The Grand Duchy of Stollen

Here is where things stand at the moment with the front half of  the hospital model. S till whittling away at  the mid-18th century Baltic German town center.  Balsa chimneys, a few more dormers, and some stairways were added to most buildings over the weekend.  I've also worked out how to approximate the actual facade of the Hospital of the Holy Spirit as you'll observe above.  I'll never sneer at the scrapbooking and crafting set again.  There are many good videos by them on Youtube about how to make paper cones.  Now, all I need to do is figure out how to approximate the hexagonal cupola at the base of the middle, slightly more slender and taller spire.  I also manage to find a shade o acrylic craft paint last week that should nicely approximate the verdigris of aged copper if I tone it down a bit with some light tan before applying it to the model above as well as the spire on my rathaus as featured in a previous post last week. The bas...

The nine assembled structures now await balsa chimneys, a few external stairways, and some other outer details. R ighty-oh!  The nine new town buildings are mostly assembled save for the addition of a few external features.  And all made from thick card and balsa.  Several of these feature some internal framework made from the latter  given the rather complicated roof schemes.  Funny how the plan was originally for seven new buildings, but I've ended up with nine.  Kind of like rabbits I guess. I learned a new word while looking around online for a few minutes last night before turning in.  Apparently, there is a large group of hobbyists out there -- real eccentrics -- who make miniature buildings to scale from paper and thin cardstock in what is referred to as "papertecture," and they are not all necessarily wargamers or model train enthusiasts.  Who knew? Anyway, once the external features are added to the buildings above over the next ...

The Rathaus in-progress. . . S pent about an hour this morning working on the spire that sits atop my rathaus, and I must say I am pleased.  Again, it is far from perfect, and later painting will help hide some problem areas, but for a non-professional modeller, it's not bad.   My modelling skills don't allow me to reproduce a more ornate spire that resembles the late Baroque types like you'll across the North of Germany and along other stretches of the Baltic coast, so this seems like a reasonable compromise.  This particular spire though, in my own defense, is not unlike some of the tall, slender prototypes that you'll see in Copenhagen, Riga, or other Baltic cities, so it works for me. The Grand Duchy of Stollen, prior to disappearing from the maps in the third Partition of Poland, was in the neighbrhood of The Duchy of Courland after all. Coming back to real life for just a moment, there are just a few small touch-ups to the rathaus to take care of tomor...

To provide a sense of size, the building in the left foreground -- the large university/palace/government building with two dormers and two wings -- is 10 inches long from end to end. The round dormer on Customs House -- center right in the photograph -- came together fairly easily.  Believe it, or not, I sketched out the dormer shape by hand, cut it out with tiny, very sharp scissors, shaped it, and glued it into place.  It usually never is that easy, but once in a great while. . . The three-gabled structure in the rear left corner of the picture above will become, once a batch of balsa dowels arrive in the mail, The Hospital of the Holy Ghost.  It is based on the actual complex of the same name in Luebeck, Germany as I've written previously. H ere's where things stand at the moment with the latest batch of town buildings as of Tuesday afternoon May 30th.  Not perfect, but I must admit to feeling rather pleased wth how things are coming along....

Finally nailed it and got the multiple pieces that comprise this roof glued into place.  Time for a break! T he angles on my first town building, featuring a type of mansard roof -- referred to in German as a 'mansardenwalmdach' -- with a couple of gables thrown in for good measure, were murder to figure out and trim correctly.  Considerable, um, trial and error (a pleasant euphemism for some blue language hissed beneath my breath) shall we say.  But I've got it now, and following roofs should come together somewhat more easily.  Two smaller roofs for a couple of modular wings a little later this afternoon, and then the University of Krankenstadt will be finished, and I can move onto the next one in the queue. -- Stokes    And a short 90 minutes, or so, later, the roofs on the two wings were glued into place and more or less done.  Just chimneys to add now, but I'll come back and do those just before painting begins once the rest of the to...

  Unlike my previously scratch-built buildings, this time I have made a number of simple drawings and sketches of how the finished structures will look, more or less.  This followed several weeks of examining many old buildings, dating from the 17th and 18th centuries, that still exist in Denmark, across the north of Germany, Northern Poland, and into present-day Lithuania and Latvia. T he last week or so has been fairly relaxed around Totleigh-in-the-Wold in general and, more specifically, down here in Zum Stollenkeller Mk. II since my return late last Sunday evening from the big annual conference organized by The Society for the Advancement of Scandinavian Studies in Minneapolis.  So, I have had lots of free time to make headway on the latest building project.  Other than a rear wing for one, or possibly two of the planned buildings (the hospital and the university), the walls of the basic structures have all been cut out and cemented together.  Next u...

  The very old Hospital of the Holy Ghost in Luebeck, Germany, which served as an old age home into the 1970s.  The Grand Duchess and I toured it in June 2009 when we stayed in Luebeck for several days.  My planned model will feature just the main steeply gabled front section, with bell tower and clockface but without the four decorative gothic spires, and an abutting rear section. L ight is at the end of the tunnel at last!  My classes for the university semester have concluded, and the term ends today.  While there is still a committee project to complete, a paper to write, and a conference to attend where I'll present it, life is returning to some small semblance of normality here at Totliegh-in-the-Wold.  By this time next month, I hope to be back up to my elbows in soldiers (finishing those replacement Minden standard bearers with new flags) and the next side project, which will involve. . .  You guessed it!  town buildings. In conne...

The Grand Duke's Easter guests listen with rapt attention. T he Grand Duke Irwin-Amadeus II holds forth, sharing his enthusiastic new plans to provide every gentleman in the Grand Duchy of Stollen with three new pairs of well-fitting, English-made dress shoes in black, brown, and oxblood.  Meanwhile, Hives considers the wisdom and practicalities of said plan from the sidelines. -- Stokes

S till not a lot happening on the hobby front here at Stollen Central, but this vintage Easter greeting is simply too good not to share.  Happy Easter everyone! -- Stokes

A lovely unit of Doug Mason French Napoleonics. I n bed AGAIN this fine weekend with some kind of nasty cold and fever for the second time in as many months, no doubt picked up from some undergraduate student somewhere, who has sneezed, coughed, or slimed in my general direction (grrrrrrrr. . .).  Still, we can't let April 1st go by without some sort of more light-hearted tomfoolery, can we?  So, here is a reprise of a post made originally back on April 1st, 2013 for your reading pleasure.  Enjoy! -- Stokes   S everal months ago, I was contacted by the attorney of a distant cousin -- "Genevieve" -- from the state of North Carolina, several times removed and much older than myself, who passed away early last year.  To make a long story short, it seemed that she had been extremely impressed by and grateful for some translation and editing work I did for her in back in 2007.  Something she never forgot and mentioned often in conversations with friend...

A old Fred and Lillian Funcken illustration of various German auxiliary troops that fought in the American War of Independence.  Pay special attention to the two standard bearers at the rear, proudly displaying the colors of the Hessa-Hanau Erbprinz Regiment ca. 1776. F ar t oo quiet here at Stollen Central here during recent weeks.  The best way to put it is that "life" has simply stepped in between me and any attempts to get into the painting chair most evenings.   Now, some might suggest, "Stokes, old bean, why in the world don't you paint as a way to wind down following a long day?"  And that is a wonderful suggestion, yes, but one that does not always work in practice for yours truly.   While painting helps many to forget the cares and stresses of the day, I need a fairly clear mind to do so productively, and this particular semester has been brutal with not only teaching, meetings, and some research, but life at home has been , s hall we...

T he Grand Duchess is away at a conference, so last (Friday) night after the Young Master's bedtime, I settled into a freshly made-up bed with a nav e l orange, a glass of something cold ( F ruit j uice, rela x!) , and my trusty laptop to find something to watch on Amazon.  Finally settled on The Romantic English Woman (D i r. Joseph Losey , 1975), starring Michael Caine , Glenda Jackson, and Helmut B e rger.  You know me.  Living life to the fullest out here on the bloody edge .  It'll be a barbed wire tattoo ar ound an upper thigh next , with pierced naughty bits, and maybe even a case of Hepatitis before you know it. A n yway, n ot the most riveting film, but basically Caine is a writer developing a film script about a bored housewife who travels from the U.K. to France or Germany and then has a brief affair while in a fancy, old continental hotel.  Strangely, the story mirrors much of what is going on with his wife in the film, played by Jackson. I...

A parade of  Carl Röchling paintings this weekend!  These are as interesting as the various Knoetel illustrations in my view.  First, one o f Frederick II and von Ziethen meeting again as the Battle of Torgau ended. A t last, a free weekend for some hobby-related writing and painting after a truly brutal week full of meetings and an annual review on top of the usual teaching, paper grading, reading, movie watching, and preparation activities.  W h ew! Even better, there is another small load of unwanted Minden Prussian and Austrian infantry on the way from Belgium that I have decided to give a good home.  The pile of lead will shortly rival other stalwarts in the hobby, but it should give me everything I need to finish (yes, really) the final stages of the Grand Duchy of Stollen project during the next few years.  A nd then I will concentrate on playing more games with my toys as I drift ever closer to my dotage.   The plan is to increase t...