To: The Duchy of Mieczyslaw

My Dear Duke,

Thank you for your recent correspondence with Herr von Wilkowiczeske, who has referred the matter to me for more personal attention. Please do send an ambassador to our capital city of Krankenstadt at your earliest convenience with the merchants to follow later in the summer. In turn, representatives from our own Grand Duchy will do the same.

Since our winters can arrive early, and with some ferocity, we think it wise for any settlers, if they shall come from your Duchy, to begin making plans at once. It would be most ideal for those families to set out for the easternmost reaches of Stollen on or before the end of June this year, so that they are in place before mid-August and at work on dwellings and shelter for any stock they might bring with them for the establishment of their new farms before the onset of winter.

Typically, our first snowfall in Stollen occurs by mid-October. Please use this piece of information as a gauge for advising those families who plan to leave Mieczyslaw to set up residence in eastern Stollen along the Polish-Lithuanian frontier. We envision that there is room in the area for 150-175 families to set up farms based around half a dozen church parishes with the accompanying small villages that will, undoubtedly, grow up in time.

While Stollen officially adheres to the Protestant cause, we are of course open to settlers of the Orthodox or Catholic persuasions. Indeed, our Grand Duke Irwin-Amadeus II welcomes people of any faith, and we do have small Jewish, Calvinist, and Mennonite communities in the Grand Duchy of Stollen.

With the above in mind, may the Grand Duchy of Stollen send agents to your country forthwith to encourage emigration from Mieczyslaw to Stollen? Please indicate your wishes and concerns on the matter to me directly.

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 ...

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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