Another Quiet Pre-Christmas Greeting. . .

Squirrels are not everbody's cup of tea, especially when they find their way into the attic, but I find them fascinating to watch outdoors. Especially in the snow. A bold and very large red squirrel once stole a cookie from my brown bag lunch as I picnicked on Bascom Hill at the University of Wisconsin-Madison about 18 years ago! I wisely chose not to pursue the culprit. The family story goes that my maternal Great Grandmother "Myrtle" had a pet squirrel as a girl.

Another quiet, dark, foggy morning with a bit of rain here in Lower Michigan today. Snow would be nice, but I'm not complaining. The delivery of our new Sears Craftsman snowblower is scheduled for later this afternoon, and I finally found our Nordic/cross-country skiing boots two evenings ago, so we are probably now jinxed and destined to have a snowless winter this (El Nino) year.

In any case, I am enjoying another mug of coffee with the cats nearby following the Young Master's breakfast before I dress, order a Christmas centerpiece for my sister, and wrap a few gifts before the Grand Duchess returns home. This sticky f-key on my keyboard is driving me to distraction!

I've also recently sent my Move 2 orders to Greg Horne in Australia, who is umpiring the 'Raid On Fickmuhlen' Christmas play-by-email game between Ross MacFarlane in Nova Scotia and myself. I would, of course, share my plans for the battle here, but there may be spies everywhere, in the form of a washer woman, or a serving wench at The Elector's Arms tavern -- where the good General von Tschatschke is enjoying a second tankard of ale at the moment -- who will transmit my intentions to the other side. The walls have ears you know.

-- 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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