The Pontoniers are FINISHED!!!

Freshly glossed with two coats of Future/Klear acrylic floor finish. . . Ladies and gentlemen? The Corps of Pontoniers! They'll erect bridges and similar structures as and when needed for either the Grand Duchy of Stollen or the Electorate of Zichenau, as the wind blows here east of the sun and west of the moon. At some point, I'll add a company of six large river barges manned by another dozen figures in similar uniforms.

Well, despite colds -- the Young Master and I are just about 100%, the Grand Duchess about 75% -- and all of the usual kinds of last minute Christmas tasks to address, I nevertheless managed to apply the second coat of shiny acrylic varnish to the pontoniers this morning after waking far too early and finally giving up the ghost at about 7:15am. Anyway, it's back to von Bauchschmerzen, the coach, and Uhlans de Saxe escorts when the next painting session rolls around.

Realistically, I will probably not get in any more time at the painting table now until Boxing Day, but I am looking forward to wrapping up the gift-wrapping and listening to the annual A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols live tomorrow morning, December 24th, via BBC Radio 4 at 15:00 GMT. This is something I do every year, made even easier the last decade or so by listening online although I miss tuning in the BBC World Service on shortwave, but they hardly do any broadcasting beamed toward the Americas anymore, and it is nicer to hear music with high quality sound.

So, even here, I have been dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century although I still switch on my trusty old Sony ICF-7600A portable receiver once in a while to see what I can hear from around the world via the shortwaves. Time and technology march on without relent.

Last of all, thank you to those of you who have sent Christmas and holiday greetings already. Stay tuned right here for a special Christmas message from the Grand Duchy of Stollen. . .

-- Stokes

Another delightful old Father Christmas card from long ago. His blue robes and brown fur are especially nice and a welcome change of pace from the more familiar red and white Coca-Cola Santa Claus that we see almost everywhere in 2014.

Comments

tradgardmastare said…

Great figures ,well done sir!

12:21 PM

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

And We're Off!!!

Arrrgh! Gotta go back into camera settings on my iPhone to bring all of the frame into focus. Blast! Painting is underway on the 60 or so Minden Austrians, which are slated to become my version of the Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment of AWI renown. More or less indistinguishable from Austrians of the era really, right down to the red facings and turnbacks, but the eventual flags (already in my files) will set them apart. I went ahead and based-coated all of them over a couple of days lthe last week of August, using a mix of light gray and white acrylic gesso, before next applying my usual basic alkyd oil flesh tone to the faces and hands. In a day or two, I'll hit that with Army Painter Flesh Wash to tone things down a bit and bring some definition to the faces and hands. As usual, the plan is to focus on about 20 figures at a time, splitting the regiment roughly into thirds along with the color party and regimental staff. Depending on ...

The Eventual Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment. . .

The Anhalt-Zerbst regiment musters in the drill square to sort themselves into platoons and companies during the coming weeks Fall maneuvers if you will. A large dose of real life the last few days with the start of classes next Monday, various preparatory meetings, and finishing up a few other things this week. But, I managed to sort out 60 or so Minden Austrian infantry from the pile and get 'em stuck to temporary painting bases. Must carefully drill out the hands of several NCOs for flagpoles and pole arms this weekend before the usual basecoat. I'm thinking of mixing the usual white gesso with the usual light gray to kill two birds with one stone so to speak. Applying both base- and undercoat in one fell swoop as my grandmother used to say. In the meantime, the recently finished squadron of Saxon cuirassiers has been placed carefully in one of the clear acrylic boxes on my shelves until I have the suitable flag to affix. -- Sto...

The Grand Duchy of Stollen

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