Another Seasonal Vintage Illustration. . .

Here is a fun old Christmas card that I stumbled across online somewhere in the last year. Just imagine what this scene might really sound like.

Ahhhh. Nothing like that first mug of coffee for the day. Followed quickly by an eggnog chaser. Fear not however! I am not hitting the sauce this early in the day (9:42am), and the eggnog is not doctored with medicinal substance. Just frothy and cold, straight from the carton and into a large juice glass. One of my December indulgences each year.

Toy Soldiering plans for today include tinkering with that first squadron of red Wurttemburg curassiers from last summer to attached their carbines as I mentioned in my previous post. Then, there is the table to set up for tomorrow's planned solo affair. Finally, if the world, wife, and child permit, I've got some unpainted lead to review with an eye to determining the next unit in the painting in the painting queue. Maybe.

I hope your Christmas Week is equally and as delightfully unstructured. We need more of that these days.

-- Stokes

Comments

Der Alte Fritz said…

Enjoy the rest of your break and have a cold Nog for me, straight, not doctored.

3:26 PM

WSTKS-FM Worldwide said…

Thank you,DAF! Actually, I will do just that in a few moments. Great minds think alike as they say.

Best Regards,

Stokes

3:40 PM

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

Search This Blog