A Small Celebration. . .

You and a guest are cordially invited to attend a formal ball, hosted by the Grand Duke Irwin-Amadeus II, to be held this evening at Krankenstadt Palace. Festivities are to commence precisely at the hour of nine o'clock.

It seems, The Grand Duchy of Stollen blog has picked up another couple of followers during the last few days, raising the number to 201 souls who, apparently, are interested in my various and sundry occasional meanderings here. In any case, a hearty welcome to you, thank you for your interest (it's nice to share one's hobby with like-minded people around the globe), and please continue to check in during the coming weeks when things will, hopefully, become a bit more interesting than has been the case in recent months.

-- Stokes

P. S.
The Grand Duchess is wending her way home circuitously from Berlin at the moment, via either Copenhagen or Amsterdam (maybe both), through New York's JFK and finally to Chicago O'Hare, followed by a four-hour wait before she can catch the shuttle bus down to the wilds that are Central Illinois. Barring any unforeseen delays, she'll arrive here sometime after Midnight on Thursday morning. . . exhausted I'm sure. Naturally, I've decided to wait until much later Thursday, or even Friday, to bug her about the various toy soldier goodies she has in her suitcase.

Later. . .
A small package arrived with the mail earlier this afternoon from Fife & Drum/Minden Miniatures. I took advantage of a Memorial Day Weekend sale to order five additional pairs of limber horses, another pontoon wagon, and the recently released French marshal on horseback. The photograph below illustrates just how beautifully done this figure is, and I am looking very forward to painting him. Perhaps just the way to get the painting mojo started again? In any case, my figure is destined to become the "new" General Phillipe de Latte. Of course, that means his aide de camp Major Paulo di Biscotti will also require an upgrade. Jim "Der Alte Fritz" Purky, proprietor of Fife & Drum, advises that the French dragoon officer touching his hat in an almost salute would be ideal.

This photograph, swiped from the Fife & Drum Facebook page, shows two versions of the recently released Fife & Drum mounted French marshal. Both were painted by Leuthen Studios.

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

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