Merry Christmas from The Grand Duchy of Stollen. . .

A vintage feline-themed Christmas card that tickled my heart when I came across it two weeks or so ago.

Well, just over three hours left of Christmas Day. We had a delightful one with gifts (some new soldiers too), far too much food, treats, a dusting of new snow outside, telephone conversations with distant family members, and a long walk for the three of us around the neighborhood mid-afternoon.

The Young Master has been tucked in for the evening, the Grand Duchess is having a few minutes to herself, and I have brought my second mug of after dinner coffee down here to Zum Stollenkeller for a break before we reconvene in the living room a little later. There, The Grand Duchess and I will listen once again to this year's Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols from the chapel at King's College Cambridge.

Before the day slips away, allow me to wish you a Merry Christmas! Wherever in the world you are, I hope you have enjoyed a day of calm, good company, and a light mood. Remember, the season lasts longer than one day. Let's say no to the cycle of hyper sales driven retail whatever and its after Christmas and New Year's sales. Instead, let's hang on to that spirit of good will just a little while longer. Surely, there can be no harm in that?

-- Stokes

Comments

Rob Young said…

It was an excellent Xmas for us too; to you, Merry Boxing Day.

3:00 AM

marinergrim said…

Hope you had a great day

3:58 AM

Anonymous said…

Merry Christmas to you Stokes and Family. I'd love to see that "Dusting" of light Snow...here in Sydney- Australia -out in the West some 60km from Sydney it will be 35Deg C to-day followed by a predicted 41Deg C tomorrow....yes, Snow and Cold Days sounds very appealing as I sit here in my Air-Conditioned Study typing away- hoping to get out into my Workshop for some modelling when things cool down a little. Cheers. KEV.

8:15 PM

Millsy said…

A Jolly Christmas to you too sir and all the best to you and the family for 2019.

4:15 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

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...

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 Grand Duchy of Stollen

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