Officers, NCOs, and Musicians. . .

Fotor is my new online editor of choice. Not completely free (US$39.99 per year), but fairly intuitive and nice, bright results. Better even than Pixlr X. You get what you pay for I suppose.

Making time for painting in and amongst all of the last minute preparations for the new semester, which kicks off next Wednesday, September 1st here at MSU. Working on completing my version of the Schaumburg-Lippe infantry with officers, NCOs, and musicians. The flags will probably be the final cherry on top before glossing and permanent basing.

The 48 infantry privates have, by the way, been stowed away in a plastic carrier for safe keeping until the later glossing stage. My work area was becoming too crowded, and I feared cats, 11-year old fingers, an errant spill or drops of paint would inadvertently spoil previous brushwork.

But anyway.

You can see that I am really making the effort to keep the highlighting more subtle than on units of the past, really just touching the brush to high points. Still not quite as skillfully done as others', but a bit better. Restraint seems to be the operative word.

I recall reading 20+ years ago in a book on painting larger scale military miniatures by either Bill Horan, or Sheperd Paine that the trick with dark blues, dark greens, and black is to keep the highlights very sparing since these uniform colors were so dark in reality. At least before the ravages of active campaigning.

Of course, there is artistic license to consider, and we do want our colors to show up on the table, so some leeway is desirable I think.

I recall many years ago taking a stab at some tiny Peter Laing 15mm Prussians for the Franco-Prussian war, using Armory Prussian blue straight from the bottle. They looked almost black, which was not quite the effect I had hoped for. Ol' Mom, a trained painter and sculptor, explained the concept of artistic license to me as well as mixing (toning down and/or brightening) colors, which made all the difference in later efforts with the brush.

Incidentally, I must admit to being happy with the way the whites are turning out on this unit of figures. A light gray undercoat followed by several successive washes of white until it looks about right, culminating with pure, undiluted pigment on the uppermost areas, the upper left thighs of the marching figures for example. It seems to produce a very pleasing blend once everything has dried.

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So, today is Saturday, and I have several journal articles to plow through in preparation for a faculty reading group on student engagement and success that a colleague and I will lead this year. Plus the inevitable mowing the lawn (twice each week to encourage thick growth). But, I hope to return to these for an hour or so this evening.

-- Stokes

A revised (or retouched) photograph of the first 48 figures using Fotor.

The 18th century? What's the Fascination?

Hessian musketeers by All the King's Men Toy Soldiers of Snellville, Georgia, U.S.A. Just a quick post post today, but I thought the above question might be interesting food for thought. Obviously, there is an array of possible periods, theaters, and conflicts that might catch our eyes. But what is it about the era 1700-1799 -- either real, or imagined? Is it the commanders and politics? The fairly straightforward tactics? The myriad of uniforms and flags? The variety and scope of the conflicts? The patchwork of various and sundry petty states, (at least in Central Europe)? I'm very interested to learn your thoughts. Don't be a lurker! Please leave a comment -- or even two or three. Have a nice day everyone!

An Early July Hussar Update. . .

Marginally neater in appearance with green bases, girths, and ivory horse markings added, but I need to neaten up some hooves now before moving onto the rest of the tack. W here in the world did June go? While I still ponder the answer to that question, how about a quick painting update on the first batch of 14 Minden Austrian hussars and Nadasdy? Good. I'm glad we are of a like mind. Still on the sloppy side, but I've managed to move things along, painting the green bases, white (ivory) horse markings, and beginning the miles and miles of tack adorning the various horses. I always like to begin with the girths spanning the horses' ribs which helped hold the saddles in place. Even with the figures mounted individually on temporary painting bases, these can be kind of tricky to access, but there we are. I've also used various Army Painter washes (Mid-Brown and Strong Tone) as well as their Speed Paint (Grim Black) to make the manes and tails of the horses a bit m...

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...

The Grand Duchy of Stollen

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