Yesterday (Monday. . . Labor Day here in the U.S.) afternoon, I finally managed to clear the figurative decks enough to sit down to the painting table for some more work on those 36 Minden Austrian dragoons that have occupied so much of my sparse free time the last few months. Almost immediately, the small, plastic bottle of Citadel 'Skull White' slipped from my fingers as I opened the cap after shaking vigorously, and a healthy dollop of paint seemed to leap from it, spilling across my table in the direction of the lined up dragoons.
Mercifully, the painting gods smiled on me. I made my saving throw, and the paint stopped a mere centimeter or two -- it was terribly close -- from getting all over two or three of the mostly painted figures sitting there awaiting fine detail work. After filling the air with quietly hissed blue language and mopping up the blasted paint, careful examination indicated that, indeed, no figures were in sudden need of extensive retouching. But it was a damned near run thing to say the least.
I went on to finish some of the remaining white webbing at the top of the sword scabbards and very fine silver lining atop the muskets (or carbines?) slung from the right shoulders of the enlisted members of the regiment. In addition, I painted the white lace of one saddle cloth to see how it might look. I think I'll probably leave it at that since adding a couple of fine red lines, like those that apparently adorned the saddle cloth lace of the Batthyanyi Dragoons of yore, is probably beyond my ability and patience level at this point. But we're getting ever closer to finishing 'em up.
Its pouring rain here today in The Grand Duchy, so in lieu of my usual evening walk once The Young Master has been tucked in for the evening, I'll return to the painting table to add additional minute detailing. While not really necessary and almost invisible unless you hold the figures to within a few inches of your eyes, attention to the myriad of tiny details on castings as lovely as those produced and sold by Minden, Fife&Drum, and Crann Tara really brings them to life in a most pleasing way.
-- Stokes
Comments
Marvin
The effect is worse with red paint, I was trying get some out of a dropper bottle a few of years ago and squeezed to hard - red paint splatter over the cutting mat (didn't reach the figures), my hands and all down my front - looked like a major accident :)