The Grand Duchy of Stollen

  Early September 2006.  Hand-drawn and colored during our final camping trip of the summer at Lake Evergreen outside of Bloomington-Normal, Illinois where we lived and worked at that time.  The area was also a favorite destination for our bicycle club the McLean County Wheelers, typically about a 33-35 mile ride there and back. The second version from just 10 days or so later in mid-September 2006.  Created using Microsoft Paint with pasted in compass rose and text entered manually later with Word. The most recent version of the map, finalized at the start of June 2026. A question was posed by one Der Alte Fritz (Hi, Jim!) in yesterday's comments, asking how I created the map for my semi-fictitious campaign area.  Well, since you asked. . .   The short answer is through repeated attempts and experimentation with various AIs since late May or early June of 2025. I began with Ninja -- I read online that it was good for image creation.  Not sure I ...

  O k, now we're getting somewhere.  At last.   All 14 hussars seem to be firmly in place atop their horses with the final two sword arms cemented into their shoulder sockets and, apparently, curing without issue.  And would you believe the Gorilla Glue gel grabbed right away on the final arm?  There ought to be a law. But, we had gentle rain all night, which sounded lovely through the open bedroom widows.  And the sun is out this morning, so a bit of clean-up in the flower beds outside once things dry off and maybe a trip to our local big box lawn and garden store for a few bags of mulch, which the long suffering Grand Duchess has asked me to see too since last, oh, the end of last summer.  I know, I know. . . Happy Saturday everyone! -- Stokes

  W hile awaiting the arrival of his trumpeter, Nadasdy observes from the rear of the cutting mat as I attach sword arms to hussars and reattach two of them to their mounts (Grrrrrr. . .).  A tedious couple of early steps that are a challenge at the best of times.   This morning, I discovered that about half of the 14 hussars, cemented to their horses yesterday afternoon, failed to grab (Gorilla Glue gel anyone?!), so they required a second attempt.  Of those, the two at the right rear have still failed to cure with a firm join in place, so this is the third try in two days.  They need to be firmly attached to their horses before I attempt to cement the sword arms in place.  Can't recall when I have ever had so much trouble getting riders cemented into place using gel!  Waiting around on these kinds of delays is maddening, but part of the process.  I guess.  The Minden Prussian hussars that I tackled back in 2011-2012, painted as Lauzun'...

  T he final revised version of  of the Grand Duchy of Stollen and its immediate environs, a few decades before the region was swallowed up in the various partitions of Poland.  Should you wonder, the Grand Duke Irwin-Amadeus II and his gentleman's personal gentleman Hives subsequently decamped for England, where the former purchased a place in Sussex and lived out his days enjoying games of croquet with various guests on the west lawn. -- Stokes

  The first 14 Austrian hussars seated precariously atop their respective, and masterfully rendered, 1/56 mounts. T hank you everyone for your kind comments about the recently (and finally) completed Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment.  The fictitious second battalion in the pay of the conniving Princess Antonia, Elector of Zichenau.  The notorious French mercenary-adventurer, General Phillipe de Latte (her not so secret paramour), commands Antonia's army in the field of course.   His aide de camp, the mustachioed Major Paulo di Biscotti, has, in turn, been absent without leave for some weeks.  Rumor has it he has been on a grand tour in search of the perfect cappuccino.  Di Biscotti was reportedly last seen in Florence.  Or was it Trento?   But I digress!  The Anhalt-Zerbst project was a slog at times, but it's done at last, and I'm happy to add it to the Grand Duchy of Stollen collection.  The 60+ figures have been, for the time being, s...

Y es, you read that right.  All 60+ figures comprising the three companies (a Charge-sized line regiment) of the fictitious second battalion of the Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment have been affixed to their permanent bases. The dimensions are those suggested for 25mm units of line infantry within In the Grand Manner .  I fudge things a bit by basing my musicians and a few third rank corporals individually.  Look carefully and you'll spot them in these two photographs shot just a few minutes ago on the morning of June 1st.  About nine months (!!!) after I started them.  But no time to dilly-dally admiring my own brushwork.  I've got a large, heavy box of Minden Austrian hussars over on the painting desk just out of frame to the right, and it's time to open and organize the first batch of 14 or 15 and glue the sword arms in place before the usual base coat of white acrylic gesso.  Onward and upward, eh? -- Stokes 

  The Stollenian Ministry of Cartography has managed fairly well at long last. F ollowing quite a few failed attempts by Claude to make the fixes I requested -- I t has been a very frustrating couple of days to say the least. --  I finally used my preferred online photograph editing application to make those edits manually and sharpen up the image overall.  So, I've finally got the map looking very close to what I've been after since the very first hand-sketched and colored map way back in September 2006.  And here we are.  Complete with a faint hex overlay and a scale of miles in the upper right corner.   Each hex is roughly equal to a day's march, assuming poor, ill-defined roads across the region and that armies of the era typically marched at the rate of their transport and pontoon train(s), which is to say a walk with occasional forced marches notwithstanding.  Anyway, I'm relatively pleased with the outcome.  There is one last very mino...

R eturning to my campaign area map revisions of almost a year ago, but this time using a combination of Chat GPT with substantial help from Claude to fix the former's mistakes.  Getting very close at long last, but there are a few small artifacts that will have to wait until another session to eradicate.  Can you spot them?  In the meantime, I've got to head outside for an hour to take care of a few small tasks before dark. -- Stokes  

  O k, we're almost home.  The weather gods have cooperated again today with gray skies and steady rain, so I've had every excuse needed to avoid yard work out of doors for one more day and steal away to Zum Stollenkeller after breakfast with the Grand Duchess late this morning.  An hour or so to c-a-r-e-f-u-l-l-y peel the figures from their temporary cardboard bases and line 'em up atop their permanent bases.   Just need to retouch the green base edges before cementing the 60 or so figures in place, but here they are in company column.  Not perfect by any stretch,  but they look pretty darn good en masse at arm's length.  Overall, I'm pleased although goodness knows it took long enough to finish this particular unit.  Almost nine months.  Jeeze Louise! But for right now, it's raining lightly, the house is still, and I'm off to have a Sunday afternoon lie-down with one or both cats, who, like many dogs, usually turn up sooner or later w...

Part of the Army of Zichenau during the October 2017 Grand Review after two months of rebasing. And part of the Stollenian Army across the field, during the same autumn maneuvers that year.  Both forces have grown considerably since, and there has been reflagging for many of the units at different points too.  Interested parties can scroll back through the various subsequent blog entries to inspect those claims more closely. T his last week, I've spent a bit of time here and there during the evenings -- while waiting for coats of gloss varnish to dry -- to inspect my stock of unpainted Minden and RSM95 figures residing in the infamous Drawer o' Lead to my left.  And, of course, to take a gander at the spillover in a nearby closet here in Zum Stollenkeller .  The resulting 'audit' is tentatively encouraging (he said), but my work is cut out for me.  After the planned monster-sized regiment of Austrian hussars, here's how I plan to complete the Grand Duchy of Stol...

  A rainy, cool Saturday here in the Grand Duchy was just the excuse necessary to push ahead with glossing the final third of the Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment (the fictitious 2nd Battalion).  And here they are.  The finished unit.  Tomorrow, I'll finally get 'em onto their permanent green 3mm Litko bases, just peeking out from behind the regiment in the upper right-hand corner of the photograph.  Then, after a couple of days off, it's time to get cracking with the fist 14 or so Austrian hussars. -- Stokes

  The first 2/3 of the fictitious second battalion of the Anhalt-Zerbst regiment all glossed and waiting on their final third (with flags) to turn up. W ell, glossing has gone a bit slower than expected during the last 10 days or so.  The Grand Duchess has been away on a work trip (Indonesia and Singapore), so it has been the Young Master and yours truly holding down the fort here at home with the cats.  Fairly calm and quiet all things considered.  Even the evening driving lessons around the quieter streets of our neighborhood.   Besides the usual outdoor things at this time of year, I've been scrambling to get a project finished out ahead of June 1st, so free time in the evenings has been scarce since classes finished at the end of April and grades were due on May 5th.  But, here is where we are at the moment with the Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment.   Only two tiny errors noted that are so egregious I've got to correct it with a small dab of flesh ...

I n the midst of glossing this late Sunday morning.  The two rows at the back are more of less finished with 2.5 coats.  The two in the foreground have had acrylic gloss applied to their bases and muskets plus the drum and NCO's polearm.   I typically brush the stuff onto the figures since I discovered many years ago that spray cans are, shall we say, inconsistent and can lead to unexpected, frustrating outcomes that leave one close to the point tears after weeks of careful painting.  And if not that, then certainly clouds of quietly muttered blue language.  You know what I mean. But so far, so good yesterday (the first third of the regiment) and today (the middle third). For the moment, though, I'll have to stop there to make a quick run up the road to the supermarket and then mow the lawn since the sun is out and more rain is on the way if the forecast holds.  I'll get back to these this evening. As the late Dame Vera Lynn sang, we'll meet again. . ....

  My usual photographic placeholder until I have something more interesting to show and tell. W ell, Sir. . . Grading is all done, final grades were submitted last Tuesday the 5th, and I presented a poster at our internal teaching and learning conference on Wednesday.  The last department meeting for the year followed on Thursday, and yesterday (Friday) was a "No Day." It's finally time to begin applying acrylic gloss to those 60 or so Anhalt-Zerbst figures.  And at long last, glossing will get underway later today.   I'll start with the mounted colonel and the first 20 or so figures completed late last fall. Or maybe it was during the early winter?  In any event, I'll move onto the next 20 and so forth  if that goes quickly enough .  I usually opt for a couple of coats to make'em nice and shiny with a third application of the stuff to those raised areas where the figures are more likely to get touched in the handling.   You know.  ...

  Not quite from the pages of Charge! Or How to Play War Games (1967), but the entire regiment stands at the ready ahead of the usual acrylic glossing. I t is the final day of April (already???), and there has been considerable hand-wringing here in Zum Stollenkeller about figures and flags in recent weeks, and indeed throughout the Grand Duchy if we can believe recent accounts in Die Krankenstadt Rundschau .  Much to the amusement of the Grand Duchess and Young Master it has to be said.  But they're finally painted now, flags and all.  So, I figured it might be fun to share one last photograph of my version of the Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment -- the little known second battalion, raised for service in the Army of Zichenau -- before glossing and transferal to their permanent 3mm ply Litko bases.  Good God, but that was long-winded. Lengthy sentences aside, here they are.   They should do the trick nicely I think once the final steps are done.  I can't...

  T he flags are in place at long last!  Just finished carefully gluing the standards in place and gently furling them while holding my breath.  Only a few white edges to disguise tomorrow evening with a lick of paint after the glue has dried for 24 hours or so. And then I'll add a few highlights here and there. I remembered to paint the inside edges of the flags the same dark red as the many flames to prevent any large white edges from showing once the two halves  were cemented into place. But I managed to match up the edges pretty well this go around, so no huge mishaps this time.  There is also a small square of kitchen foil inside each flag to help maintain their furl as the Elmer's PVA glue dries. Ok, enough time at the painting table for today,  It's been a tough road hobby-wise the last week or so.  That, and it's Finals Week.  Classes for the semester/term ended today (Sunday???), and I fully expect the usual spate of panicked emails from ...

  The second set of flags awaiting a few more judicious highlights once successfully (??!!) cut out and attached to the flagpoles carried by the two ensigns. P urportedly the words of a GDR tank commander as his formation rolled into Prague in 1968.   I certainly feel a similar case of deja vu following a long Saturday afternoon of carefully painting the second set of Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment standards in a week.   Fortunately, it was another chilly, wet day highly conducive to remaining down here in Zum Stollenkeller with some vintage Miles Davis and John Coltrane playing in the background. A "No Day" as I proclaimed to the Grand Duchess while we enjoyed a glass or two of pinot noir together late Friday evening. But back to the flags Mk. II. Plain old white printer paper this time around, which is a bit easier to work with than rice paper.  Not too bad all things considered.  Now, if only I can trim and attach them without repeating last week's mishap...

  A nd I certainly feel like it.   The great rice paper flag experiment has not worked as planned, and one of my carefully painted over flags has been ruined in attempting to glue it carefully around the pole of the first standard bearer. The rice paper is so absorbent that the glue grabbed and set before I could manage to match up the edges of the two halves.  The error was so glaring that even furling the flag around the pole as though carried in a Force 10 gale would not have helped.  The only thing to do was throw away the sad flag once the shreds were all removed from the flagpole. Sigh.  Can't remember if ever I've had such a hobby setback quite like this.  More than four hours of brushwork Saturday down the drain.  You can just imagine the blue language muttered internally to myself at the moment.  I imagine the feeling of defeat is something very similar to what model ship builders might feel when they discover a major mistake with th...

  H old your collective breath with fingers and toes crossed, everyone.  Here we go. . . -- Stokes

  A chilly, wet Saturday, conveniently enough, meant that I could remain ensconced down here in Zum Stollenkeller all day with a clear conscience to work on a couple of things.  Final video edits for a course podcast I produce each week of each semester/term for students in my hybrid courses ( The Collaborative Cafe @WSTKS-FM ) AND work on painting the two standards designed for the Anhlat-Zerbst Regiment.  You might recall that these were designed for me by David Morfitt, of the Not by Apointment blog . His work was based on a written description in the Osprey title German Troops in the American Revolution (2) .  David does amazing work as I'm sure many other habitues  of his blog will agree.  Regardless of provenance, I typically paint over top of each color after printing out the flags since computer inks fade over time. I also like to match the color palette of the troops a little more closely wherever possible.  I hope I've done justice to David...

  Eight figures to each 60mm x 40mm base as laid out in Gilder's In the Grand Manner.  The mounted colonel with two standard bearers, an officer on foot, and an NCO on the odd-shaped base in the middle. The nine singles in groups of three at the back are reserved for company officers on foot, NCO's, and musicians.  My unit organization continues to follow, more or less, those outlined in Young and Lawford's Charge! Or How to Play War Games (1967) with a few tweaks.  And the single bases enable me to approximate a partial third rank when the formation is drawn up in line. W hen working on a large project with several different parts, it is sometimes helpful to change things up a bit and work on another part of the project for a while.  Which is what I've done yesterday evening and for about 35 minutes mid-afternoon today (Thursday).  Playing hooky from real life -- or sagging off from school -- for a few minutes you understand. In any event, here are the Lit...

Almost there with the final third of the Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment! F ollowing a day of clean-up and mowing outside (seven or eight bags of grass clippings and winter debris all told, whew!), I returned to the painting desk for 6o minutes or so after a shower, fresh pajamas, and dinner with the Grand Duchess.  Armed with a fresh mug of dark roast coffee, bright lights, and a "let's get this done!" attitude, I went to work about 7:45pm.   Roughly an hour later, the remaining buttons on waistcoats and red lapels were done, and I could breathe again (as the great Robert Plant sang in 'Little by Little' about 1985).  Not too many mistakes along the way although there were a few in the tighter spots.  Grrr.  But nothing that couldn't be fixed in the mix after the fact. Now some might sigh and say, "Stokes, why on earth do you go to such lengths and paint things like buttons and horse hooves when absolutely and categorically no one else will notice those details ...

  F riday evening. And while the Grand Duchess whips up some of her Massaman Curry upstairs, I couldn't resist sharing a photograph of the entire Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment. Yes, the final 20 figures or so still need buttons on their red lapels and waistcoats plus flags and touch-ups before glossing and permanent basing.  But still. As usual, I've brightened and sharpened my photograph just a bit in Fotor, which does a nice job as long as you don't ask AI to do too much.  Found out the hard way when I realized, some months back, that figures were appearing with backwards heads, arms, and gargoyle-like facial features! 60+ figures altogether, in keeping with my approach for almost exactly 20 years of the Grand Duchy of Stollen Project.  Sheer painting willpower?  Easily entertained?  Or just a terminal case of Johnny One-Note?  You be the judge.    Just how long has it taken us to get to this point with this particular unit?  Well, I started ...