Princess Antonia's Personal Reply to de Latte. . .

30 July 1768

My Dear de Latté,

Thank you for your communication of the 30^th instant. I am pleased to know that your plans do include actually advancing on Krankenstadt sometime before the current campaigning season ends. It is imperative that you do so as soon as possible! Irwin-Amadeus must be brought to justice! The Duchy of Schleiz must be returned to its rightful monarch. . . namely me. And it must happen before the winter snows drift across the frozen River Zwischen. Our territorial integrity depends entirely on you, de Latté. Do not let Us down!

As for your other news, yes, by all means “groom” the young von Meckern. I am quite certain we can find some way to employ him beyond the fields of Mars. Summer is warm and tiresome here at my summer residence, Liebhaberinske, and I grow weary of the affairs of state. My ministers and staff all patronize me, and I have no real person to entertain me. It is a peculiar kind of ennui from which I suffer always at this time of year. Perhaps the young von Meckern is just the antidote? He is a handsome specimen I trust? At the very least, von Meckern might be useful in the acquisition of certain information about Stollen. We can discuss the particulars when next you visit me here in three weeks’ time.

Fondly,

“Toni”

Comments

Bluebear Jeff said…

I suspect that soon the new game table in Zum Stollenkeller will be "Christened" with it's first battle.

May the Lobster Claws arise in defense of the homeland!

-- Jeff of Saxe-Bearstein

3:25 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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