October 14th WIP Photograph for the Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment. . .

A busy last few weeks here in the Grand Duchy, so painting has slowed somewhat, but I've recently redoubled my efforts with the brush, and here is where things stood with the first (roughly) third of my version of the Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment after about 90 minutes yesterday evening.

Time to highlight the red facings now -- you can already see where I've started on the mounted officer and two privates at left in the rear rank -- before moving onto a few details like the drum, the colonel's saddle cloth, fringe, and so forth. I'll finish with a couple of washes of white on the raised areas of arms, thighs, and chests/upper backs and a few of the usual very dark gray highlights on the black areas before final touch-ups and glossing.

For white and red in particular, I find that a careful wash or three yield(s) more subtle results than applying these paints full strength directly from the bottle. Of course, it's an inexact science, so take that with a grain of salt. I keep meaning to take a stab at the contrast and/or speed paints, to see what that might contribute to my particular approach. Maybe for Christmas this year? I'll have to drop a hint with the Grand Duchess.

In any case, the Culloden Painting Studio guy on Youtude seems to do very well when he has used them in a few recent tutorial videos. But I digress (yet again)!

As I was saying, look closely at the above photograph, and you'll see that the musket stocks and rucksacks have a slightly lighter-reddish brown highlight, the same color used for the men's hair (Citadel 'Doombull Brown') atop the darker base color (Vallejo 'Leather Brown'). In general, I have kept to a more limited color palette with these figures, and I think I like the results because of that.

It is, of course, highly tempting to go crazy and use a bunch of different grays and browns for variety. And while that works well for, say, Napoleonic units on campaign, there is no denying that approach adds time and complexity to the related painting tasks. For mid-18th century troops, a more restrained approach seems appropriate, and it speeds things along just a bit too.

Always a good thing given the generally slower, even glacial pace of hobby-related activities here in recent years.

Oh, yes! Almost forgot. I also managed to apply the same gun metal color used for the musket barrels, bayonets, and swords to the very slender ramrods suggested clearly along the bottom of the musket stocks without making any mistakes amazingly enough. It's true. Sometimes, the painting muse is a gentle soul and cooperates fully.

If fate is kind, I might be close to wrapping up this first batch by the weekend or start of next week. We have our four-day Fall Break Weekend coming up, so Monday and Tuesday next week will be relatively free for some work outside winterizing flower beds, weather permitting, and time in Zum Stollenkeller applying paint or gloss to figures.

But of that, more anon. Channeling Dame Vera Lynn. . . Until we meet again. ;-)

-- Stokes

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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