Let's flesh out some geography, shall we?

During the last couple of weeks, I’ve been thinking about fleshing out the geographical names of my imaginary grand duchy, electorate, and principalities. I’ve decided to name my river(s) the Greater Zwischen and the Lesser Zwischen. Each flows into the main river, the Blue Zwischen, which separates Stollen and Zichenau. Once the Blue Zwischen moves through my territories, it then flows northwest and empties into the Baltic somewhere near Riga. Numerous smaller streams and rivers empty into the system.

The lay of the land in this forgotten corner of Europe is flat with low hills, numerous lakes, and large tracts of forest, consisting of spruces, aspens, birches, and the like. Winters can be quite cold with snow while summers are generally cool and damp, although heat waves are not unknown.

The names of the primary cities in the region are:

Grand Duchy of Stollen: Krankenstadt

Electorate of Zichenau: Hissig

Principality of Pillau-Zerbst: Schmitten

Principality of Pillau-Reuss: Schneiden

Principality of Tauroggen-Fiebus: Doppig

Principality of Werben-Steinau: Paastaaelig

Zeller-Schwartzekatz: Lustig

***Those of you with a linguistic background might recognize some of these words with which I’m playing!

Comments

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An Early July Hussar Update. . .

Marginally neater in appearance with green bases, girths, and ivory horse markings added, but I need to neaten up some hooves now before moving onto the rest of the tack. W here in the world did June go? While I still ponder the answer to that question, how about a quick painting update on the first batch of 14 Minden Austrian hussars and Nadasdy? Good. I'm glad we are of a like mind. Still on the sloppy side, but I've managed to move things along, painting the green bases, white (ivory) horse markings, and beginning the miles and miles of tack adorning the various horses. I always like to begin with the girths spanning the horses' ribs which helped hold the saddles in place. Even with the figures mounted individually on temporary painting bases, these can be kind of tricky to access, but there we are. I've also used various Army Painter washes (Mid-Brown and Strong Tone) as well as their Speed Paint (Grim Black) to make the manes and tails of the horses a bit m...

And a few more photos. . .

Ok, here are a few of the 2nd Musketeer regiment in process during late-July and August. Enjoy!

The Grand Duchy of Stollen

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