New Year's Eve in The Grand Duchy. . .

One of just a few more seasonal illustrations his morning. Nothing quite so striking as Cardinals against a snowy backdrop.

Still quite cold. Snowy. Swimming lessons for the Young Master and a family ski tour later this afternoon before the Grand Duchess whips up a New Year's Eve dinner of pork tenderloin with fennel and onion relish, roasted vegetables, roasted brussel sprouts, and a few other items including the last of a cranberry and orange relish that I make us each year.

Which reminds me. I need to put together a cherry pie for dessert. Otherwise a lazy day ahead nibbling on the remaining Christmas treats and listening to some Christmas jazz one last time before we put things away for another year on Tuesday and settle into that post-holiday quiet, which is just as intoxicating in its own way as is Advent and the eventual celebration of Christmas itself.

Sadly, the start of school again on January 8th looms for all three of us, but we have one more week of relatively idle time.

And yes. It looks like my planned Christmas Week game is slated to become a New Year's game. Ah, well. The journey is always at least half the fun.

-- Stokes

Comments

Peter Douglas said…

Dinner sounds excellent! Best of the New Year to you and the family Stokes!
Peter

11:25 AM

Rob Young said…

Sadly, I start back on the 3rd, my wife on the 2nd... short holiday this year. Happy New Year in a bit over 6 hours.

11:46 AM

Fitz-Badger said…

Happy New Year!

Sounds like you have a pleasant New Year's Eve going!

1:54 PM

Martin said…

Savor every second before you have to go back to the grind! Happy New Year to you and yours!

Martin

4:04 PM

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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