The Grand Duchy of Stollen

  A fter a busy morning filled with lots of little things on the dreaded end of semester/term 'To Do' list, I took a long lunch to dry-brush the bases with some cheap tan craft paint and then apply some foliage  clumps with careful dots of superglue.  To my mind, at least, the finished company of Slavonische Brooder Grenze r look like they are emerging from the edge of a wood to harass an exposed Prussian flank a hundred yards or so away.   A few days' break, and then it's time to apply the usual white acrylic gesso to those last 14 or 15 Eureka Saxon cuirassiers.  I've been doing some research, and will paint them more or less in line with 1730s-era uniforms, which were a bit more colorful than later in the middle part of the century.  I think.  To be sure, I must check my sources one more time before applying brush to figures. -- Stokes  An Early Tuesday Morning P.S. Thank you everyone for your interest in the genzers and related question(s...

I n and around work outdoors and the usual end of semester/term hijinks,, I've managed to apply two coats of Liquitex High Gloss acrylic varnish to the 15 Croats in two sessions.  Mike Siggins turned me onto this particular varnish quite a few years ago now in a private email that popped up in my inbox one day, and I am, and have been, always pleased with the very shiny results.  Especially with two or more coats.  Tomorrow evening, I'll tackle the groundwork and then it's back to those Eureka Saxon cuirassiers.  Giddy up! -- Stokes  

  The eagle-eyed among you will spot the very subtle Leather Brown highlights across the toes, vamps, heels, and a few edges of the boots.  To paraphrase the Mad Hatter, one of my favorite literary characters, "I'm mad.  You're mad.  We're all mad!" [The Cheshire Cat, it turns out, said something akin to the aforementioned.  Not the Mad Hatter.] A nd while the Grand Duke Irwin-Amadeus II attends a special Easter Sunday church service, here's a photograph of the Croats with their long anticipated flag.  Saturday has been spent painting very carefully over David's design in a paint-by-numbers sort of way because computer inks fade over time.   Have to say I'm very pleased with the results of his and my own handiwork combined.  Ahistoric and unofficial, yet easily the best flag yet in the Grand Duchy of Stollen collection to date.  I even managed to get a fairly nice furl that seems pretty close to a large piece of silk blowing in a light b...

  A little more than two months in with these 15 Croat figures, I s pent an hour and a quarter at the painting table early yesterday evening scanning each one carefully for any tiny areas that might need touching-up.  As I mentioned in a previous post, at this point, these are things that only I might notice, and I suppose it would make good sense to simply hush and get on with applying the 2.5 coats of gloss.  That step will allow me to move on to applying my unofficial but no less striking flag (designed by David of Not by Appointment ) followed by the minor terrain on the bases.  After all, who among us can actually see the earring worn by Private G ulyás ?   Made ya look!  So, after a final once-over later this morning (it's 9:45am here currently) that's the plan.  Shiny, shiny, shiny.   Now some figure painters out there might scoff.  Some don't bother with a protective coat after painting has concluded.  Others opt for m...

  S pent about 90 minutes yesterday (Tuesday) evening carefully reapplying the base colors as a highlight to areas of the coats, leggings, capes, and bundles of plunder carried by a few of the figures on their backs.  These Minden and RSM95 Croats were, you might recall, treated with various Army Painter color washes some time ago to add shading to the many folds on each casting.  Taking my cue from Aly Morrison once again although I lack his homemade magic brown liquid, but the Army Painter washes and later reapplication of base colors achieve something similar without straying into garish Technicolor territory I hope.   I still need to dry-brush the rear of the officer's cape to soften the highlights a bit more, but otherwise just about done with this particular step.  And invariably, I see a few places this morning that need further attention.  But very close to the touch-up stage now, and then the glossing can finally happen.  Pretty well plea...

  G etting very close now to the glossing, adding minor terrain features to the bases,and finally the unofficial flag.  A Saturday evening painting session followed by another on Sunday afternoon.  Must redo the top drum head before addressing the drum chords, and hoops.  And then the touch-ups.   Not visible here are the tiny metal fixtures on most of the scabbards along with the sword hilts all of which were a huge pain, and I made many mistakes which had to be corrected this (Sunday) afternoon.  Just could not get the old eyes to focus last night, darn it.  And that was before the two glasses of wine upstairs with the Grand Duchess later in the evening. Still, we're getting very close to calling it a wrap for this batch of figures.  Imperfections aside, they'll do the trick I think. -- Stokes

  With apologies to Sir Paul and Wings, ca. late summer 1979.  We're getting there. A fter two weeks largely away from the painting table due to an overabundance of work and family-related things, I managed to get myself back to the 15 Minden Croats this weekend to work on applying paint to buttons, braid, and piping.  Tedious work with a lot of breathe-holding, holding the figures almost up to my nose under the brightest light, and a few minute mistakes with the brush, but all in all fairly decent results I think.   In keeping with the muted appearance of this uniform -- based on that more or less worn by the Slavonische-Brooder Grenzer -- I have again used Army Painter 'Basilisk Brown' for this step.  To my mind, a brighter yellow would seem at odds with the rest of the painting scheme.  You be the judge. So, we're almost there now.  Just the brass (I use gold) bits along the sword hilts and scabbards, a few visible Fred Buckles (p...