Step 8.0 The Guidons. . .

Definitely not perfect, and nowhere near as artistically done as some by others, these three squadron guidons should nevertheless do nicely. There is some medium brown highlighting on the Habsburg eagles, but it is not showing up in the photograph. I prefer to paint my own flags because I feel they match my painting style better than commercially produced items. So long as they look kind of like what they purport to be from three-six feet away, I'm happy.

Well, painting time has been scarce the last week or ten days for all of the usual reasons now that we are a few weeks into the fall semester and school online for The Young Master. But I have managed to finish the three squadron guidons above. Although they don't stand up to close inspection, and certainly would never win any awards, they should look pretty good at arm's length once fixed to the bearers' right hands and stirrups.

I went ahead and gave 'em two coats of acrylic gloss this afternoon to help protect them from my clumsy fingers during the delicate and tedious crazy gluing stage. All that remains now are the three drums plus touch-ups and acrylic glossing, and then the long dragoon saga comes to an end. Sort of. There is the matter of those last eight or nine to bring the regiment up to strength, which is to say the three regimental staff and six horse grenadiers.

-- Stokes

A Sunday Afternoon P.S.

I woke early today with more than half a mind to print out and overpaint three new guidons with an aim toward improving them. However, looking the the three in the flesh with that first mug of coffee, I changed my mind and decided to stick with these. They really don't look that bad in the fresh light of a new day. The photograph snapped last night under poor lighting conditions really does not do them justice, and they almost (almost) possess the same slightly exaggerated Gilder- and Mason-esque charm that enthralled so many of us 35-40 years ago. Much like some people never managed to leave behind the 1960s, I suppose, I've never managed to leave behind the photographs presented in the pages of those early issues of Miniature Wargames and Wargames Illustrated. The first two dozen or so of each were, in a word, magical. . . Saving throws totally unnecessary.

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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