Firing & Movement Sticks. . .

No, not hitherto undiscovered paintings by Piet Mondrian (or The Patridge Family Bus), but a movement stick (top) and a musket volley and skirmish fire stick (below). The rulers are 18" in length and based on the Grants' dimensions laid out in The War Game.

Still glossing the Austrian dragoons piecemeal, but with the planned Thanksgiving Weekend game between the Young Master and me now two weeks away, it seemed like a good idea to begin preparations for it. I aim to simplify things as much as possible to keep the game moving and a positive experience for young Paul, now 11 years old, so that he will want to continue these occasional tabletop adventures with ol' Dad. Hence the movement and firing sticks, which owe as much to the von Reisswitz kriegspiel as they to Charles S. Grant.

The measuring devices I've produced over a couple of days have movement dimensions marked on one side, and firing distances on the other. I must touch up and label the various colored bars before everything is finished, but once done, the Young Master and I will each wield a movement-firing stick on our upcoming game(s). I've also whipped up a four foot artillery stick, painted in yellow (long range), orange (medium), and red (canister range).

The movement stick, that closest to the dragoons, has infantry, artillery, and transport move distances marked out on the upper edge with those for heavy and light cavalry on the lower edge. The firing stick at bottom has musket volleys distance marked out in yellow (long range), orange (medium range), and red (close range) with ranges for skirmish fire denoted in light and dark blue. Once labeled, all movement and firing should be clear and easy to determine without referring to a play sheet or fooling with tape measures. He said.

As to the scenario we'll attempt, I am leaning toward a refight of Sawmill Village, although The Young Master has already informed me that any settlement laid out on the table will be dubbed Hasenpfeffer. As Greg Horne, the man behind The Duchy of Alzheim blog, advised me several years ago now, when it comes to kids, you've got to follow their lead.

-- 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...

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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