Christmas Is Two Weeks Away. . . Yikes!!!

 

The usual delightful Minden castings, already looking pretty good although considerable brushwork remains.

Taking a couple of days this weekend for myself after two weeks of galloping through life following the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday weekend.  Best of all, I have returned to the painting bench to continue work on the two-gun battery and crew of Russian SYW figures for The Young Master this Christmas. 

The figures are reasonably far along and at the detailing/touch-up stage.  But it was time to get a jump on the cannon themselves.  Here is where we stand after half an hour or so of dark undercoats to de-emphasize all of those troublesome nooks and crannies that go hand in glove with artillery pieces.  

The models already had been based coated with a mixture of white acrylic gesso and gray acrylic paint. Doing so kills two birds with one stone and provides a nice, solid base for later paints, regardless of type (acrylics, solvents, oils, etc.).  

So, very dark brown on and around the barrels with dark red for the gun carriages.  Looks pretty good so far, but I might apply a second thin coat of each just to be sure no missed specks of bare metal peek through later.  Agh!  Know what I mean?

In other news, planning to set up the tables late next week, so that Young Master Paul and I might enjoy a game Christmas Week, and he can try out his artillery.  Given his incredible dice throws in previous games, I fully expect the new Russian battery to mow down any of my cavalry or infantry foolish enough to attempt capture of them.

And on that note, I continue to refine the morale rules shared here a number of weeks back.  Finally came across a passage on page 34 of Featherstone's Complete Wargaming (1988) that has helped me nail down a few nagging points on shaken and disordered units.  Some clear language there that I may very well borrow wholesale into my rules before Paul an I play our game.

Of course, if we have enough snow on the ground, everything will be delayed since the family will strap on the ol' cross-country skis and hit the trails.  We'll have to see, but a degree of flexibility is called for during the winter months since skiing takes priority if and when the weather cooperates.

-- Stokes