Betcha thought I'd forget!

This Santa Claus wears the red robes and white beard we've come to expect, but the small jewel box with shiny things inside is an unusual touch.

Oh, no, no, no! I've not forgotten the seasonal images for today. But I did return to bed for about three hours since Young Master Paul's 4am feeding made me unable to fall back to sleep for a few hours. But anyhow, here are a couple of bright, cheerful Victorian-era images of Ol' Saint Nick. And now it's time to head out and purchase my last few gifts for the Grand Duchess and Paul. No time to waste!

I think this old Christmas card must be my favorite from this year's pre-Christmas season since it features, to my eyes, just the right blend of simplicity and opulence. . . if such a things were possible. And I'm a huge fan of holly, which my family used to have a lot of when I was a boy. But in the U.S., you don't seem to see it used in homes for a seasonal decoration as much as once was the case. Of course, that might have to do with the fact that dry holly is like razor wire, so it requires extrememly careful handling once the Christmas and New Year's season is over!

Comments

Bluebear Jeff said…

The house where I grew up had a big holly tree in the back yard . . . and if I had a nickle for every skin puncture I got from its leaves, I could buy a wonderful lot of little metal men.

Holly is great to look at, but nasty to handle.

-- Jeff

2:35 PM

Prince Lupus said…

Merry Christmas to the Archduke, Grand Duchess and Master Paul.

Many thanks for the Stollen advent calendar.

3:38 AM

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

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 Eventual Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment. . .

The Anhalt-Zerbst regiment musters in the drill square to sort themselves into platoons and companies during the coming weeks Fall maneuvers if you will. A large dose of real life the last few days with the start of classes next Monday, various preparatory meetings, and finishing up a few other things this week. But, I managed to sort out 60 or so Minden Austrian infantry from the pile and get 'em stuck to temporary painting bases. Must carefully drill out the hands of several NCOs for flagpoles and pole arms this weekend before the usual basecoat. I'm thinking of mixing the usual white gesso with the usual light gray to kill two birds with one stone so to speak. Applying both base- and undercoat in one fell swoop as my grandmother used to say. In the meantime, the recently finished squadron of Saxon cuirassiers has been placed carefully in one of the clear acrylic boxes on my shelves until I have the suitable flag to affix. -- Sto...

The Grand Duchy of Stollen

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