A Saturday Visit to the Tailor. . .

It's 10:30 Saturday morning, and I am still waking up with the first mug of coffee, and the two cats milling around here in my office at home. A dark, wet, and dreary day outside, but I've got much activity planned since the Grand Duchess and Young Master have decided to visit Chicago for the day and left very early this morning.

First off, and following a hot shower, a visit to my tailor to take in a new three-piece suit from J. Press for the usual minor alterations. It arrived yesterday, and was/is a gift to myself for some good news professionally speaking earlier this fall. And since three-piece suits are generally pretty hard to find in 2023, I leapt at the opportunity after spotting this particular number on the J. Press website two weeks back. A charcoal Donegal weave, very soft to the touch, and perfect for the cooler months, which here in Mid-Michigan are, conveniently, October through April, and sometimes well into May. So this one should get a lot of wear.

Then, it's off to run a few Christmas gift errands. Most of my shopping for the season long ago -- and well before Covid with its initial lock-downs -- migrated online. Nevertheless, there are a couple of things I have spotted that the Grand Duchess will enjoy on Christmas Morning and beyond. Once that errand is done, a few things at the supermarket, and then home again to enjoy the rest of the afternoon preparing the next batch of figures for painting, this time those 28mm Eureka Saxon cuirassiers I've nattered on about in previous posts.

Initially, I had planned to spend the day working through final student assignments, their course capstone projects, but that can wait until Monday and Tuesday next week. Time instead to play hooky and take a couple of days for myself. Sunday, I will record, process, mix, master, and post another episode of my podcast, an activity that, while time consuming, is actually a lot of fun, so not something I mind doing. But that is putting the cart before the horse.

Back to Saturday activities!

This evening, I plan to enjoy some coffee and possibly a dram or two of single malt by the fireside in the library with some Christmas music playing softly in the background. And who knows? I might actually crack open an actual work of fiction that has nothing at all to do with work pursuits. It used to happen now and then. Once upon a time, I was a great reader of fiction, and that habit, I think, ought to be resurrected as we approach the Christmas break with its related festivities and downtime.

-- 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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