Besides Charge! and The War Game, additional inspiration for the ongoing Grand Duchy of Stollen project has come, in no particular order, from a variety of more recent titles by Charles S. Grant, the late Peter Gilder and his fabulous collection of Napoleonics at the old Wargames Holiday Centre, Phil Olley's 'Classic Wargaming' approach, various developments and events over the last several years in The Duchy of Alzheim, and the BIG battalion SYW-era maneuvers of Bill Protz and Jim Purky. Henry Hyde's Wars of the Faltenian Succession campaign, too, and his collection of vintage Spencer Smith miniatures have provided ample stimulus during those more trying times. The brushwork of John Preece, Doug Mason, Phil Robinson, Bill Gaskin, et al has encouraged me to stretch my painting muscles and try new approaches. Finally, the first dozen issues of Miniature Wargames from the early 1980s as well as the May 2006 refight of Sittangbad, staged by The Wargamers at Partizan in The U.K. continue to spur me on whenever my enthusiasm flags a bit.
Arrrgh! Gotta go back into camera settings on my iPhone to bring all of the frame into focus. Blast! Painting is underway on the 60 or so Minden Austrians, which are slated to become my version of the Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment of AWI renown. More or less indistinguishable from Austrians of the era really, right down to the red facings and turnbacks, but the eventual flags (already in my files) will set them apart. I went ahead and based-coated all of them over a couple of days lthe last week of August, using a mix of light gray and white acrylic gesso, before next applying my usual basic alkyd oil flesh tone to the faces and hands. In a day or two, I'll hit that with Army Painter Flesh Wash to tone things down a bit and bring some definition to the faces and hands. As usual, the plan is to focus on about 20 figures at a time, splitting the regiment roughly into thirds along with the color party and regimental staff. Depending on ...