A Reply to Hesse-Engelburg

My Dear Ms. Von Krimm,

Thank you for your letter of February 28, 1768. Given your interest in establishing trade relations with The Grand Duchy of Stollen, Herr Flickenhoffer has referred your recent letter to me in the hope of furthering our ongoing discussion with the idea of the eventuality of setting up reciprocal representatives and their accompanying offices in our respective territories.

With regard to our supply of premium horse flesh here in the Grand Duchy of Stollen, I have been asked by Grand Duke Irwin Amadeus II to communicate to you his wish that our small country could supply many of your cavalry regiments with the horse herds they need to replace and retain a reserve of sturdy mounts.

In exchange, we would be most interested in sampling a smattering of your own Hesse-Engelburg’s luscious and rich dairy products. In particular, our Grand Duke has requested that I communicate to you his extreme predilection for curds and whey made from the milk of the well-known Common Swiss brown cow. We trust that the farmers of Hesse-Engelburg know how mow to obtain the highest yields of milk from these same brown cows in order that an even and fair trade of milk for the initial herd of Trakehner horses might be arranged.

Alas, our iron supplies here in the Grand Duchy of Stollen are currently at an acceptable level. However, should future events dictate an increase in Stollen’s iron ore production, we would be most interested in discussing the matter with you further at that time.

Please let me know at your earliest possible convenience whether you are amenable to opening trade talks between the great Hesse-Engelburg and The Grand Duchy of Stollen.

Yours Faithfully,

Herr Rastus-Uwe Georg von Gebogenius an der Pickelhaube
Minister of Trade for The Grand Duchy of Stollen

Comments

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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