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

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...

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...

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

The Grand Duchy of Stollen

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