Happy New Year from the Grand Duchy of Stollen!

An rather charming vintage German greeting card for a happy new year, featuring a gnome, the good luck pig, and a sack of good fortune.

Before all of us get too busy with New Year's celebrations, in whatever form those might take, allow me to wish all visitors to the Grand Duchy of Stollen blog a Happy (Happier?) 2025.

Many similar wargaming hobby blogs have fallen by the wayside since the initial rush of enthusiasm back in the first decade of the 21st century, but we're still here in the capital city of Krankenstadt clanking along as and when time and real life permit. The early kernel of thought that became Grand Duchy of Stollen will celebrate its 20th anniversary at the start of December 2025 with the blog itself turning 20 years old in early Fall 2026!

That hyper focus and Johnny One-Note-ism notwithstanding, these upcoming anniversaries provide perfect occasions, now that I think of it, to keep the painting and modelling fires burning. I've already drawn up concrete plans -- progress charts really -- to keep things on track over the next couple of years with, hopefully, more actual battles taking place than has been the case during the last few years. In any case, I hope you might continue along with me for the journey as and when your own schedules permit.

More immediately, I can report on another painting session last evening, about 90 minutes, during which I applied my preferred 'charcoal' highlight to various harnesses and reins on the current 16 horses ridden by the first squadron and regiment staff of these blasted Eureka Saxon cuirassiers. Slow going, yes, but with only one minor brush mishap, which I was able to wick away quickly before the paint splotch dried. Later this afternoon, I'll sit down again to tackle the rather more complicated bridles, and then the part that most of us dislike about painting miniature horses will be finished. Whew!

We're now getting very close to completion of everything that I can manage before the necessary touch-ups and acrylic gloss varnish. And while I have managed their shoulder thingies pretty well, the two musicians' sleeve chevrons, however, have continued to elude aging eyes, painting skills, and patience after several attempts. Sigh. So Max and Moritz will just have to make due with plain white sleeves. Possibly another Kodak moment update on New Year's Day though.

On a slightly more subdued and somber ending note for 2024, I hope we can get through the coming year(s) with a minimum of the now daily discord, strife, willful ignorance, and general ugliness that we have come to expect in what now passes for acceptable sociopolitical discourse. As that fantastic British band The Kinks intoned 40+ years ago, and I may be misquoting their song a bit, I hope we'll find better days for 2025 and beyond.

-- 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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