Happy Thanksgiving from the Grand Duchy of Stollen!

The noble turkey, which Benjamin Franklin wanted to see made the national bird, sadly gets the short end of the stick on the fourth Thursday in November each year in the United States. Gobble, gobble!

A quiet, relaxed day here at Stollen Central for the Grand Duchess, Young Master Paul, and yours truly. The turkey goes into the oven in a little while, and most everything else is ready to be warmed/cooked later this afternoon. The table is ready for setting, and we all have fancy clothes laid out to dress for a 5:30pm supper here at home. Today, all is right with our little world.

Meanwhile, down here in Zum Stollenkeller, I am snatching a few minutes to myself to continue work on cutting and sanding the edges of various 3/32" thick bass bass wood bases in irregular shapes for those command vignettes I've been dabbling with the last week or so. A not unpleasant task given that each base will be chock-a-block with various Minden, RSM, and Fife & Drum mounted officers, staff figures, and personalities. With any luck at all, I'll get them tacked down to their bases and slap a couple of base coats of white acrylic gesso on them tomorrow. And then the fun part can begin.

This weekend, will also see me move the wargaming table into the recently redesignated "cat-safe" room just behind me, where the figures and scenery can be laid out once again and left safely without fear of curious and playful paws wreaking havoc. Keep a look-out here for a few new photos in the next several days. And to all United States citizens who visit the Grand Duchy of Stollen blog from time to time, have a safe and Happy Thanksgiving wherever in the world you might find yourselves.

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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