The Night of December 22nd. . .

Not toy soldiers but a rather pleasing photograph taken with my phone yesterday evening as the Grand Duchess baked and I kept her company with all manner of advice on how to prepare the annual stollen (watch for a photograph later today).

While the Grand Duchess baked cornbread for the stuffing/dressing to go with the Christmas goose AND our annual stollen yesterday evening -- That's authentic Dresdner Stollen mind you! -- yours truly took up space by the hearth in the library after finishing gift-wrapping down in Zum Stollenkeller. We enjoyed soft Christmas music, mulled wine, and a bit of eggnog with freshly ground nutmeg much later in the evening, sitting up until almost 1am.

Staying up late like that is something we never do anymore, but I hope for more of during Christmas Week. I used to be a night owl for most of my life until the Young Master came along in 2009, which understandably changed the narrative. Since he is now 15 and largely more self-sufficient here at home, well, hopefully my internal schedule might be able to right itself and return to pre-child habits.

But what's on tap for the 23rd as we near Christmas Eve and Christmas Day? Well, while I've got a few last minute errands to run this morning after dressing, I hope for a little bit of time at the painting table to continue work on those 16 Saxon cuirassiers, which are getting very close to completion. Just a few small details, some highlights, and touch-ups left to do before the usual protect coats of clear acrylic gloss varnish.

Probably not able to get these finished before Christmas as hoped since seasonal preparations have taken precedence in recent days, but it's all about the journey, right? However, I am also planning a small solo game of some kind for Christmas week. I hope the Young Master might choose to join me to push around some lead for a few hours, but the things ol' Dad does are not "cool" to him at the moment, so we'll have to see. But to his credit, he gave me an interesting book on simple skirmish games for my most recent 29th birthday at the start of November, and I'd like to try them out in any case.

In the meantime, how about that second mug of morning coffee? Yes. My thoughts exactly. Have a joyful day everyone!

Kind Advent Regards,

Stokes

Comments

Chris Gregg said…

A nice Christmas post - I can almost smell that Stollen, Stokes. And that reminds me of years ago when I started my blog as a rookie 18th Century Imagi-nations creator. I could always turn to The Grand Duchy for ideas and simply boosting my spirit - thanks for the memories. Have a glass of something strong for me. Cheers Chris G (aka Sir Joshua Gregg RA - painter to the aristocracy and any female soldiers who like disrobing!)

12:42 PM

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

Search This Blog