Wied Infantry In-Progress. . .

The first third, more or less, of Austria's Wied Infantry. Still a way to go, but they don't look half bad at this point.

Since mid-June, I have been picking away at the first company of the Wied Infantry (as and when time has permitted), viewed numerous videos on Your Tube in which various wargamers around the world explain how they tackle nominally 'white' (Napoleonic) Austrian infantry, and mused about the flags I might eventually give them once all 60 or so have been painted and glossed.

I opted for a light gray undercoat followed by numerous (I have not kept track) washes of cheap white craft paint applied with a few different small brushes -- my trusty old sable 000 to a #2 synthetic round -- that have reasonably good points.

Craft paint, because I wanted less pigment that is easier to thin way down than high pigment hobby-specific whites. My brushes are also kept very damp. The combination of the two makes blending somewhat easier as I build up the coats from light gray to eventual white.

I have finished by applying almost pure white to the front of the shoulders, uppermost backs, left forearms, and left thighs of the figures as well as the uppermost parts of the shoulder belts and edges of the waistcoats, reasoning that these areas would appear brighter due to light more likely hitting them than more recessed or lower down parts of the anatomy.

Results so far have been reasonably good. And where I have made mistakes, it has been easy enough later to trim the light gray back into recessed areas on the odd figure or three using my sable 000, to hide errant blotches of thinned white paint.

The green facings have been colored with Citadel's Dark Angel Green, which I might just leave alone since I tend to overdo it when highlighting darker colors. The trick , I recall reading somewhere, possibly in one or another book on painting larger military miniatures by Sheppard Paine or Bill Horan, is to keep highlights for dark colors very sparing and subtle.

So, possibly a dot or dash of slightly lightened Dark Angels Green on the cuff and visible lapel edges. But no more than that.

Lightening the dark green with a lighter tan might help more here rather than using pure white. It might be prudent, in addition, to try the mix on a single figure before proceeding with the rest of the first 20 figures. Decisions, decisions!

-- Stokes

Comfortable Rules for Games of Glossy Toy Soldiers in the Old Style. . .

Introduction A Tangled Mass is a game of toy soldiers in the old style, set more or less in the middle part of the 18 th century. Our miniature forces are colorful and, we hope, glossy. Although the latter, like so much else, is up to the discretion of the players. But it is the modeling, brushwork, and unit organization of hobby greats like Gilder, Mason, and Robinson that provide our visual touchstone and continue to inform "the look of the thing" even now. Tabletop armies in A Tangled Mass can be historic, semi-historic, or whimsically fictitious, but the more flags and mounted officers, the better. Formations, while bearing some resemblance to their historic precedents, are generic: column, line, or extended order for lighter types. Squares, while possible, are less common than during all of that later Napoleonic madness with its guillotines and Spanish ulcers. And we'll simply choose not to mention patent leather dancing pumps, or that unseemly bedr

Prussian 3rd Garrison Regt. Update. . .

Still a few small things to do, including apply fleshtone to a left hand on an officer that I somehow missed at some point plus lace on the drummers and officers , but we're very close to the glossing stage. L ots of painstaking work to clean up edges, highlight folds, and touch up various bits and pieces the last few evenings. My trusty little Sony Cybershot, I fear, has gone to that big electronics place in the sky and no longer seems to be working. Well, I've had it since 2013, and small electronics don't last forever, so I cannot complain. With that little hiccup in mind, I snapped today's shot with my iPhone, brightened, and cropped it in Fotor before sharing it here. Again, the blue is not quite so bright in reality, but the auto-improve, or whatever they call it, makes for nice bright photographs in which everything shows up. Not long before these are done, and The Young Master was suitably please when I asked him to have a look a few minutes ago. -- Sto

A Break in the Radio Silence. . .

S till plugging away at the 60 or so Wied Infantry currently on the painting bench as and when work and family life permit. Using three different whites for the clothing, shoulder belts, and officers' wigs plus trying some Army Painter quick washes. My friend and one-time online magazine co-editor Greg Horne (the man behind The Duchy of Alzheim , still one of my blog and hobby touchstones) suggested I give washes a try a month or two ago, and I think he might be onto something. Admittedly, he suggested the Citadel contrast range, but what I purchased eventually is in that general direction. I am especially pleased with the Army Painter flesh wash, which picks out the facial details on the Minden figures very nicely. I've applied it on top of my usual Windsor & Newton alkyd oil fleshtone and then highlighted the brows, bridges of noses, cheeks, chins, lower lips, and knuckles/thumbs the next day with more of the fleshtone. Suddenly, and with relative ease, my paint

The Grand Duchy of Stollen

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