It's that time of year again. . .

A photograph of the pre-Christmas Weihnachtsmarkt in Muenster, Germany where the Grand Duchess spent a year as an undergraduate many moons ago. Difficult to see the actual market and associated festivities, yes, but the shot of all the great old townhouses was awfully difficult to resist.

A windy, cold, and snowy first day of Advent here at Stollen Central, but Young Master Paul and I bundled up anyway and made a trip out to run a few errands. None, sadly, that had anything to do with the Christmas season or preparations for it, but it still felt good to get out in the cold air, and Young Master Paul was as good as gold. Indeed, he seemed to enjoy himself as much as I did. And only two days of the university semester left! Then we are FREE (more or less) until after January 1st. And so, as Tiny Tim rightly observed, "Hurrah for Christmas! The best time of the year!"

Not too much to report on the soldier front other than that I have almost finished applying two coats of Future/Klear acrylic floor finish to those Garrison artillery crew. They look mighty good if I do say so myself, and I'll have a photo posted here in a day or two. The two related MiniFig cannon are all assembled and awaiting a basecoat as are the 30 Holger Eriksson dragoons. I've decided to dig out my Windsor-Newton alkyd paints to use on the latter.

Alkyd paints are similar to standard oil paints, exhibiting the same brilliance and durability, but they dry to the touch in 24 hours or less thanks to the pigment being mixed with an alkyd medium instead of linseed or poppy oil for example. Anyway, I've made the momentous decision to basecoat the HE figures in white, at least for the horses, and then apply thin washes of various browns and greys over the white in a kind of glazing technique. I might even convince myself to add some black lining for added definition as I complete the figures. Peter Gilder would be pleased I think. We'll see how it goes, but it seems only right that these truly old school figures get a different treatment than my usual GW acrylic hobby paints treatment.

Well, that's about all for now. I feel as giddy as a schoolboy this afternoon and could babble on and on about nothing in particular for quite some time before conking out and collapsing onto the bed for a late afternoon nap, so it seems like a good idea to quit while I'm ahead. ;-) Be sure to tune in tomorrow for another seasonal scene along with more related soldier and painting chatter!

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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