Irwin-Amadeus II Fiddles While Neighboring Apochryphal Principalities Smolder

News Brief:

Advisors to the Grand Duchy of Stollen’s ruler, Grand Duke Irwin-Amadeus II, report that his distracted malaise of recent days continues unabated. Unable, or unwilling, to concentrate on the various matters of state at hand, Irwin-Amadeus seems more interested in his fanciful seafood dress and in his growing obsession with white kidskin gloves. Whenever ministers attempt to discuss the clouds of war that hover on Stollen’s horizon’s, the Grand Duke responds, “Yes,yes. A pity, that. Where will we get our kidskin gloves if Hesse-Engelburg is occupied? I think I'll practice my cello now. Fetch my bow!” There are mutterings in certain quiet quarters calling for treatment by that renowned expert of the mind, Herr Professor Doctor von Eierdybe, who holds chairs in metaphysics and philosophy at the University of Schmitten, located in neighboring Pillau Zerbst.

In the meantime, Stollen’s generals have taken it on themselves to begin assembling their small army and preparing it for war, should that eventuality come. Stollen’s household regiment, the Leib (Grand Duchess of Sonja’s Own) Grenadiers is currently receiving new uniforms and training under the watchful eye of one Oberfeldwebel Klatschen. An additional regiment of infantry, a smaller battalion of jäger, a large regiment of dragoons, and a battery of artillery stand ready to take the field. These bodies of men shall hold annual maneuvers in June, an event that will be covered by members of our press. Advisors to Stollen’s generals point out that it may be necessary to hire mercenary troops from a neighboring principality like Werben-Steinau or Pillau-Reuss to round out troop numbers. Army representatives have been sent to those two territories to ascertain which large infantry regiments might be available for hire should the need arise.

-- A. Reliableus von Quelle

Comments

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

And We're Off!!!

Arrrgh! Gotta go back into camera settings on my iPhone to bring all of the frame into focus. Blast! Painting is underway on the 60 or so Minden Austrians, which are slated to become my version of the Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment of AWI renown. More or less indistinguishable from Austrians of the era really, right down to the red facings and turnbacks, but the eventual flags (already in my files) will set them apart. I went ahead and based-coated all of them over a couple of days lthe last week of August, using a mix of light gray and white acrylic gesso, before next applying my usual basic alkyd oil flesh tone to the faces and hands. In a day or two, I'll hit that with Army Painter Flesh Wash to tone things down a bit and bring some definition to the faces and hands. As usual, the plan is to focus on about 20 figures at a time, splitting the regiment roughly into thirds along with the color party and regimental staff. Depending on ...

The Eventual Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment. . .

The Anhalt-Zerbst regiment musters in the drill square to sort themselves into platoons and companies during the coming weeks Fall maneuvers if you will. A large dose of real life the last few days with the start of classes next Monday, various preparatory meetings, and finishing up a few other things this week. But, I managed to sort out 60 or so Minden Austrian infantry from the pile and get 'em stuck to temporary painting bases. Must carefully drill out the hands of several NCOs for flagpoles and pole arms this weekend before the usual basecoat. I'm thinking of mixing the usual white gesso with the usual light gray to kill two birds with one stone so to speak. Applying both base- and undercoat in one fell swoop as my grandmother used to say. In the meantime, the recently finished squadron of Saxon cuirassiers has been placed carefully in one of the clear acrylic boxes on my shelves until I have the suitable flag to affix. -- Sto...

The Grand Duchy of Stollen

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