at documents taking shape on the computer screen any longer and need 30 minutes or so to let the ol' mind go blank for a bit.  Even managed to apply all of this dark blue without any major brush mishaps.  A new #4 round was broken out for this step, and it made things so much easier though repetitive.  Very repetitive. 

Henry Hyde (or maybe it was the enigmatic Michael Button?) once mentioned something about the zen of painting large units many years ago in Battlegames, and I try to channel the spirit any time I sit down to for another one of these BIG regiments.  Actually, if one thinks of it as just three squadrons, it doesn't really seem that off the rails. 

At any rate, the color used for the undercoat is one of my two remaining bottomless bottles of Ral Partha color purchased about 1997, or '98 at a now long gone gaming shop on State Street in Madison, Wisconsin.  Amazingly, it is still quite fluid, covers very well, and has a delightful violet cast to it, which you really don't notice until rinsing the brush and wiping it on a paper towel at the conclusion of a painting session. 

Anyway, the color should be just about right for the Batthyanyi Dragoons according to my Philip Haythornthwaite-authored Osprey on the Austrian Army's cavalry 1740-1780, which mentions that this regiment's uniforms were a rather violet blue earlier during the era.  In any case, I'll eventually add sparing highlights using a mid-blue to provide a bit more visual interest and depth to the figures.

Next up, tonight if the painting spirit seizes me after mowing the font lawn and a tepid shower, basic black hats and flash tone for the faces followed by a dark red for officer saddle cloths, breeches, waistcoats and everyone's facings/turnbacks.  Then I'll turn my attention toward the black stocks, boots, and other smaller black items before seeing where the painting muse takes me after that.

-- Stokes