Happy Thanksgiving Day 2018!

An 18th century table laid out for the evening meal.

Very quiet here at The Grand Duchy of Stollen in recent weeks what with the onslaught of daily life, but hopefully some time in the hobby chair during the long weekend. In the meantime, allow me to wish any U.S. visitors who drop by, wherever you might find yourselves in the world, a Happy Thanksgiving.

The Grand Duchess and Young Master are busily preparing the final dishes upstairs in the kitchen. The Young Master and I whipped up the pumpkin pie and one of our planned side dishes yesterday afternoon. In fact, my small, freckled partner in crime did just about everything with only minimal assistance from yours truly and did it very well. The pie and casserole ought to be extra good this year as a result.

I am now off to shower and shave before dressing for dinner and placing a couple of calls to family elsewhere. Enjoy the day everyone, and don't overdo it too much. Remember, we've got to leave some room for pie and coffee later. The BEST part of any holiday meal in my humble view.

-- Stokes

P.S.

Is anyone else having trouble with Blogger refusing to allow you to comment on others' blogs? I've been having the problem for about two weeks now, and it simply refreshes the page without posting the comment I have typed into the little window. The comment itself seems to disappear into thin air. Grrrrr. . . Any suggestions?

P.P.S. (Friday)
As predicted, the pumpkin pie and greenbean casserole (loaded with french cut greenbeans and artichoke hearts) were spectacular this year. And all thanks to the culinary efforts of the nine-year old Young Master. As probably all parents are prone to feel, it seems we have discovered yet another talent. Or at least an activity that seems to give Paul pleasure. Maybe another celebrity chef in the making?

I complimented him again on the dishes he helped with as we cleared the table yesterday evening, and he answered,

"Hey, Dad! I'm a special kid." To which The Grand Duchess and I replied almost simultaneously,

"You are a wonderful kid!" He is reading or coloring in his room at the moment until we manage to pull our clothes on (it's 8:50am here at the moment) to visit our favorite local quick and greasy for a post-Thanksgiving family breakfast.

The Young Master just after we put his pumpkin pie into the oven on Wednesday afternoon. He is a whiz in the kitchen.

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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