The Grand Duchy of Stollen

  O r little by little as we say in the English-speaking world.  Had to spend a good part of Saturday afternoon outside taking care of leaf removal, so did not have a huge amount of time for painting.  It made sense, then, to work on the mounted officer for my version of Austria's Wied Infantry and bring him up to speed with the rest of the 60-strong regiment, which is getting very close to the final detailing and touch-up stages.   Like his charges, Colonel Klaus von Birneke too still requires a few final details and the inevitable clean-ups, but he doesn't look half bad.  His white uniform is a combination of light gray undercoat, a wash of Army Painter 'Dark Tone' and several washes of white craft paint,  with the brightest areas being the font of his thighs, upper arms, upper back, and shoulders, where you might expect more light to hit.   A few lower portions of his coat skirts where they flare out from his body are also very bright whit...

  T hings have not been completely quiet here in The Grand Duchy of Stollen lately.  Although I have heard a few late season crickets chirping now and then.  Just the usual out of whack work-family-life thing.  You know how it is.  Still, I have managed to keep plugging away at my version of Austria's Wied Infantry.  Most recently cleaning up lots of ragged edges on the third batch of the regiment.  The usual light gray before starting the white cross belts, hat tape, and various washes of white on the coats, waistcoats, and breeches plus a few of the usual touch ups as you go along. The wash stage is an inexact science, but the end results look pretty good.  Not that artificially enhanced Hollywood Smile bleached bone white Tom Cruise thing, but a more subdued gray-white, which, in my view, is probably a bit closer to what actual uniform items must have been like after a few weeks in the field in the days before washing machines and colorfast dye...