Von Polenz Cuirassers, ca. 1733: Let the Clean-up Begin. . .

The squadron after a couple of early morning sessions today to carefully trim in the GW 'Goblin Green' (my preferred old school base color) around the highlighted hooves. And just a single misplaced blotch with the new #6 round! You tend to forget in the heat of battle -- or at least I do -- how easy it is to apply and direct the paint onto and around the miniatures with a brand new brush that has an excellent point.

You would think I'd have internalized this key piece of painting wisdom after 40+ years of applying brush to figures. About as sharp as a mashed potato sandwich here as my much missed maternal grandparents used to kid family members in moments of, shall we say, less than stellar judgement.

But what's next with these cavalry? Well, while I wait for the set of special dry-brushing brushes to arrive (for the horse highlights), I'll clean up a few edges and touch up a few other areas here and there before moving to detailing the saddle cloths. Decent progress so far overall. You might remember that I was a bit dismayed with the early brushwork a few days back, but mounts and men are starting to look a little better as things progress.

Giddy up!

-- Stokes

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A Little More Brushwork. . .

A little more brushwork on the first batch of (my version of) the Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment yesterday (Saturday). Taking a different tack this time and addressing many of the details first before the white coats and other larger areas of uniform. The eagle-eyed among you will notice that I've painted the (dark) red stocks of the enlisted men. Always a difficult and frustrating item to paint, it made sense to paint from the inside out as it were and get that particular detail out of the way first rather than try to paint it in later after much other painting has been accomplished. Trying to reduce the need for later retouching of other items on the figures you understand. Hopefully, I will be able to get back to these later today after a second trip back to the Apple Store for help with a couple of new iPad issues and, following the return home, some revision of Google Slides for tomorrow's meetings with my students. -- Stokes P.S. And according t...

Basic Reds Done at Last. . .

S till quite a way to go with the current batch of 20 human figures and a horse (of course), but they're actually starting to look like something after all of the red distinctions. Quite a bit of painting in hour-long sessions the last week as and when time has allowed. Mostly applying the basic dark red to facing areas and turnbacks followed by the inevitable touch-ups to clean up wobbly edges and those misplaced, minute splotches of Citadel Khorne Red. They're looking like so many Austrian infantry regiments of the era at this point, but the eventual flags will turn them magically into the Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment, more or less, of the AWI period. But I'm getting a bit ahead of myself. One frustrating point (ahem) of sad discovery. I've started trying to use those Winsor & Newton 'Series Seven' brushes (#1 rounds) purchased last spring, and the blasted things simply will not keep a point. Very frustrating since I have heard over the y...

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

The Grand Duchy of Stollen

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