Snow Comes to the Grand Duchy of Stollen!!!

"A quarter past seven, and all is well!" comes the cry from a city watchman, making his rounds and passing beneath the palace windows. It has been snowing outside for about 90 minutes in capital city of Krankenstadt! The street and sidewalks outside the palace are covered with about 1"+, making it a quietly beautiful evening, and the Greater Zwischen River, which flows through the center of town, is almost frozen over. Winter has arrived in the Grand Duchy of Stollen.

In honor of the first appreciable snowfall of the season, the Grand Duke Irwin-Amadeus II has decided at the last minute to accept an invitation from to his Aunt Agatha for a lengthy pre-Christmas weekend in the country, a day's journey north of the city. What brand of madness, confusion, or case of mistaken connubial intentions might ensue during the weekend? Watch this space in coming days to find out! In the meantime, the Grand Duke has asked his man-servant Hives to pack a case and order a carriage and team to prepare for an early departure tomorrow, after breakfast.

Comments

Bluebear Jeff said…

The big question is whether or not Hives will pack the lobster costume.

-- Jeff

8:15 PM

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...

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 ...

Presenting the Anspach-Bayreuth Kuirassiere!!!

Here they are, with the rearmost nine figures still drying, three squadrons of the Anspach-Bayreuth Kuirassiere, now in the service of the Grand Duchy of Stollen. And now, it's onto that artillery!

The Grand Duchy of Stollen

Search This Blog