That Sinking Feeling. . .

Alone at the large desk in his private study, the love-struck Irwin-Amadeus II daydreams about a possible future with the Lady Leonora Christina von Grandin, his head filled with visions of Christmases yet to come. Outside, the snow flies and arctic cold descends over the city of Krankenstadt.

When the Grand Duke manages to rein in his imagination and come back to earth for a moment, he makes copious notes on the "ideal" cavalry regiment. Swedish. Dragoons. Old school figures. Various Humbrol browns as undercoats. Thin oil glazes applied over top. Dark green coats, breeches, and saddlecloths. Humbrol again. British Rifle Green this time. Red facings and turnbacks. Gold lace for officers and yellow for the troopers. "This is terrific fun," Irwin-Amadeus II thinks to himself, "I should have been a military milliner!"

But his martial thoughts are interrupted once again by visions of the Lady Leonora Christina. Her blue eyes. Her pale, clear countenance. Her flaxen hair. Her pleasing figure and decolletage. And her laugh. . . Her laugh? That laugh. That great. . . loud. . . hyuk-hyuk-hyuking laugh. . . not unlike the call of a bull seal. "Oh. . . blast!" thinks the deflated Grand Duke, "I wonder if there is a way to retrieve the letter that went out in yesterday's post?"

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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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