The Grand Duchy of Stollen

  A cropped close-up of a previous shot shared here several days back.  Not perfect painting by any stretch, but good wargaming quality figures with some added tiny details. A sunny, hot Sunday here in The Grand Duchy.  The Grand Duchess and Young Master have headed off somewhere in the car, so yours truly is left with a good chunk of unstructured quiet time in which to paint and write (hobby-related stuff).   Before that, I've messed a bit more with the new Fotor photo editing and graphic design subscription to experiment a both with cropping and close-ups.  The application seems to do very nicely adjusting the raw images as you go along.   And, of course, highlighting not only your painting successes, but also the minute flubs and gaffs with the brush that you never notice at the time, but spot in an instant when looking at later photos.  Ah, well.  Being a slave to perfectionism means nothing ever gets done.   En masse, the figures will look fine once glossed, based, and arrayed

Fotor is my new online editor of choice.  Not completely free (US$39.99 per year), but fairly intuitive and nice, bright results.  Better even than Pixlr X.  You get what you pay for I suppose.   M aking time for painting in and amongst all of the last minute preparations for the new semester, which kicks off next Wednesday, September 1st here at MSU.  Working on completing my version of the Schaumburg-Lippe infantry with officers, NCOs, and musicians.  The flags will probably be the final cherry on top before glossing and permanent basing. The 48 infantry privates have, by the way, been stowed away in a plastic carrier for safe keeping until the later glossing stage.  My work area was becoming too crowded, and I feared cats, 11-year old fingers, an errant spill or drops of paint would inadvertently spoil previous brushwork. But anyway. You can see that I am really making the effort to keep the highlighting more subtle than on units of the past, really just touching the brush to high p

  Just 14 human figures plus two flags left to pain.  And a horse.  His name is Trigger.  Of course.  I wanna be a cowboy! U p very early today (5:15am) for two hours of quiet 'me time' before waking The Young Master for his first day of 6th Grade with breakfast and other related early morning activities.  Paul will turn 12 in a little over two months!  Where does the time go? Anyway, following a mug of coffee and email down here in Zum Stollenkeller , it occurred to me that I might as well spend an hour finishing the white hat trim on the remaining eight figures in the forefront of the photograph above.  With the exception of a few very minor touch-ups and cleaning up a few edges, I've now completed 48 figures for my version of The Schaumburg-Lippe-Bückeburg Infantry regiment.   The back of this particular project is now well and truly broken although drummers and flags always make me a bit nervous in the run up to tackling and completing these important components of a li

  H aving a "No Day" this Saturday, as my late mother would have put it.  Just saying no to everyone, everything, and enjoying some me time.  What better way to do that than to continue brushwork on the current batch of 16 figures?  I thought you'd agree. This time around, I tried taking pictures with my iPhone.  I think they are marginally better than those taken with my now venerable Sony Cybershot although I am not quite sure.  In any case, PixlrX still is not cooperating and refuses to open any of my images, so these are the raw pictures without any autofix, adjusting for brightness, or cropping.   Still, they provide a reasonable idea of where things are at the moment. Remaining tasks include the queues at the back as well as highlighting visible hair and curls at the temples, mustaches, and metallics (musket barrels and firelocks plus brass fittings, cartridge pouch badges, and the few visible buttons), plus the inevitable touch-ups.  And then I will be free to forg

  The third batch of 16 musketeers is well underway. T oo much 'real life' on my plate lately as the relatively free months of summer wind down, but I've still managed to find some time here and there for painting.   Playing with the order in which I do things this time to avoid later mistakes with the brush as I try to maneuver it into tight spots.  So, for example, I've decided to paint the dark brown undercoat for the figures' hair as well as the dark red undercoat for the neck stocks and coat collars BEFORE applying the fleshtone to faces and hands this time around.   Those two steps will come this evening.  Right now, the painting approach has been sort of backwards.  Usually, I prefer to paint the flesh areas sooner.  But you get to know the road, so to speak, when painting many of a certain figure pose. So, it made sense to modify the usual approach after completing the first 32 or so of these wonderfully detailed castings.   As with so much else in life, a d

Another rousing engraving by Adolph Menzel, showing a clash between cavalry and Infantry at The Battle of Leignitz  1) Declare charges at the start of a turn.  Move the charging unit half of its charge move toward the enemy target.   2) Place a purple Bingo chip behind charging units, as a reminder, before attending to other matters on the table during the turn.   3) Once events elsewhere have been seen to, check to see if charging  units actually close with intended targets for close combat.  Both players roll a D6 and move their units according to the following situations:   a. Charging Infantry versus Infantry in the Open Close combat occurs if both players manage to roll the same number on their respective D6s.  If not, the unit(s) facing the oncoming bayonet charge 'retire at the double' (Retreat!) directly to the rear while the charging infantry occupy and hold the vacated space if possible.  Lower quality troops (D. or E. class) facing an oncoming charge might rou

  Just a few buttons and touch-ups to do before glossing.  I must admit to feeling very pleased with the way the white highlights atop the light gray undercoat have turned out.  Kind of inexact washes, which give a nice, slightly variegated look to the figures.  T he first 32 musketeers for my version of the Schaumburg-Lippe-Bückeburg Infantry are just about done save for the buttons, a few small touch-ups here and there, and the usual two coats of gloss before basing.   But no rest for the wicked!  I'm getting ahead of myself.  Still another 16 musketeers, three musicians, several officers and NCOS, and the colonel's horse before the regiment can take the field.  And the flags of course. Parenthetically, wouldn't that be a terrific name for an English pub in a village somewhere?  'The Colonel's Horse.'  It almost screams Midsomer Murders , Richard Jury, or Lord Peter Wimsey.  Digression seems to be a way of life around The Grand Duchy of Stollen lately.  As I w

  Another atmospheric Menzel engraving, this time showing a Prussian infantry attack at The Battle of Leuthen.   A bit of an edit here since this was first posted earlier this week after a couple of comments and a bit of rethinking. . .      This particular facet of tabletop historical miniature wargaming, close combat, can get complicated fast.  But I have tried to keep things pared down enough to avoid getting bogged down during games and hold my son's interest (another reason for our fairly contained games with just a few units per side thus far).  Here goes: First, any charges are declared at the start of a turn.  We move the charging unit half of its charge move toward the enemy target.  Whether the charging unit can close with the enemy target, or not depends on a morale check at this halfway point. We place a colored Bingo chip (Paul likes these) behind charging units, as a reminder, before attending to other matters on the table during the turn.  Once those have been seen