The Grand Duchy of Stollen

O ne of the most enjoyable facets of the wargaming hobby is periodically taking stock of where you've been and daydreaming about where you want to go.  Our weather here in the Grand Duchy is delightful.  Blue skies, puffy white clouds, and very comfortable temperatures in the mid-70s Fahrenheit.  A harbinger of cooler autumn weather and the start of the new schoolyear next week.  Following a delightful walk around the neighborhood this morning with my son Young Master Paul, then a visit to the park for time in the swing, and finally lunch for the pair of us whipped up by yours truly once we returned home, I've retreated down to the confines of Zum Stollenkeller to ruminate a bit about the ongoing Grand Duchy of Stollen project.  So, here are a few of the things currently bouncing around the ol' noggin. . . 1)  Sit down this evening for an hour or so, maybe a bit longer, and do some painting on the next two mounted staff figures for my next command vignette -- two En

Yours truly, doing the all but forgotten 'First Day of Spring Dance' on our patio, March 2012. M y wife, the Grand Duchess, and I often have heated discussions about my personality, habits, interests, and world view.  Most recently, she implored me to attend a non-mandatory reception for faculty and staff at our university early next week to show that I am capable of being a "normal person."  Her exact words.  She has also, at different times in the past, used the term 'eccentric' to describe your truly.  Imagine my pleasure and surprise, then, when I unearthed the online presence of The Eccentric Club , which indeed confirms my wife's accusations, specifically the following language from their "Are you an eccentric?" page.  To wit, an eccentric is described as: nonconforming; creative; strongly motivated by curiosity; idealistic; he wants to make the world a better place and the people in it happier; happily obsessed with one or

Here are the boys, fresh from the painting desk, as they dither about the Croats, who have emerged from a copse just behind them.  Note the tree stump and discarded sword.  Fresh from the painting desk, submitted for your viewing pleasure, Friedrich II and Friedrich Wilhelm von Seydlitz.  The figures are by Minden Miniatures and were painted using a mix of Winsor-Newton alkyd oils and Citadel acrylics, mostly thin washes of each, but der Alte Fritz's horse was done with some pretty heavy drybrushing too.  The groundwork was done with fine sand (given a dark brown wash when dry) and Woodland Scenics materials tacked down with two successive applications of acrylic matt medium.  The tree stump began life as a twig from the front yard.  The discarded sword and broken wagon wheel are spare RSM95 parts, gleaned from the ol' Box of Bits here in Zum Stollenkeller. Here they are again, this time from the side, still deep in prognostication about the situation unfolding ar

This is one of the illustrations I've used a reference for the painting of my Minden Frederick figure. N ot long now before the ol' Frederick and von Seydlitz in 1/56 scale are finished and ready for varnishing.  I broke out the tubes of oil-based silver and gold yesterday afternoon for some careful painting of saddle cloth fringe, sashes, lace, and other assorted metallic trim on both figures.  Armed with a brush with a sharp point, I managed to apply silver to just the raised areas of said items, and the results look amazing. . .  to my  eyes at least.   Touch-ups -- the bain of wargamer-painters -- were minimal at the time thanks to a steady hand, something that is unusual here at Stollen Central given my love for cups of fresh Java.   Still horse furniture, sword hilts/scabbards, and a little bit of the waistbelts to do, and then these two figures will be just about done.  Then, it will be time for the varnishing and terraining stages.  But everything has progresse