To: Bob XXI of the Reconstituted Byzantium

My Dear Highness,

Thank for the recent news of your intended travels through apocryphal 18^th Century Europe. We trust that your representatives and retinue will meet with success, concerning your travel, trade, and diplomatic interests. The Grand Duchy of Stollen is most interested in establishing and maintaining healthy relations with Reconstituted Byzantium.

Unfortunately, we are unable to provide suggestions for a suitable match of an eligible young woman for your royal highness. The Grand Duke Irwin-Amadeus II has been beset by so many troubles that he and his wife of thirty years, the Princess Ragnhild-Gunnlaug von Nordin (a woman of rather difficult temperament) have not yet been able to produce an heir to the throne of Stollen, much less any daughters. The situation is complicated by the fact that our small aristocracy and landed gentry here in the Grand Duchy are, to put it delicately, rather insular. Some might use the term “navel gazing”. Their marriage interests for any daughters seem to lie closer to home, or at the very least, no further than Königsberg!

Even among our more prominent merchant families, the prevalent desire among parents seems to be for their daughters to marry into families farther to the west or, indeed, the north. Hamburg, Danzig, Visby, and Riga are four fertile areas for our husband-seeking families of the merchant class. So, locating a suitable match for your highness here in Stollen could prove difficult and time consuming. We are, however, not opposed to the idea of establishing blood ties with your fine territory through marriage. That eventuality is certainly not beyond the realm of possibility. It is simply an aim that might take a little time.

As for diplomatic relations, please do send an ambassador and retinue to our capital city Krankenstadt, where they will be shown every hospitality we have to offer. I remain your humble servant.

Most Sincerely,

Udo Dirkschneider von Pfeffernuβe

Foreign Minister for the Grand Duchy of Stollen

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 ...

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...

The Grand Duchy of Stollen

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