Officers, NCOs, and Musicians in Progress. . .

The number of small details to attend to with musicians, officers, and NCO's is always surprising even though they do not carry muskets or kit.

Somewhat more sporadic painting this last week due to the start of the fall semester/term, but the long Labor Day holiday weekend here in the U.S. has permitted a number of 30 to 60-minute sessions in the painting chair thus far. So, we're getting nearer to the glossing and permanent basing stage. I need to check what I have in the way of bases and put in an order to Litko if necessary.

A few tiny touch-ups to make here and there, but I'm relatively pleased with the way the drummers are shaping up. For the red, white, and blue drum hoops and white cords I reached for a very, very tiny sable brush that has not seen use in at least 20 years. Consisting of just a few hairs (12? 24?), it certainly helped although I don't think the results will win any painting awards. But they look about right at arm's length and give a reasonable impression in passing.

According to Armies of the Seven Years War (2012) by Digby Smith, the drummers for the Schaumburg-Lippe-Bückeburg Infantry had five white lace chevrons on each sleeve. I'm not that talented, so I'll leave the three drummers above well enough alone. I have, however, painted in white piping along cuff edges and the visible coat pockets on the rear of the figures using that same very tiny sable brush, and I am toying with the idea of additional white piping along the lapel edges of my three musicians just to make 'em a bit more showy.

Last, I used dabs of pure silver to highlight the halberds carried by the three NCOs pictured above just to make those stand out a bit more from the bayonets and musket barrels of the enlisted men, which were left in straight gun metal gray. Less visible here are the sword hilts and sword knots (light gray, highlied sparingly with tiny dabs of white) for the 13 figures shown.

Buttons for everyone along with officers' sashes a gorgets next, I think, followed by silver hat lace, white highlights for five pairs of officers' gloves, the horse furniture and detailing of the animal itself. Then, I'll look closely to see what I've no doubt missed and start to finish things off.

-- Stokes

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

And We're Off!!!

Arrrgh! Gotta go back into camera settings on my iPhone to bring all of the frame into focus. Blast! Painting is underway on the 60 or so Minden Austrians, which are slated to become my version of the Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment of AWI renown. More or less indistinguishable from Austrians of the era really, right down to the red facings and turnbacks, but the eventual flags (already in my files) will set them apart. I went ahead and based-coated all of them over a couple of days lthe last week of August, using a mix of light gray and white acrylic gesso, before next applying my usual basic alkyd oil flesh tone to the faces and hands. In a day or two, I'll hit that with Army Painter Flesh Wash to tone things down a bit and bring some definition to the faces and hands. As usual, the plan is to focus on about 20 figures at a time, splitting the regiment roughly into thirds along with the color party and regimental staff. Depending on ...

The Eventual Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment. . .

The Anhalt-Zerbst regiment musters in the drill square to sort themselves into platoons and companies during the coming weeks Fall maneuvers if you will. A large dose of real life the last few days with the start of classes next Monday, various preparatory meetings, and finishing up a few other things this week. But, I managed to sort out 60 or so Minden Austrian infantry from the pile and get 'em stuck to temporary painting bases. Must carefully drill out the hands of several NCOs for flagpoles and pole arms this weekend before the usual basecoat. I'm thinking of mixing the usual white gesso with the usual light gray to kill two birds with one stone so to speak. Applying both base- and undercoat in one fell swoop as my grandmother used to say. In the meantime, the recently finished squadron of Saxon cuirassiers has been placed carefully in one of the clear acrylic boxes on my shelves until I have the suitable flag to affix. -- Sto...

The Grand Duchy of Stollen

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