Christmas Coffee Blend. . .

Not one of ours, but we observed both cats lounging for quite some time yesterday evening beneath the larger of our two Christmas trees. They seem to be very interested in the the aroma of the tree and in the spectacle of the white lights and glass ornaments. Thus far, no attempts to make off with anything or climb up the tree.

Enjoying an early morning mug of Starbuck's (I know, I know) dark Christmas blend at the moment. following a haircut for the Young Master and myself later this morning, I've got final grades to tally and enter for the semester just ended. With any luck, that will be finished by supper, and then there are some gifts to wrap this evening.

The situation at the close of Move One. That's General von Tschatschke heading to the local tavern for a refresher.

In the meantime, you can observe the situation after Move One in the Raid on Fickmuhlen currently being fought between Greg Horne and yours truly. We are using Greg's collection of vintage Spencer Smiths and playing via email although Greg is sending me short digital video updates as well. The game is a variation of Sawmill Village with both forces attempting to take and hold the village. My troops are in the foreground with General von Tschatschke himself attempting to get a table at the local tavern The Elector's Arms from where he can direct the battle while imbibing some of the local ale. Shades of Inspector Morse you know.

-- Stokes

Comments

Conrad Kinch said…

Watch that Horne. He's a wily opponent.

10:20 AM

WSTKS-FM Worldwide said…

Ross MacFarlane has agreed to take the reins of the Alzheimer force, placing Greg solely in the umpire's seat. Should be an interesting ride. I do hope Mrs. Kinch has recovered from the attack if M-Isis last week.

Best Regards,

Stokes

2:31 PM

Anonymous said…

A the pleasure of the snug. The good General should watch out the ale and food don't get the better of him.

3:10 PM

Unknown said…

I look forward to the story unfolding. Great to see simple unfussy terrain (your Blog Stokes has inspired me to have the same approach)and also the old Airfix pub...haven't seen one of those for years!
Merry Christmas to you and your family.
Best regards,
Simon

2:10 AM

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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