Looks like my work is cut out for me. . .

As my Grandfather used to say many, many years ago, “Happy Day After!” He then toasted us with his usual scotch and water on ice.

The last couple of days have indeed been great days here at Stollen central. First, issue #10 of Battlegames arrived with the mail on Christmas Eve. Early perusals reveal that it’s another triumph filled with all kinds of interesting stuff. I look forward to examining the magazine more closely in bed this evening.

Even better, guess what was waiting under the Christmas tree yesterday morning? Not only did the Grand Duchess Sonja have 80 RSM95 Prussian fusiliers (men, officers, NCOs, and a mounted colonel), carefully disguised in a Famous Barr shirt box, but her parents Nan and Dave sent more than 30 RSM French musketeers in the firing pose along with officers, NCO’s, and a mounted colonel! I was so overcome with surprise and joy that I was simply without words for quite some time.

To say that the RSM figures are lovely is an understatement. The Prussian fusiliers resemble the grenadiers in pose, stature, and equipment. I’m already planning ahead to paint them in white coats with some kind of colorful facings and smallclothes plus the beautiful fusilier caps. The French musketeers are in the firing pose and resemble the red-coated “Willie” Irish troops shown on the front and rear covers of Charge! So much so, that they will be painted in the same or similar uniforms, depending on how well I can discern uniform details. Sigh. It looks like I’ve got my work cut out for the next several months. Life is just so unfair sometimes! ;-)

Best of all, the Grand Duchess Sonja and I had a lovely day together that included many nice gifts, telephone conversations with family members across the country and internationally, a brisk walk in the late afternoon past a house on which we might make an offer, and too much delicious Christmas dinner. We followed with starting a puzzle together on the coffee table. It was a very special time. As I told Sonja over dinner yesterday evening, one of the many reasons I like December so much is that this was the time of year, seven years ago, when I first realized that my feelings for Sonja were turning into something more than simple friendship. So, this time of year is always special when it comes around.

Ok, now it’s back to those Spencer Smith cavalry over on the painting table, ‘cause we’ve got a small battle coming up tomorrow. See you then!

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

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...

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 Grand Duchy of Stollen

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