The Grand Duchy of Stollen

Not the greatest photograph, but look closely, and you'll spot silver stirrups and bits along with brass rings and buckles on the halters of the horses. A few different painting sessions today to finish highlighting the black leather and next begin applying the metallics (silver and brass oils).  To approximate spurs on the rear of the boot heels (not visible here), I satisfied that particular need with a nice small dot of silver using my old 000 sable round.  Happily, not too many flubbs with the brush today. Just the scabbard tips and sword hilts to do, and then I'm taking a break from these for a few days to allow the oil bits to dry.  While the painting iron is hot, I'll jump to that second squadron waiting in the wings and apply yellow, tan, and maybe some orange undercoats to the 14 horses before adding the oil washes to get that multidimensional glaze effect that so nicely approximate horseflesh. -- Stokes

A close-up of the dark gray being applied with a feather touch and an old 000 sable that has served me well for 20+ years believe it, or not. S o, how are we faring with those horse grenadiers?   Well, getting very near the end, or rather nearer.  This weekend, I have spent various painting sessions, usually no more than 60-90 minutes at a time given the tedious nature of the work, applying dark gray highlights here and there to the various areas of horse tack.  Yes.  I know, I know.  It's official.  I need my head examined.   Once dry and at arm's length, however, it adds some nice dimension to the figures and the overall impression they make.  Blame the work of Doug Mason and others as featured so long ago in Miniature Wargames and early issues of Wargames Illustrated , which has always been my pot of gold at the end of the proverbial painting rainbow where my own efforts with the brush are concerned.  Just a few more...

Here's where things stand for that first squadron of horse grenadiers this early Saturday afternoon.  All harnesses, reins, straps, etc. are finished.  Metalics are next!  A few enforced days away from the painting table here.  The Grand Duchess and Young Master returned from their visit to the maternal grandparents very late Monday evening this last week, which, as is so often the case, threw a monkey wrench into my painting plans.  And we just have the one child.  I don't know how   men in larger families find any time at all for themselves.  It is certainly a challenge for yours truly. ------------ It's odd how society has shifted since I was a child in the 1970s and a teenager in the 8os.  Our mother and father played with us, took us places, and did things with us when we were small.  Maternal grandparents too for that matter.  Reading to us, running around outside with a ball, bicycling, tobogganing in the snow, mus...

The test figure in question, and yes, I see the white areas in need of touching up.  That's the final step before glossing. A nother cool, gray, and damp morning here in the Grand Duchy of Stollen, fitting for a Monday. So, following coffee and a small breakfast, I sat down to the painting table for a test drive of the paint brush, that is try my plan for the reins, bridles, martingales, and cruppers: black with a hint of dark gray as a highlight.   I used the orange-handled #2 round brush still with a reasonably good point, glimpsed above propping up the test figure, took a deep breath, and turned the key.  The application of the black went fairly well, with just a small mistake, easily wicked up with a damp brush, before it was onto the dark gray as a highlight.  The end result, sans the later metallic bits, small dabs of brass and silver to suggest the buckles and bits, is shown above.   A fairly decaffeinated hand and a very light touch w...

Just the bridles, reins, martingales, and 'cruppers' (that funny strap between the back of the saddle and bases of the horses' tails) to do next.  Thank you for the information on the correct terminology, Steve! T oday was unseasonably cool for late July -- mid-60s Fahrenheit, overcast, and damp. . .  My kind of day actually -- so why not spend the afternoon and evening here in Zum Stollenkeller Mk II teasing small dabs of paint onto even smaller areas?   During two, or perhaps three (I really cannot recall at this point), sessions at the painting table, I took care of the white markings on muzzles and fetlocks, painted in the hooves, and finally applied more thinned Ivory Black, this time to the lower muzzles of all but two horses in this first batch of 16.  Not too many mistakes to fix, which is always nice, although these days I have become a pretty dab hand at wicking away misapplied bits of still damp paint with a wet brush before anything dries an...

The first squadron of 14 plus the two-figure regimental staff of a colonel and another trumpeter (riding a grey).  Funny how, as Wellington Man mentions in his most recent blog post this morning, cavalry units look pretty awful until you begin addressing the horses in earnest.  It is at that point that everything begins coming together.  Getting there is always a struggle however where cavalry is concerned. S pent a couple of pleasant hours early yesterday afternoon applying thinned (with Liquin Original) Winsor & Newton alkyd oil 'Ivory Black' carefully to the manes, tails, and lower legs of 13 bays and one grey horse.  It was during this activity that I began to think, "These might not look so bad after all." Still lots to do before this first squadron and small regimental staff of two are finished, and I am a bit behind schedule here (the end of July is looming), but the brushwork on the figures seems to be falling into place.  Today, I'll start ...

A list of items remaining on the current squadron of cavalry figures. I n 35+ years of painting miniatures -- first D&D and since the mid-1980s almost exclusively wargaming -- a few things occur during the many hours at the painting table in the glare of bright lights.   One is the humble list.  While not as complicated as, say, Napoleonics in full dress uniforms, there are lots of little bits to remember when it comes to painting mid-18th century figures.  While musing yesterday about my current painting, trying to work myself up to actually sit down at the table you understand, I jotted down a list of things outstanding before we can call the current crop of 16 figures done.  Oh, and let's add "flag" to the list!  Can't forget the colonel's standard. Ok, I'm off!  Or as I reply to The Grand Duchess when she uses this very phrase, "Oh, you're 'off' all right!" -- Stokes

Two shots this morning to illustrate where we are with the squadron of Horse Grenadiers based on those of Wurttemberg. S looooowly making my way through the first 16 figures of an eventual 30-figure composite regiment.  I've now gotten to the point where it's time to paint in the reins, bridles, and martingales (GROAN!) on the horses, then the metallics, and finally a white colonel's standard, which will be a smaller version of the infantry colonel's standard with maybe the addition of some gold fringe since I've not been able to find any information on how the standard carried by the actual unit looked in reality.   That's ok, however, since no information has been forthcoming on trumpeters' uniforms either, so it is here in the painting game that I will have to veer into the realm of the presumed, or the fictitious if you prefer, and just get them done.  So, a nice, somewhere in the ballpark, inspired by, based upon unit of bright, shiny toy sol...

The squadron of Wurttemberg horse grenadiers as of late last (Tuesday) night. T hings are progressing slowly but surely with the current batch of cavalry figures here in Zum Stollenkeller Mk II , bet we're getting there.  Though I finally had to quit last night about 10:15pm after making a second or third mistake.  These flubbs with the brush were fairly easily corrected, but it was time to stop and head off to bed for some reading.   I'll leave highlighting until just about everything else is finished.  I've also decided on black reins, bridles, and straps this time around with some sparing dark grey highlights ala Doug Mason's work.  And I'll attempt to add some cavalry carbines last of all when everything else, including a white colonel's standard (presumed), has been added.  Horses will be mostly bays with a chestnut or three for variety plus, of course, the grey ridden by the regimental trumpeter near the lower right-hand corner of the pho...

Next up: a few touch-ups, the smaller details, and the dark gray and scarlet highlights before the horse markings, bridles, reins, and related straps. I 've managed to snatch several hours the last four or five days as and when life has allowed to continue work on the squadron of Wurttemberg horse grenadiers.  Yes, I realize I have neglected the shouldered muskets, blast them!  I might add them later if I have enough in the lead pile. -- Stokes

The test figure is shaping up nicely although some of the details do not match the Knoetel plate that serves as one of my main references. S pent a pleasant hour or so yesterday evening after the Young Master's bedtime working on a single test figure from those 30 RSM95 French cuirassiers in bearskins.  These are destined to become, more or less, one squadron of Württemberg horse grenadiers, or more properly 'Leib-Grenadiere zu Pferd.'   A second squadron, based on a different German heavy cavalry regiment in French service, will be painted in either dark blue or white coats.  The two squadrons will form a fictitious composite regiment that will serve in either The Army of Stollen, or The Army of Zichenau as and when scenarios require.  On a related note, the Grand Duchess and I had a discussion about the proper German terminology for these troops late last night, and yours truly was actually right.  For once.  It seems all of those years of stru...

Between toy soldiers and model car engines during the last ten days or so, things have been kind of busy here in Zum Stollenkeller Mk II. T he Young Master and I just finished installing the distributor, the spark plugs, and adjusted everything into synch on his engine kit started on Father's Day (June 17).  It works! If all goes well, we can finish the final few steps tomorrow and fire it up with additional AA batteries.  Then, it's on to the Smithsonian jet engine kit.  Stand back and hold on to your hats for that one! -- Stokes  P.S. The Young Master and I finished the last few steps on his engine kit Thursday evening before bedtime reading, and it works like a charm.  The drive shaft works the pistons and exhaust valves plus other parts, and the four "sparkplugs" (little yellow fairy lights) also light up in synch to the exhaust valves opening and closing.  Easily the most complicated kit yours truly has even assembled, but the tw...

Not a hobby photograph, or a Waterloo painting, this morning, but a summer evening photo of the old Hanseatic wharf in Bergen, Norway, a place where I once spent quite a bit of time as a (graduate) student in 1990, '98, and again in 2000.  Haven't been back to the city in 18 years, but the place is amazing on clear summer nights when the sun hovers on either side of the horizon and time seems to stand still.  Norwegians know how to make the most of their summers.   Another wondrous summertime late-night shot of the waterfront in Bergen.  Hobby "weather" forecast the remainder of the summer?  Mostly sunny. J ust to show how things stand in my summer challenge to myself: 1)  Finish the Minden replacement infantry standard bearers. -- Done! 2) Paint the Eureka 'Ooh, You're So Awful' vignette. -- Done! 3) Paint a 30-strong unit of Wurttemburg Horse Grenadiers. -- In-Progress  4) Construct a North German red brick church. 5) Cons...

The freshly glossed standard bearers and standards that I have been nattering on about for months.  They'll join their waiting regiments tomorrow evening, and then dragoons, dragoons, dragoons! W ell, that's the second mini-project for the summer completed!  A t long last, the infantry standards and ensigns are finished save for three small touch-ups, which I could probably ignore, and no one would know the difference.  But, you know how that goes.   Most of us want our figures to be "just so" by the time we finish them at the painting desk.  Whether that comes from perfectionist tendencies, obsessive-compulsive disorder, or simply a desire to produce the best brushwork we can given available time and ability, most figure painters and gamers, I think, fall into this camp.  Otherwise, we'd play classic Avalon Hill board games with small card counters, right?  Waterloo anyone? Smart-assed kidding aside, I seem to remember reading somethin...

One of my favorite paintings of the June 18, 1815 battle by Henri Phillipoteaux. T oday, I've got the strains of various French Napoleonic marches ringing in my ears.  Whatever happened to the cassette tape I had with all of those period marches on it?   Anyway, looking forward to a bit of toy soldiering this evening after the Young Master's bedtime during which I'll apply the second coat of acrylic gloss to my various Minden replacement standard bearers.  Stay tuned for a late-night photograph or two.  And then it's back to that regiment of red-coated heavy dragoons in bearskin bonnets.   Not The Scots Greys, sadly, but rather 30 Wurttemberg troopers and horses more fitting for the mid-18th century.  If you listen closely, however, you can almost hear the thunder of hooves off in the distance. -- Stokes

'Portrait Painter at Work' by Franz von Persoglia.   O k, maybe nowhere near approaching the work of a professional artist and portrait painter like the one shown above, but the picture is kind of nice and sets the right 18th century vibe for this short post.   I am working my way through applying clear, acrylic gloss varnish (two coats) to those dozen Minden Austrian and Prussian replacement standard bearers this afternoon.  Two are all done and drying while four others have had a first coat.  Taking a coffee break at the moment and fending off a cat apparently starved for affection while the Young Master works on a project of some sort across the room.   Otherwise, a rainy, cool, and quiet Saturday -- the best kind -- here at Stollen Central.  Hopefull, I'll finish everything this evening and can cement the figures to the waiting command bases within their various infantry units tomorrow with some photographs to follow after that...

My particular treatment of the Eureka Miniatures 'Ooh, You're So Awful!' vignette.  The current English ambassador to The Grand Duchy of Stollen, the libidinous Lord Hawthorne Rumpee de Pumpee (he is of Huguenot stock), takes liberties with a handy kitchen maid while his long suffering wife, Lady Thalassa and a disapproving Stollenian bystander look on. T hings are almost finished with the first of my four proposed summer hobby projects save for two or three of the invariable touch-ups and the sparing application of a few clumps of Woodland Scenics coarse foliage here and there to enliven the circular bases.  These figures will join my rather large group of frolicking aristocrats, servants, and a painter, who bears a startling resemblance to the Italian model Fabio ("I can't believe it's not butter!").  A few of you might recall this bunch of figures from when they were painted back in 2012 or 2013.   Of course, as luck would have it, I seem to hav...

T he last two or maybe three evenings have seen me back at the painting table for the first time in several months, applying acrylic colors to the Eureka 'Ooh, You're So Awful' vignette.  Needless to say, it has been time delightfully spent.  Very relaxing and plenty of headway made along with questions from the Young Master, who played nearby and occasionally sauntered over to see what Dad was up to before returning to his own projects.  He is writing and illustrating his own rather lengthy Geronimo Stilton novel at the moment and building a Tinker Toy robot for instance, school and piano lessons permitting. But back to the Eureka vignette.  Just tiny details now, like shoes, metal buckles, buttons, and hair ribbons.  I am especially pleased with the way the white table linen, china cups and saucers have come out.  The ol' painting hand was rather steadier than expected!  No photographs until everything is finished, but I'll include a few perio...