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With major assistance from of Jean-Louis I now have the history of the regiment.

Many a year ago, in a kingdom by the sea, there lived a maiden whom the world would come to know. She was the very beautiful daughter of Duke Alonzo Café Bar y Casa de Tanning named Mirabel.

The Yellow Bird

The king’s heir apparent Don Pedro was still a bachelor (for very good reasons, as the future will tell) and all the Counts and Dukes of the kingdom sent their marriageable (and some less so) daughters to the Court. None had as cute a face as Mirabel, none had smaller feet (nothing more could be seen) and she always appeared in dresses of lemon yellow and sky blue. The competition for the Prince’s attentions was harsh, cruel, and remorseless: a very powerful rival family (on the instigation of the brother of the House Head, the cunning Cardinal Libro y Portfolio Negro) hired an infamous seducer, Don Juan Siempre Usar Viagra, to dishonor pure and naive Mirabel. She oh so imprudently gave him, as a token of chaste (still) but ardent love, a very special ring bearing the ruling House’s arms. This had been a gift from a previous king to her grand-mother after she gave the then queen judicious advice that ensured the perpetuation of the royal line. Then, as the engagement of Mirabel and the Caballero (the traditional title of the Heir Apparent) was nearing announcement, some suggested to the King that Mirabel should wear at the next Ball the ring symbolizing the especially close relationship between the two families….

But the conspirators, as did any people of noble birth, scorned their domestic staff to the point of no longer being aware of their presence. The mysterious network of gossip between chambermaids, scullery maids, linen maids, pages, hairdressers and cooks carried the news to the man-servants of the officers of the garrison. In actuality – besides the skeleton Inner Guard of the palace – it consisted of a single foot regiment. It turned out that some junior officers were from Mirabel’s father’s estates; they had known her from childhood and cherished her deeply (some loved her hopelessly). It’s said that four of them (actually three minor nobles holding the King’s commission and a young cadet) took the matter at heart and in hand, and slaughtered – in formal duels or otherwise – Don Juan and many other males of various ages and recovered the ‘One Ring’ just in time…. Thus Mirabel married the Caballero.

Mirabel the Great

To Mirabel the marriage was a great disappointment: the future king turned out to be far more interested (if not in clockworks and locks as his cousin) in collecting live spiders and snakes than in ‘honoring’ his young wife. He was too often seen in the company of bizarre-looking hairstylists and makeup artists propounding the newly fashionable “guyliner” techniques. Things worsened when the old King died under odd circumstances. As soon as he was crowned, Pedro the XIII became a totally paranoid, cruel and greedy ruler. Caligula would have been sainted before Pedro. The more unpopular he became, the more Mirabel was loved in all circles. She had kept a special affection for those in the foot regiment who had saved her before her marriage – all were now company commanders or higher. The Queen was often seen with the regiment, actually appearing at the regimental feasts, and at hunting parties, in the regimental uniform. In his madness, the king became obsessively jealous of Mirabel: not for any suspected infidelity, his spies (the very few that actually lived to report) had nothing to say except to report on her increasing popularity. So he hired an assassin, though he grumbled about his wages. But nothing escaped the ever-present eyes and ears of the palace servants. This time the whole regiment came to help ‘its’ Queen. It is rumored that Pedro tried to fly from the Palace’s roof in an attempt to flee from their wrath but met with scant success. As a reward for their service the regiment was granted the title ‘The Queen’s Own’ – a boon they asked for instead of being given ‘Guard’ status (they knew that a Guard soon degenerates, they just had crushed one).

To honor the queen, the regimental uniform colors were changed to yellow and blue and became known officially on the Army’s rolls as La Bandera de la Reina. The template for this uniform "plate" was provided byDavid at  Not By Appointment – a wonderful source for creating uniforms for ImagiNations. The company will be organized in the form of a standard line regiment from Charge by Young and Lawford, three line companies staffed with officers. To keep the companies straight, I have borrowed a tip from the Napoleonic Wars and color coded the pompons for each unit.

Most of the time, you should just clean with a fine-arts brand brush cleaner after every painting session. If you use a soap-type cleaner, wet the brush with warm water, and work it on the surface of the soap pat/bar (or drag through a liquid soap like Plaid’s Brush Plus or Houston Art’s Pink Soap). Always move the brush in one direction, never side-to-side and never pushing against the point of the brush. Depending on the soap, that should generate some lather, but at least work the soap fully into the body of the brush. Leave that on for a minute or so with the brush lying flat, then gently flex the hair just above the ferrule to loosen any paint that dried way up high in the hair and finish the cleaning by rinsing well in warm water, ideally swirling or swishing the brush in a cup of warm water. ALWAYS leaving the brush flat or point down to dry. If you use Master’s brush soap, my personal favorite, but applicable in theory to any fatted or glycerine bar soap, put a little more on after cleaning, then twirl the brush slowly and gently against the back of your hand to repoint the hair. The fatted soap will dry in the hair, acting as a moisturizer and sizing.

A lot of people use Winsor & Newton’s brush cleaner, but if you consider it, be warned that it will take the paint off the handles if you’re not VERY careful, and once on the handles, it will sometimes cause the wood to crack. This is one that you NEVER want to leave the brush point-up even while working with it, or the solvents in the brush cleaner can dissolve the glue inside the ferrule as well as dissolve the paint from the handle. It’s excellent, though, for quickly dissolving caked-on dried paint. It doesn’t point the brush quite as well as Master’s, but there are brands of brush conditioner out there that contain panthenol and starches to do the pointing or you can finish with repointing with a fatted or glycerine soap. If you opt for the Winsor & Newton followed by some other conditioner, rinse well between the cleaner and the conditioner. Alternatively, you can use a good hair conditioner like for human hair, but use sparingly. It’s not a good idea to use the Winsor & Newton for intermediate cleaning during a single working day, as the kind of solvents in this cleaner need to dry COMPLETELY before you put the brush into acrylic paint again. The same would be true of any oily solvent cleaner.

In theory, you could use any fatted or glycerine bar soap to clean your brushes, but it won’t necessarily be as good at removing paint as the cleaners designed for brushes.

Let me know if you need more info on heavy cleaning or deep conditioning.

Judi Northwood
(Judith is an art instructor and can be reached at art at equusalba dot com with questions or inquiries. She teaches at Gen Con, Origins and Historicon and some local events. Look for her classes on the programs and sign up!)

This next figure is a West Wind Dwarf I just finished up this AM. I
have not used any Dullcote on it to dull the protective sheen, but I
figured I’d do that when I had more to do at once.

This gentleman will be the champion for my unit of Longbeards which
the general will accompany, thus the gold and green to match the
general shown below. I like the West Wind dwarves, 10 metal figures in a box, *every* pose is different!

Last night I finished my cannon crew with the exception of two
figures – the gunner for this cannon and the Engineer for my Bolt
Thrower – I hope to finish them tonight. I have finished the CD In the Shadow of the Hegemon and have started In the Shadow of the Giant. Both have so far been interesting materials for keeping me painting.

I placed these on magnetic bases so they would travel easier. Since
I had some room on the cannon base, I added the optical surveying
device and the shells. Although the crewmen are probably pretty
interchangeable between the Cannon and Organ Gun, I figured they’d look
better crewing this piece.