Merry Christmas from the Grand Duchy of Stollen!!!

Today's first seasonal illustration is of Queen Victoria, Prince Albert, and their family at Christmas time. A suitably cheery image for Christmas Eve, I think. The second picture, at the bottom of this entry, is also from the Victorian era, but a little later in the period from the look of it. Very different from that above, but I like it too, and I hope you enjoy it.

Things have been very busy the last few days here at Stollen Central. Very little of it has to do with wargaming and painting toy soldiers I'm afraid. Still, we have had time for some walks, coffee at a nearby cafe, and late-night glasses of eggnog with nutmeg sprinkled on it, or a couple of Clementines. It's been a wonderful way to slow down a bit and usher in the long Christmas weekend.

The pre-Christmas festivities notwithstanding, however, I did manage to get in a couple of hours at the painting desk very late last night. I'm almost finished with the white coats, breeches, vests, and gaiters on the remaining dozen figures of the first comapnay of Flickenhoffer's Fusiliers, the final regiment (80 figures strong) in the Electorate of Zichenau's army. Drop by in a couple of days for a photo update or two.

In closing, I'd just like to thank those of you who have already sent your Christmas greetings either to the blog, or via e-mail. It's lovely to hear from friends and acquaintances like you around the world. Tomorrow, I'll take a break from the blog and spend the day with the Grand Duchess. We are planning on visiting a local Lutheran church this evening, which features a candle light service and singing late this evening at 11pm. We are also, I believe, asking a friend, who has no family in this country, to Christmas dinner tomorrow evening, so that she won't be all alone tomorrow. So, it's a full schedule for the next 36 hours or so. But rest assured, I'll be back come Friday.

In the meantime, let me wish the compliments of the season to one and all from the Grand Duke Irwin-Amadeus II and the love of his life, the Grand Duchess Sonja. Wherever in the world you might find yourself, may your Christmas Day be filled with friends, family, good cheer, and perhaps also a few minutes to reflect on your good fortune and the more pleasant moments of life. Merry Christmas!

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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