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.

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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