Grand Duke Irwin-Amadeus II and the Stollenian Coat of Arms

Here’s a recently finished portrait of the Grand Duke Irwin-Amadeus II, current ruler of the Grand Duchy of Stollen. Now, it’s said that the Grand Duke wished to be portrayed wearing his beloved lobster costume, complete with various orders of merit pinned to his chest. However the artist commissioned to paint Irwin-Amadeus, one Herr Maleri, felt that it might be better to portray the slightly misguided grand duke along more conventional lines. Hence the rather typical mid-eighteenth century portraiture we see before us here.

This is also a good time to offer some explanation behind the grand ducal standard posted below. The eagle-eyed among you will note that the red and white lion in the center of the standard is the familiar Hessian lion. In fact, the Stollenian dynasty descends from the same family that rules Hesse-Kassel. Stollen’s Irwin-Amadeus II is indeed a very distant cousin of Friedrich II, Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel since 1760.

Various second, third, and subsequent sons of the Hessian dynasty were involved in the northern crusades of the middle ages, under the auspices of Teutonic Knights, which moved eastward to “Christianize” the peoples of Northeastern Europe, leading to the establishment of the Grand Duchy of Stollen in 1230 A. D. Grand Duke Konrad- Albrecht I was first ruler of Stollen, and he was Irwin-Amadeus’s direct ancestor. The extended royal family of Stollen also has ties to the ruling houses of Denmark and Sweden besides Hesse-Kassel.

The royal colors of Stollen are a mid- to light blue and orange. Both are part of the grand ducal standard. These same colors are also seen frequently in the uniforms and battle flags of Stollen’s troops, for example the orange facings of the 2^nd (Von Laurenz) Musketeers or the light blue coats of the Leib (Grand Duchess Sonja’s Own) Grenadiers, as well as the corner vents of that regiment’s standard. Ok, now I’ve got to get back into the painting mode and get going with that 80+ figure regiment of Revell plastic Austrian grenadiers.

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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