Items on the Early January 2021 Agenda. . .

Young Master Paul's forthcoming Prussian garrison regiment all tacked down to their temporary painting bases and ready for base-coating. I am toying with the idea of mixing lots of dark blue into the white acrylic gesso to combine the first couple of steps into one. Not sure if that's the way we'll go quite yet though.

Happy New Year (properly)! It's actually already January 3rd, but I've taken a few days away from the hobby as we have de-decorated and put the house back in order. The Young Master has been occupied with other things too, so we have not yet had our planned New Year's Day raid-rescue game, but we'll do so later this afternoon in a few hours.

The two of us have also discussed what to do with his Minden Prussian musketeers that he received for Christmas, and have figured that either Frederick's 1st Garrison Regiment, or 3rd Garrison Regiment will fit the bill for relatively simple uniforms that don't require too much facing color. Just red coat tail turnbacks and colored hot pompoms. Otherwise dark blue, black hats and gaiters, fleshtone, brown musket stocks, white shoulder belts, metallics, and green bases.

Between the two of us, we should (should. . . As in might be able to) manage the 40 or so figures and get them painted in a somewhat shorter length of time than is the usual state of affairs here in the Grand Duchy. My late maternal grandfather once remarked to the teenaged me in the midst of an interior repainting project I undertook in the upstairs hallway of my grandparents' house outside of Philadelphia. "You paint well, but you're slower than hell." I digress however.

Returning to the point at hand, the flags for either regiment are similar, yet different in interesting ways. Interested parties can refer to the Project Seven Years War website to peruse the details. I have advised Young Paul yesterday, given the similarity of the uniforms worn and flags carried by these two units, that he needn't decide quite yet which one of the two his figures might become. At least not until the hat pompoms and flag over-painting stages.

And, of course, if he prefers to take a more imaginary approach, that is certainly also viable. We are operating within The Grand Duchy of Stollen after all, and they are his toys! I am taking care to provide advice and inspiration, but also to follow his lead here. Paul already refers to me humorously as "Bad Dad" and sometimes "The Evil Dadbot," but I don't want to annoy him by taking over his inaugural soldier-painting project.

At any rate, we plan to begin the base-coating process this week in the afternoons following conclusion of school via Zoom. The Young Master is back in the thick of it starting at 8:30 Monday (tomorrow) morning. Yours truly, by comparison, does not begin classes until Monday, January 17th this year although there is plenty to keep me busy until then, starting tomorrow morning when I check work-related email for the first time in two weeks. Sigh.

In the meantime, I plan to work a bit here and there today and this evening on those nine Austrian horse grenadiers that I've been nattering on about for some time. We're not yet to the super-detailing stage, but they are coming along pretty well.

-- 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

Gallia said…

I've mixed water base paint into Blick's Matte Acrylic to ease the next color painting step. Sometimes I use the BMA as an initial coat if I don't use a spray can of primer paint in the winter. Best wishes about the new project.
Cheers,
Bill P.

1:44 PM

Independentwargamesgroup said…

You lucky so and so Stokes, to have a son and one that has some soldiers. Have you considered aa black undercoat, which would allow a dry brush effect over them to highlight the blue. For novice painters it seems a good way to start, your son can then build from the basic colours. Best of luck

10:25 AM

The Grand Duchy of Stollen

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