2nd Silesian Landwehr

It seems that I'm not prioritizing well these days and I'm letting things like work and household duties interfere with my hobby.  I finally completed (mostly) some Landwehr cavalry but it's taken a week or more to get around to writing this post.  I'm leaving tomorrow for family vacation so if I don't do it now, it might not happen.  

This is the 2nd Silesian Landwehr Cavalry Regiment as per Age of Eagles 2.  Eight figures mounted on four bases.  Pardon the static grass, it is freshly applied and hasn't been blown yet.  

 These were a rough go for me.  It seemed there was a constant flow of distractions.  I think from beginning to end it took almost 3 weeks to complete.  I soldiered on, no matter the distraction, and was determined to bring up the level of painting.

 I see now that I forgot some of the details, notably the tacks on the pennants.  I'll have to get back to that.

The camera really isn't kind. First, it doesn't show all of the blends and highlights that I thought would be captured.  You can't tell the white his a bright highlight over an off-white base, for instance.  I did some light and color correction of these images after I cropped them so it is probably my fault.

 The camera also shows all the mistakes.  I don't think I appreciated the courage required to post one's work subject to zoomable scrutiny until I put my own out there.

I feel pretty good about the horse technique.  I used this as an opportunity to develop the color palette and recipes.  I have too many of the sorrel but it was an exercise for me.  There are three different shades of chestnut and I'm happy with all of them. This is also the first white horse I didn't want to strip down once completed (although in the images it seems really white.  Again, my fault.)

When it's said and done, I'm happy with the results.   I'm pretty critical of my own work and I see many things I could do to improve them but eventually you have to call them done and move on to the next.

I'm calling these done and moving on to the last 8 stands of Reserve Infantry to finish out the RIR formations of the corps.

And here we are with the view I'll have of them on the table.  Maybe I should concentrate more on the backs than the fronts seeing as how I don't get to see the fronts often.  

Next up is the progress on the RIR.  It's the first time I've tried to paint this many figures (32) at one time.  I'm already facing having to paint mostly shades of gray.  That quickly numbs the mind.  Hopefully the volume doesn't snap my tenuous hold on reality.

Gunuary Complete

So I finished these a few days ago but I've been slow to post them on the 'accountability blog.'  Easily solved as I'm currently working on my income tax return and taxes rate much higher on the 'things I can put off to do other things' list.  With that, I'm setting aside the amateur accountancy in lieu of amateur publishing.

 These are all the guns from Kleist's 2nd Corps in 1813 as for Age of Eagles II.  This includes seven 6 lb foot, four 6 lb horse, two 12 lb heavy and one 7 lb howitzer.  Let me say up front that I don't prefer AoE when it comes to basing up my Napoleonic armies.  I was introduced to Naps in the 1980's with Empire and I've always had a fondness for the system, especially the basing.  I would prefer each battery to be two stands of guns with 8 figures representing the battery.  But this is the system we play under so stiff upper lip, carry on, and all that.

 These are Prussian.  That means various shades of deep blues and grays.  One of my biggest modeling challenges is preventing my side of the table from looking like a dark blob slowly oozing across the table. It's especially difficult for me as my painting style is what I like to call 'dark muddled.'  I paint with slight transitions, dark shadows, and highlights that don't have stark contrasts.

As I paint the Prussians I'm starting to work on moving towards brighter, higher contrasting colors.  It's hard, but I'm slowly adapting.

 Purely for sake of identification and having nothing to do with historical accuracy, I've painted the belts on the horse batteries white and foot black (quick, the torches and pitchforks,  burn the heretic!).  Since the black belts blend in easily with the Prussian blue, I've taken the blue to a higher level of lightness than I like to.  Without it, I'd either have to go higher on the gray highlights of the black belts or have miniatures that look like they didn't get paint over the black primer above the waist.

I've also taken the Carmine Red lighter than I normally do.  And since it's AoE and not Empire, I've painted all the collars, cuffs, and epaulets the same red.

Some things to note...  yet again I've tried another skin recipe and I don't like it.  It's my hobby unicorn, 15mm flesh.  I've even purchased the next color set to try.  I actually like the skin on my jaegers that I painted last year but alas, poor record keeping means I have no means to replicate it. 

The astute, keen eyed of you will note that some of the cannons are of a different pigmentation.  Eleven of the guns were actually painted in this project.  Two were painted first, a third painted individually, and then the big exercise.  For now, they are complete and table top quality, which can't be said of the 11th and 12th brigades so OCD be damned, I must delay the repaint and uniformization of the cannons until miniatures who need more attention have been placated.  In my hobby mind I have put them in the queue but the rational side of the brain figures there is a 50/50 chance they'll forever be the thorn of my conscious. 

I also used a new basing material.  I usually use Vallejo pumice on my bases. Someone on Tabletop Commanders facebook forum asked about using their gels so I thought I'd give them a try.  The pumice is great but it takes a lot of time to work onto the bases.  I thought I could save some time with the pre colored gels.   

Which is a grand idea if I were starting a new army.  For the guns, I had to wash them with some brown to get them to match the existing bases in the army.  Still, I liked it a lot.  Easier than the pumice to apply and it removes one step of painting from the equation.  I did encounter some mdf warping after I washed (could have been after the gel but I didn't notice until the wash) but that seems to have worked itself out.  

So that's it.  All the Prussian guns in the complete pile.  All I have to do is touch up some shakos that were rubbed during the basing and then apply a varnish.  Normally I do the varnish before the basing but in my eagerness to try the new gel is slipped my mind.  I'm getting older and these things happen.  

On to the next conquest! 

Gunuary

Currently working on the guns for my Prussian corps. I've had them in the lead pile and was painting them up a battery at a time as I finished a brigade.  In January, the Miniature Modelling Mayhem Facebook group hosted a Gunuary project.  Seemed like the perfect time to complete all of the guns I have remaining to paint and to get out of the Holiday Hobby Funk which had set in pretty hard for me.  November and December were spectacularly busy there was no time for the hobby.

This is where it all starts.  It's mildly upsetting to know this is as good as they'll look and it's only downhill from here.  What did they ever do to deserve this?

I have 11 guns in total to paint with 22 crew.  I decided this was a good opportunity to get some airbrush efficiency involved.  Shoot, I have an entire month.  As quickly as this is going to go, I may need to buy more models.

I've also struggled with finding a good blue for the Prussian guns so I grabbed Vallejo Model Air 71.113 IDF Blue.  It seemed to have just enough gray for my tastes.  Easy peasy, the guns are base coated.

Slap on some black paint for the metal parts of the carriage, a very light wash and assembly and there we have it... half way done.  A quick look at the calendar shows Jan 21.  Wait, what?  How did something so simple and effortless take three-quarters of my allotted time to complete?  I really should pay more attention. (the two flocked bases in the front are the existing batteries in the corps.  the two painted bases were crew painted earlier with freshly painted guns.)

 I'd better get busy.  Slap a few basecoats on these guys and try to make some progress.

It's a work in progress but it's still progress.  I'm not happy with the blue for certain.  Even having to go light to account for the scale, I still feel it's not rich enough. I've also opted for a different red on the turnbacks, going lighter than my usual VMC Carmine Red.  (boy, the camera is not kind.)

I've actually finished the gunners and am working on the basing. Gunuary should be complete before it turns into May.

Another minor conquest...