A Case of the Butterflies. . .

Beautiful to look at , but very, very dangerous from a wargaming perspective.

In light of a recent conversation I had with a wargaming friend while in Berlin, I find myself lately pondering how I might use those unused Waterloo-era Napoleonics. These, some of you might recall, have been in careful storage since the early 2000s when I made the radical switch from 15mm to 30mm, and the Grand Duchy of Stollen project with its imaginary mid-18th century focus began.

In theory, it all seems so simple. So plausible. So reasonable. So do-able.

Here's my thinking on all of this. Think more like a general instead of a company officer. Make the game a more abstract exercise. Use the hundreds of figures I have painted already, transfer them to small, square basswood bases, and paint up the few remaining that I might still need. The figures become purely symbolic, a dozen or so (for infantry) representing various divisions and, in a few cases, brigades. Each base can then be modeled as some kind of interesting mini-diorama or vignette rather than trying to represent actual late Napoleonic tactical formations like lines, columns, or squares. Easy, right?

And yet, I know from experience that the Napoleonic road leads to an inescapable mire. Figurative Belgian mud. Hobby quicksand. Or, to put it another way, trying to reduce the entire Waterloo campaign to an attainable corps-level collection and playable game seems like a temporal sinkhole that leads nowhere. Except to madness. And still these thrilling, Peter Gilder-inspired thoughts plague me during the hours of consciousness. The Waterloo campaign was my first wargaming love after all.

Perhaps, it is a very good thing that all of my stuff remains in storage, and current living space very limited, given our temporary housing situation. Sigh. Far better to steer the course and continue with my tri-cornered hats and mitre caps in their semi-fictitious context once we are again in a house equipped with a Zum Stollenkeller Mk II.

-- Stokes

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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