The fog begins to lift from over the Grand Duchy of Stollen. . .

The light, the light! I can see the light!

Ah. . . the summer vacation approaches, and there is a little bit of light at the end of the metaphoric tunnel! My daily teaching commitments and May Term are finished as of Thursday the 24th! And just in time for the next 60-day painting challenge, which starts that day and was proposed recently by a loose association of wargaming friends and acquaintances around the globe. So, besides finally having some time to renew the stalled Neu Sittangbad game with General de Latte, I have pledged to complete (yes, FINISH, darn it!) the painting of two RSM95 cannon -- for an RSM crew painted as mid-18th century Saxons (more or less) and a group of Minden figures painted in rather more somber Palatinate uniforms -- and that 32-strong unit of RSM/Minden Croats, which have been gathering dust over on the painting table since late winter.

As soon as the battery has recharged for my camera, I'll post a couple of photos of the RSM and Minden crews, which were completed in early March when painting ground to a halt and gaming began to slow down due to the pressures of teaching recalcitrant undergraduates. But, almost three months of summer vacation beckon. Time to slow down, open the windows, recharge, get back on the bicycle, spend time with the Grand Duchess and Young Master Paul, paint a little, game a little, resume my night owl habits for a while, read for pleasure, and make a few batches of my maternal grandfather's North Carolina Piedmont-style pork barbecue and red slaw with hush puppies. I'll make the inaugural batch for 2012 in two weeks, during the Memorial Day holiday weekend here in the U.S. Mmmm. . . I'm getting very hungry just thinking about it.

Even more exciting, we are finally coming to serious grips with our backyard after four years in the current Stollen Central, so with any luck by mid-July, our front- and backyards will be leafy and rather more groomed in appearance than has been the case so far. After three years of reseeding and other difficult yardwork, the grass in both places already looks highly promising. Funny, the silly, inconsequential things one becomes focused on as a homeowner!

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!

And It's the End of September!!!

Saxony's Ploetz Cuirassiers, an illustration lifted from the Kronoskaf website, which has thus far guided my spectacularly glacial painting of 30 28mm Eureka Saxon cuirassiers purchased all the way back in October 2016. A gray, cool Saturday here in Mid-Michigan with rain in the forecast. The Grand Duchess is away at a conference, so it's just "The Boys" here at home. The Young Master (almost 15) has retreated to his room for something or other following breakfast while I have stolen back down here to Zum Stollenkeller (masquerading as my office) with a second mug of coffee and both cats comfortably ensconced nearby. Enjoying the late morning and still in my pajamas! Not much planned for today beyond designing a couple of promotional flyers for workshops my department is presenting (small parties we will throw?) in October and November. With maybe a bit of on the next podcast script. More important, I am toying with the idea of returning for an hour or...

Happy September 2nd!!!

T his weekend, the question of what, precisely, constitutes an "imagination" came up in an online forum of which I am a part. To be fair, the issue originates from further afield in a Facebook group that I am not a member of, but I weighed in with my own view. The following was in response to the question posed yesterday (Sunday) morning by an exasperated member of my own rather more gentlemanly town square, who had been met with a strident response to information he shared about his (admirable) hobby activities on said FB group. Here is, more or less, what I wrote: To my mind, the concept of imagi-nation(s) is a broad one. It can range from historical refights or what-if scenarios/battles/campaigns between armies of a particular era, to completely made up combatants operating in a quasi-historical setting, to the rather generic red and blue forces of the Prussian Kriegspiel that examine a particular tactical problem, task, or exercise. ...

The Grand Duchy of Stollen

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