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

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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