A Saturday Schaumburg-Lippe Painting Update. . .

Just a few buttons and touch-ups to do before glossing. I must admit to feeling very pleased with the way the white highlights atop the light gray undercoat have turned out. Kind of inexact washes, which give a nice, slightly variegated look to the figures.

The first 32 musketeers for my version of the Schaumburg-Lippe-Bückeburg Infantry are just about done save for the buttons, a few small touch-ups here and there, and the usual two coats of gloss before basing.

But no rest for the wicked! I'm getting ahead of myself. Still another 16 musketeers, three musicians, several officers and NCOS, and the colonel's horse before the regiment can take the field. And the flags of course.

Parenthetically, wouldn't that be a terrific name for an English pub in a village somewhere? 'The Colonel's Horse.' It almost screams Midsomer Murders, Richard Jury, or Lord Peter Wimsey. Digression seems to be a way of life around The Grand Duchy of Stollen lately.

As I was saying. . . This weekend, I'll press on with the next 16 figures. A light gray acrylic color blended into acrylic gesso (combining the basecoat and darker undercoat), Citadel Warboss Green bases, and fleshtone depending on available free time. Possible thunderstorms are forecast, so just maybe. . .

But what's all of this about buttons?

Well, tiny details like buttons are not really necessary to paint, but they do catch the light, really adding to the glitter and glitz of horse and musket era figures. No doubt about it. It just seems right for mid-18th century figures and Napoleonics in full dress somehow. Plus, it seems a shame not to lavish a bit of extra time and care on castings as nice as Minden, Fife & Drum, and Crann Tara.

Anyway, you cannot see it in this photograph, but I quickly added button color (I cheat a bit and use gold and silver instead of brass and pewter to help these show up better) to a single test figure last night before retiring for the evening, and the results were extremely pleasing. It's odd how that last little bit of brushwork brings figures almost to life. Saturday is button day. And then the touch-ups.

Why on earth should you paint the buttons? Because they are there.

-- 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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