The Grand Duchy of Stollen

  B ack in the painting saddle again yesterday evening and this (Sunday) afternoon for some much needed time with the brushes after a very busy 10-day period. The predictable time spent evaluating collaborative student projects, during which I spent five or six days in bed with some kind of nasty bug that knocked me out.  Yet the work had to get done.  Not fun, but on the mend now.   Amazing what a shower, shave, and putting on actual clothes instead of pajamas will do for one's outlook, eh? In any case, I am now about finished with applying the red (Vallejo Flat Red) to the first of four squadrons of the Warasdiner Grenz Hussars.  Again, it's an inexact science. About two to four glazes, for want of a better term, to build up the red atop a maroon undercoat, which got a wash of Army Painter 'Red Wash,' ahead of the red itself.  Must admit that I am pleased with the way the red areas are coming along at this point.  Still lots to do everywhere els...

  P laying hooky/sagging off from schoolwork this lovely sunny autumn afternoon and in the (very slow) process of building (or is that Bildung ?) up layers of Vallejo red on this first squadron of my rendition of the Warasdiner Grenz Hussars. Using a very damp brush to facilitate one new layer blending into the previous two, three, or four.   It's an inexact science, but slow going nonetheless since I'm using a small brush (a #1 Cottman round) to allow some of the maroon and Army Painter 'Red Wash' to show through in the folds and crevices.  We just won't talk about the hundreds of buttons and braid, or how I might handle those quite yet.   Not to mention the 40+ hussars and mounts still in the pile of lead. Why discourage myself by having ALL of them out and on the painting table at the same time?  No, no.  Far better, psychologically speaking, to keep the rest put away until these are closer to the glossing and basing stage. Overall, though, the...