A Few More Doctored Photographs for Your Perusal. . .

A general view of the 2013 refight of Elbow River from early in the game.

Arguing Austrian/Zichenauer engineers during the same tabletop encounter. I painted a few different version of the uniform worn by Austrian engineers here -- there was, apparently, a change in uniform regulations between the War of Austrian Succession and the Seven Years War according to my Osprey volume on the subject -- to add some visual interest.

Gawking local gentry along the edge of the battlefield. The figures come from various manufactures here, including Eureka, Blue Moon, and Minden plus those oblivious frolicking Jacdaw aristocrats in the background.

Minden Austrians painted as Saxon staff. These would be really nice, but I loaded too much Woodland Scenics fine grass scatter material onto the bases, darn it. The trick, as I once read in a book I've got on model railway and diorama scenery, is to let some of the ground material below (in this case stained fine sand) show through. The suggestion of turf is preferable to coating your bases in a veritable golf course-like carpet of the stuff as is the case here. Sadly, it's easy to get carried away when terraining your vignette bases. Less is more as they say.

A Minden Austrian Hussar officer and an RSM95 Croat. This particular vignette is one of my favorites. Small bases of just two or three figures often suggest some kind of story or other and add a great deal of character to the tabletop even if they don't play a direct part in the miniature battles. Unlike the photograph above, the more restrained groundwork on this vignette base seems much more convincing I think.

Some of General de Latte's Zichenauers about to wade into the Elbow River to engage the Stollenians on the far side.

Enjoy!

-- Stokes

Presenting the Anspach-Bayreuth Kuirassiere!!!

Here they are, with the rearmost nine figures still drying, three squadrons of the Anspach-Bayreuth Kuirassiere, now in the service of the Grand Duchy of Stollen. And now, it's onto that artillery!

And It's the End of September!!!

Saxony's Ploetz Cuirassiers, an illustration lifted from the Kronoskaf website, which has thus far guided my spectacularly glacial painting of 30 28mm Eureka Saxon cuirassiers purchased all the way back in October 2016. A gray, cool Saturday here in Mid-Michigan with rain in the forecast. The Grand Duchess is away at a conference, so it's just "The Boys" here at home. The Young Master (almost 15) has retreated to his room for something or other following breakfast while I have stolen back down here to Zum Stollenkeller (masquerading as my office) with a second mug of coffee and both cats comfortably ensconced nearby. Enjoying the late morning and still in my pajamas! Not much planned for today beyond designing a couple of promotional flyers for workshops my department is presenting (small parties we will throw?) in October and November. With maybe a bit of on the next podcast script. More important, I am toying with the idea of returning for an hour or...

Happy September 2nd!!!

T his weekend, the question of what, precisely, constitutes an "imagination" came up in an online forum of which I am a part. To be fair, the issue originates from further afield in a Facebook group that I am not a member of, but I weighed in with my own view. The following was in response to the question posed yesterday (Sunday) morning by an exasperated member of my own rather more gentlemanly town square, who had been met with a strident response to information he shared about his (admirable) hobby activities on said FB group. Here is, more or less, what I wrote: To my mind, the concept of imagi-nation(s) is a broad one. It can range from historical refights or what-if scenarios/battles/campaigns between armies of a particular era, to completely made up combatants operating in a quasi-historical setting, to the rather generic red and blue forces of the Prussian Kriegspiel that examine a particular tactical problem, task, or exercise. ...

The Grand Duchy of Stollen

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