A Reply to Von Meckern. . .

30 July 1768

My Dear von Meckern,

Thank you for your dispatch of the 29^th. I am pleased to tell you that my army awaits the arrival of your troops. We will place your company on the left flank in the second line of infantry in the order of battle.

In a week’s time, I will begin moving the army northward, further into the Stollenian interior. Various reports have reached me, indicating that the Army of Stollen, under General von Drosselmaier, occupies a dispersed position around the small town of Pelznikkel.

It is my intention to surprise von Drosselmaier and destroy his force before it can organize and offer genuine resistance. I have long known von Drosselmaier, and his capabilities on the field of battle do not worry me.

Once we have defeated the Stollenians, the postal road into Krankenstadt will be open, and we can force Irwin-Amadeus II to sue for peace. Our Princess Antonia III will then reign over the Duchy of Schleiz again.

Please inform me of your arrival immediately upon reaching Zollamtstadt where I will remain for the next week, so that I may present you to the other officers.

Regards,

General Phillpe de Latté

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

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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