Look who's been hard at work in the palace kitchens!

Yes, the Grand Duchess Sonja has been hard at work in the palace kitchens today, supervising this year’s batch of authentic Dresdner Stollen, to be dispatched to troops near and far in the coming weeks. I can assure you that it’s as good as it looks, and I’ll need to do some extra bicycling to stay trim during the coming Christmas season.

On a different note, Zichenau’s 80-figure Ermland Garde zu Fuß regiment is almost finished. The two steps remaining are the silver musket barrels/bayonets and the brass/bronze hoops that hold the musket barrels to the wooden stocks. Hopefully, by this time tomorrow they’ll be all done. Photos will follow right here.

From left to right: Major Paulo Biscotti, General Phillip de Latté, and Colonel Franz von Gherkin

In the meantime, I finished undercoating, and painting the faces of the Zichenauer general staff. Gentlemen, meet Major Biscotti, General de Latté, and Colonel von Gherkin. The Major is on loan to Zichenau from the Venetian army, General de Latté is, as you know already, a mercenary-adventurer from France, who is the sometimes lover of Zichenau’s Princess Antonia. Currently, though, he has been linked to Princess Valerie of Pillau-Zerbst as well. Finally, we have Colonel von Gherkin, from an obscure Austro-German family, known for their prolific cabbage farming.

I'm taking a small breather by painting these three miniatures, so I don't lose my "painting mojo"! Besides, Zichenau's growing forces need a few commanding officers. I'll next embark on the 30-figure Spencer Smith cavalry regiment, waiting patiently over on the painting desk -- Zichenau's Garde zu Pferd. Please see previous postings for uniform particulars, and stay tuned right here for further painting developments.

Comments

Bluebear Jeff said…

The stollen looks delicious . . . you are a very lucky man to have the Grand Duchess in your kitchen.

Enjoy the Holidays!

-- Jeff

6:19 AM

tradgardmastare said…

My forebears hail from Germany - any chance of the Grand Duchess sharing her recipe with me ? I would be very pleased indeed.
Many thanks

11:12 AM

tradgardmastare said…

I await the general staff with bated breath and am sure they will look great painted!

11:28 AM

old-tidders said…

Nice looking stollen 'cake'

Looking forward to seeing the finished general staff

-- Allan

7:03 AM

old-tidders said…

Nice looking stollen 'cake'

Looking forward to seeing the finished general staff

-- Allan

7:03 AM

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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