Artists' Renderings of the Troops and Battlefield. . .

Here's a sketch, looking from east to west, of the Teodorstal Valley where it seems very likely a preliminary action will occur. In the foreground, you'll notice the Stollenian advance guard moving past Crampas Farm. In the middle distance is the village of Effibriest, while at the western end of the valley is the small village of Instetten. The eagle-eyed among you will also notice an alien ship, looking very Wellsian (Yep, we're really old school around here!), which has just landed on the southern edge of the valley, presumably to observe how gentlemen wage tabletop warfare in the latter third of the 18th Century.

Another artist's sketch, this time of the Stollenian advance guard, commanded by one Major Aegidius von Topfsange (in the yellow coat), consisting of a squadron of cuirassiers, a single gun and crew, and two companies of green-coated jaeger. Figures are RSM95, Revell plastics, and a cannon by MiniFigs.

Finally, here is a view of the Zichenauer advance guard, led by a Colonel Berend von Adalnowski (in white) just outside the village of Instetten. Remarkably, this force is very similar in composition to the Stollenians, however, the order of march is slightly different, The miniatures pictured here are by RSM95, Spencer Smith, Garrison, Holger Eriksson, and MiniFigs.

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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