Happy Feast of Stephen.. .

A cheery seasonal street scene from somewhere that caught my fancy when I saw it.

A clear, starry, moonlit Christmas night has given way to a frosty Boxing Day here at the new Stollen Central. As I have written here in previous years, the calm of Christmas Week following the big day is always a welcome part of the holiday season, and we will continue enjoying the Christmas Festival today with quiet seasonal jazz, our usual mix of traditional German and English carols on CD (remember those?), and a family stroll in another nearby park or nature preserve this morning before more seasonal goodies and yet another fine meal prepared jointly by yours truly and the Grand Duchess.

There is also the daydreaming about how I might paint the Minden SYW personality figures and Russian artillery given to me by the Grand Duchess for Christmas. It's just the added impetus needed to get my painting gear set up on the new painting table. And I have it on good authority that one of the Grand Duchess' authentic Dresdner stollens is in the cards.

In the meantime, I will enjoy a second mug off coffee this morning with sugar and cream, something I never do anymore, having made the move to black coffee several years ago. However, its these kinds of small indulgences that make the Christmas period so delightful. We are extremely fortunate, and I feel very lucky this morning. "Happy Day After!" as my maternal grandfather used to say all of those years ago in snowy rural southeastern Pennsylvania. . . and Happy Feast of Stephen from the three of us here at Totleigh-in-the-Wold!

-- Stokes

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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...

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!

Continued Regional Map Revisions. . .

F ooled around a bit more with the revised map just before and after dinner this evening, using the Fotor app to reinsert missing text . I also removed a few other things using the 'Magic Eraser' function, which works surprisingly well. Now, we're getting somewhere. I just have to figure out how to ensure that the text is all a uniform font style and maybe figure out a way to add a few bunches of trees to suggest forested areas, Ninja AI is not always entirely cooperative to the tune of "I'm sorry Dave. I can't do that." -- Stokes

The Grand Duchy of Stollen

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