The Grand Duchy of Stollen

  T he squadron after a couple of early morning sessions today to carefully trim in the GW 'Goblin Green' (my preferred old school base color) around the highlighted hooves.  And just a single misplaced blotch with the new #6 round!  You tend to forget in the heat of battle -- or at least I do -- how easy it is to apply and direct the paint onto and around the miniatures with a brand new brush that has an excellent point.  You would think I'd have internalized this key piece of painting wisdom after 40+ years of applying brush to figures.  About as sharp as a mashed potato sandwich here as my much missed maternal grandparents used to kid family members in moments of, shall we say, less than stellar judgement. But what's next with these cavalry?  Well, while I wait for the set of special dry-brushing brushes to arrive (for the horse highlights), I'll clean up a few edges and touch up a few other areas here and there before moving to detailing the saddle clot...

    J ust a quick Kodak moment update to illustrate where we are with the squadron of von Polenz Cuirassiers.  Still lots to accomplish, but the horse furniture is about done barring the usual touch-ups and cleaning of edges here and there before highlighting a few hooves (I know, I know. . .).  A light drybrushing to pick out raised details on the animals, and then we'll move on to the saddle cloths, holsters, and scabbards before getting to the men themselves.  Onward and upward, eh? -- Stokes

  S low progress on the horse furniture highlights, but we're getting somewhere.  I've spent a few different painting sessions applying black to those on the four non-black horses in the squadron, and then my usual very dark gray as a highlight.  Once that's done (six more horses to go), the usual dots of metallic colors to bring out the bits plus a few small buckles here and there.  Then its on to the white markings before moving toward saddle cloths, saddles, etc. I must also extend a heartfelt "thank you" to Allan Tidmarsh, the man behind the Kingdom of Wittenberg blog (and one of my longtime favorites).  He sent me a lovely scan of and officer and trooper of the von Polenz cuirassiers, sporting their early red coats with coffee brown facings, from a German language source on the troops of August the Strong.  One more example of the charitable and helpful side of the wargaming hobby.  Thank you again Allan! -- Stokes   A very handsome uniform,...

  A s and when time has permitted the last week or so, I've basecoated the latest squadron of cavalry -- this time to represent Saxony's von Polenz Cuirassiers, ca. 1733 (red coats with coffee brown facings) -- applied the basic horse flesh coloring and gone to work blocking in the basic uniform colors that will be highlighted later.  In truth, they look like a bloody mess up close, and I can't recall when I have been less pleased with my brushwork, but we're still very early in the painting process.   Or so I console myself.   But as I advise my often less than resilient students during the academic year, you can't row in circles after a disappointing grade.  Rather, make the decision to revise your approach and move forward without repeating the same mistake twice.  A point that dovetails nicely with advice given to my son's Tae Kwon Do class a couple of years ago by the instructor Mr. R. So, next up, the neck stocks and black cuirasses.  I...

    B esides goofing around with artificial intelligence, I have also tinkered with the second half of those Eureka Saxon cuirassiers during the last week or so, applying the basic flesh tone (alkyd oil) to the 14 faces a short while ago.  Tomorrow evening, I'll apply the Army Painter flesh wash and then go to work on the horse furniture first this time around to shake up the painting process a bit and tackle those more tedious bits before the tedium demon notices what I'm up to. The plan is to paint these as the von Polenz Cuirassiers, circa 1733 when the unit had coffee brown facings and, at least in full dress, red coats and saddle cloths.  I've combed through my two books on the Saxon army (the Summerfield and Pagano titles) and as well as the Project Seven Years War website, and I fear the kollets worn by all but the trumpeter should be an off-white or tan rather than the hoped for red.  But I'll check one more time before making any rash decision. In the i...

  A computer enhanced version of an early drawing of the campaign area during Fall 2006. I ran it through Fotor earlier today clean it up a bit although some of the print remains blurred,  Time perhaps to see if an AI might help.  T he Grand Duchy of Stollen, nominal purview of Grand Duke Irwin-Amadeus II, unfurls across the northeastern European landscape like a patchwork quilt sewn by an enthusiastic grandmother after her third glass of elderberry wine. Nestled precariously between Prussia, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Russian Empire, and the Duchy of Courland, it remains a curious diplomatic anomaly in mid-18th century Europe -- a legacy of the convoluted Peace of Westphalia that even the negotiators had forgotten by the time they affixed their seals to the document.  At the heart of the capital Krankenstadt stands the modest ducal palace, where the Grand Duke Irwin-Amadeus II, a distant cousin to one of the Hessian houses, presides with an endearing a...