It's December 23rd. . . Happy Festivus!

Frank Costanza says, "I got a lot of problems with you people. And now you're gonna hear about it!" Happy Festivus everyone!

It's amazing what a day of rest and a meal will do. I feel as close to normal today as I ever expect to come, so let's get back to the pre-Christmas preparations.

Here's a more traditional seasonal image now, another old Christmas card, featuring Father Christmas wearing a wreath of holly around his head. I keep meaning to plant a holly bush in our back yard somewhere. A neighbor has one, and it looks beautiful right now.

First off, December 23rd is, as some of you might recall, Festivus. I was surprsied to learn recently that this was not just something dreamed up by the writers of Seinfeld as I had thought for many years. Festivus is indeed real, at least for some. Click on Happy Festivus to learn more about this enigmatic holiday.

And here is another vintage image of Father Christmas, once more in green robes with brown fur.

On other fronts, the four wooden trucks for the Young Master are just about finished. I've got wheels on three of them and expect to finish up everything this evening. They aren't quite as detailed as I might otherwise like, but he'll recognize then for what they are. I'll post a photograph this evening.

And here is a more recent rendering an old-fashioned Father Christmas that I found on some corner of the internet some while ago. He fits well into the spirit of this here on the GD of S blog at the moment.

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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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