Paintin', Paintin', Paintin'. . .

Must retouch the shoulder belts I notice. This is what happens when you have three or four different bottles of 'Leather Brown' from different manufacturers and neglect to record which was used for the initial coat. Grrr.

Keep those brushes paintin'. Rawhide! Or something to that effect.

The 14 Eureka Saxon cuirassiers, taking shape as a squadron of the von Polenz, ca. 1733, are coming along slowly but surely. Here's where things stand as the (Sunday) morning of July 6th. Gotta finish highlighting the reds with Vallejo 'Flat Red' after the Army Painter red wash applied yesterday (Saturday) along with the off white wigs and queues. And the mustaches of course.

Following that, the most pressing and tedious task is the carbines slung upside down, which need their barrels, firelocks, and at least some of the more visible brass metal work seen to after that. And then possibly the sword blades and scabbards Things will then get a bit easier. He said. . .

It's an odd thing when you try to squeeze in a bit of painting on a more or less daily basis. Typically burst of 45 to 60 minutes or so. Maybe even a couple of sessions during the better days.

For a long time, there seems to be very little progress from one session to the next. But suddenly, you reach a point where everything begins to come together and light appears at the end of the painting tunnel.

"The light! The light! Come to the light!"

Or something like that.

-- Stokes

Comments

Fitz-Badger said…

I know the feeling you describe about painting over a course of days (or even weeks) and then reaching a point where you see the light at the end of the tunnel. For me, I start to see the end is nigh and I only need to do a few more bits before it's done. I get a kind of second wind then.

4:12 PM

WSTKS-FM Worldwide said…

Agreed! I started to feel that renewed energy during my final brief session in the painting chair this evening after supper. Got a lot of small nagging things addressed today, and they are finally beginning to come together. And who knows? I might just manage to get 'em finished and glossed well ahead of the 31st. Thanks for your comments!

Kind Regards,

Stokes

9:10 PM

pancerni said…

Finished first of three Landwehr units this week. It is a good thing to have a project look like this most likely is gonna be alright.

4:51 AM

WSTKS-FM Worldwide said…

Slowly, but surely we're getting there. I'll share another painting update later today. Thank you for your comment and encouragement.

Kind Regards,

Stokes

7:37 AM

Ross Mac rmacfa@gmail.com said…

I'm afraid that leather belts in real life.are rarely exactly the same colour unless blanked or blackened :). Anyway, a fine looking lot.

6:47 PM

And We're Off!!!

Arrrgh! Gotta go back into camera settings on my iPhone to bring all of the frame into focus. Blast! Painting is underway on the 60 or so Minden Austrians, which are slated to become my version of the Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment of AWI renown. More or less indistinguishable from Austrians of the era really, right down to the red facings and turnbacks, but the eventual flags (already in my files) will set them apart. I went ahead and based-coated all of them over a couple of days lthe last week of August, using a mix of light gray and white acrylic gesso, before next applying my usual basic alkyd oil flesh tone to the faces and hands. In a day or two, I'll hit that with Army Painter Flesh Wash to tone things down a bit and bring some definition to the faces and hands. As usual, the plan is to focus on about 20 figures at a time, splitting the regiment roughly into thirds along with the color party and regimental staff. Depending on ...

Sunday Morning Coffee with AI. . .

A rmed with a second cup of fresh, strong coffee, I messed around a bit this morning with artlist.io using its image to image function in an attempt to convert my hand-drawn map from September 2006 to something that more resembles an old map from the mid-18th century. And just like my experiments with Ninja AI in June, the results are mixed. The above map is pretty good, but Artlist keeps fouling up the place names and has trouble putting a faint overlay of hexes across the entire area. Hexes, admittedly, are not likely to be found on any genuine maps from the era in question, but there we are. Frankly, I prefer the appearance of the Ninja map, but there were problems getting it to correct its errors. Grrrr. As is the case with so much having to do with the various AI's out there now, the output generated is a direct result of the prompts entered. For text alone, and when you develop a lengthy, highly detailed prompt, it is...

Warboss Green Bases. . .

I t's amazing how something as simple as applying two coats of Citadel 'Warboss Green' (ex-Games Workshop 'Goblin Green') can enliven a unit of figures and get 'em that much closer to glossing and completion. In much the same way that applying fleshtone early in painting process helps bring the figures to life. Just some limited dry-brushing to bring out the manes, tails, and some equine musculature, and I'm calling my version of Saxony's von Polenz Cuirassiers, circa 1733, done and dusted. Longtime visitors to the Grand Duchy of Stollen might recall (the blog will turn 19 years old in September) that I generally go for an old school approach when it comes to unit bases and paint them a nice, bright green. Exceptions include command vignettes, skirmishers of one kind or another, transport, camp followers, and various other civilian one-offs. The approach is not to everyone's taste, but I like the cheery toy soldier appearance once everything...

The Grand Duchy of Stollen

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