Cold weather arrives in the GD of S.

A lovely, understated pre-Christmas image today. Father Christmas trudging through the snow, apparently through a thicket of over-sized holly berries.

Much colder today and downright blustery here at Stollen Central this afternoon with high winds as the current winter weather system blows in from the North and West. There may even be an inch or two of snow on the way tonight. Cross your fingers! Or as the Norwegians say "Kryss fingrane!"

We just took the Young Master to visit with Santa Claus/Father Christmas, and the two had a brief, pleasant conversation filled with smiles on both sides, so I suspect both parties fellt good about the experience. Then, we followed with several last minute errands, including a quick trip to the hardware store for tiny washers and screws to attach the wheels to those four wooden trucks I've been making here in the elves' workshop. Then it was onto our local arts and crafts store for a small bottle of glossy Liquitex acrylic varnish to finish the vehicles off once they are all done, a trip to the bank, and one or two other small errands.

Once we were well and truly on our way home in the car, I remarked to the Grand Duchess, "Well, I truly hope to avoid anymore visits to stores until well after January 1st. . . unless we need more eggnog!

Anyway, the four wooden trucks are coming along well. I painted the blue windows and headlights onto them last night. This evening will see me painting the small wooden wheels with two coats of black acrylic hobby paint and taking care of any necessary touch-ups. I'll also provide some small details with some light gray paint, Tomorrow, if all goes according to plan, I'll finish up with two coats of glossy varnish on each truck and then drill holes and add washers and the wheels on Saturday. Watch for photographs of the finished trucks then. And then, who knows? Maybe, I can snatch some soldier painting time here and there before Christmas Eve.

Later. . .

Oooo, the snow and blowing has begun! We are currently under a blizzard warning here at Stollen Central. Bring it on!

And here is a second image that I found trawling the 'net just a little while ago. Kind of unusual in its relative plain-ness, but I like it. It reminds me of the fires we always had at this time of year in the huge walk-in fireplace that was in the dining room of my maternal grandparents' colonial-era fieldstone farmhouse in Berks Country, Pennsylvania.

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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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