The Grand Duchy of Stollen

Happy Weekend Everyone! This posting is for Greg Horne, the man behind the Duchy of Alzheim . Here's a slightly (emphasis on slightly) better photo of the 25mm Prussian ensign by MiniFigs that I'm using with the RSM95 grenadiers on which I'm currently working. Greg dropped me a line earlier today, asking about my flag bearer. Of course, RSM includes ensigns within the figure range. But these come minus a flagpole cast within the figure's hands. Since I have some extra MiniFig Prussian ensigns on hand, purchased for use with my plastic 1/72 Revell figures, it seemed reasonable to at least see how the MiniFigs and RSMs work together. Not too badly in my eyes. The MiniFigs are a bit on the stocky side, but you don't really notice that when viewing even 20-odd figures together. Much less a full unit of 60+ models! There is also a slight difference in height, but that would be the case if I had used the RSM ensign too. Apparently, the men who carried the standard...

Hello all! Have been combatting a head cold and Phil Olley's "painting wall" -- discussed in one of his project management articles a few months back in our favorite new wargaming magazine, the magnificent Battlegames -- since I've been back. Hence the lack of recent posts here. But, I've managed to make myself sit down and do a little bit of work most evenings, so things are not at a complete stand still in The Grand Duchy of Stollen just yet! So, here for your viewing pleasure are three shots showing my progress on the first 1/3 and a bit more of Stollen's household troops, the Leib (The Grand Duchess Sonja's Own) Grenadier Regiment. Still some basic colors to block in as well as facings, turnbacks, musket stocks, etc. The white gaiters took forever because I've been applying my whites in thin washes to avoid clumping. This means that it takes 2-3 applications to acheive a genuine white rather than some shade of grey over my black undercoat. N...

Hey there all you regular Grand Duchy of Stollen visitors! Yes, I'm back in the saddle and hard at work on the RSM95 figures, soon to be the Leib (Grand Duchess of Sonja's Own) Grenadier Regiment. So far, I've only managed to paint the bases green and the coats light blue on the first 24 figures. You can see how it's going from the accompanying photograph at right. In the next few painting sessions, I intend to paint the faces, white wigs, red small clothes, and red facings (liight blue for the company drummer at the rear). White gaiters for all will follow. As many have metnoned ove at Yahoo's Old School Wargaming discussion board, RSM figures really are a pleasure to paint. Can't remember when painting seemed to progress so easily. I think it was during the very early 1980s, when I was painting chunky old Grenadier 25mm D&D figures and making up a different painting scheme for each figure. Ah, memories. . . By the way, there have now been over...

Sigh. Sometimes the best intentions get waylaid druing the course of life! Although I have finally managed to get my first batch of RSM grenadiers base coated with acrylic gesso and then undercoated with black acrylic paint, I've not been able to get to the actual painting this week as hoped. Now, it's early Saturday morning, and I've got to catch the shuttle up to O'Hare in Chicago in about 90 minutes for an early afternoon flight. I'll be gone for a week. "A week without painting he says. Can he survive? Or will it feel as if he's got bugs crawling all over his skin?" Well, I don't know. We'll have to see. ;-) But maybe a few days away are good? Sort of an enforced break, which hopefully will allow me to return full of new painting vigor, all fired up and ready to go. Until then, Stollen's Leib (Grand Duchess Sonja's Own) Grenadiers remain at attention on my painting/radio desk.

Here's a special photo for "Ron", who sent me a lovely e-mail early this morning in which he asked about how the Revell and RSM figures work together. So, here you go Ron! On the left is one of my Revell 1/72 plastic Seven Years War figures (Prussian Infantry) . This figure belongs to Stollen's 2nd (Von Laurenz) Musketeers -- the first unit of figures I painted late last summer for my imaginary 18th century armies. He measures 25-26mm from his base to his eyes and 30-31mm at the top of the red pom-pom on his hat. On the right is one of my RSM95 Prussian Grenadiers, painted as the stallwart and possibly now famous "Oberfeldwebel Klatschen" of Stollen's Leib (Grand Duchess Sonja's Own) Grenadiers . He measures 28-29 mm from base to eye and a towering 37mm from base to red and white pom-pom! So, you see that the two figures would not work grouped together within the same unit. However, on the table in separate BIG battalions of 60+ figures, the...

Finally, the first batch of RSM figures is base coated and ready for black undercoats this evening. Had hoped to do all of this passed weekend, but company Saturday evening and various things Sunday got in the way. So, things got a little bogged down here at Stollen Central. Anyway, here are the current stars of the show in all of their unpainted glory freshly “gessoed” and awaiting their coat of black acrylic undercoat. Wednesday evening, I aim to paint faces, hands, white wigs, and perhaps green bases. Thursday evening, it will be the light blue coats. Maybe red breeches and small clothes Friday afternoon, but since I’m leaving town for a week very early Saturday morning, packing my suitcase will probably take precedence. L By the way, when you have the chance, visit Phil Olley’s website, and take a gander at his recent updates for his own fictitious Pils-Holstein Campaign. Fantastic painting, terrain, and the beginnings of a wonderful ahistoric narrative for his own ...

It’s a crisp, blue, sunny Sunday morning here in the Grand Duchy. We have about an inch and a half of new snow on the ground outside. Not enough really to do anything with. It’s hard to believe we had over a foot of the stuff two weeks ago before the weather warmed up. There are still big dirty piles of snow at the edge of all the parking lots and on some side streets, but thanks to temperatures in the upper 40s (that's Fahrenheit, not Celsius) and/or lots of rain the passed week, much of our lovely blanket of snow has gone. Sigh. But on the painting front, I was able to get in a little bit of work base coating the RSM95 grenadiers yesterday with Liquitex white acrylic gesso. This stuff sticks equally well to metal or plastic figures and provides a nice surface on which to paint. Artists use gesso to prepare their canvases or other surfaces for painting. No, they don’t always apply their colors to the raw canvas. My mother used lots of gesso to prepare her paint...

Saturday, March 03, 1768 My Dear Prince Henry, Thank you very much for your recent gift of the finest, smoothest, and most golden of ales that surely must ever have been brewed within the frontiers of Anthro-Paphburg. The Grand Duke Irwin Amadeus II and his fellows have enjoyed it immensely. Alas, The Grand Duchess of Stollen prefers Rieslings, Merlots, and Polish liquors, but one cannot, unfortunately, have everything. With regard to said ale, the Grand Duke has requested that I convey his sincerest interest in establishing firmer diplomatic and trade relations with your fine country. Should you be agreeable to such eventualities, he has asked me to refer your representatives to the Grand Duchy of Stollen’s Minister of Trade, Herr Rastus-Uwe Georg von Gebogenius an der Pickelhaube. We hope the Anthro-Paphburg might be amenable to opening trade talks and either sending a trade delegation to Stollen, or receiving our own in your country, headed by Herr Von Gebogenius an de...

My Dear Ms. Von Krimm, Thank you for your letter of February 28, 1768. Given your interest in establishing trade relations with The Grand Duchy of Stollen, Herr Flickenhoffer has referred your recent letter to me in the hope of furthering our ongoing discussion with the idea of the eventuality of setting up reciprocal representatives and their accompanying offices in our respective territories. With regard to our supply of premium horse flesh here in the Grand Duchy of Stollen, I have been asked by Grand Duke Irwin Amadeus II to communicate to you his wish that our small country could supply many of your cavalry regiments with the horse herds they need to replace and retain a reserve of sturdy mounts. In exchange, we would be most interested in sampling a smattering of your own Hesse-Engelburg’s luscious and rich dairy products. In particular, our Grand Duke has requested that I communicate to you his extreme predilection for curds and whey made from the milk of the well-know...

Happy Weekend to all of our regular visitors from the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess of Stollen! It's been quite a week for old school reading material here in The Grand Duchy. Waiting beneath the mailbox this afternoon was an almost perfect copy of Charles Wesencraft's Practical Wargaming from 1974. Have just thumbed through it very quickly, but the subject matter looks interesting, well-presented, and thought provoking. I'm particularly interested in the chapters on the 18th Century, Napoleonics, and the Franco-Prussian war. Looks like it's going to be a late night reading again. Oh, the pain. The pain. Sigh ;-) And the Grand Duchess has invited me out to dinner this evening, my choice. I'm thinking that Indian quisine is looking vary good, especially since we haven't eaten it for quite some time. And lucky us -- we've actually got two very different, but very good Indian places here in Bloomington-Normal. Mmmm, I can almost smell the garlic nan b...

Yes, you saw right. The regiment of cavalry the 4th (Trakehnen) Dragoons -- 30 figures strong -- and Oberfeldwebel Lebrecht Klatschen of the Leib (Grand Duchess Sonja's Own) Grenadier Regiment are finished. And it only took slightly more than a month for the former. The clear coat of Future floor polish will follow on Saturday. My poor Grand Duchess must catch up with her grading of midterms and so forth all weekend, so I'll have some extra time to slop on the Future and apply a basecoat plus black undercoat for that first batch of RSM grenadiers that I've nattered on about for two months or so. If everything goes well Saturday, I might even start applying flesh tone and other colors to the figures on Sunday. We'll see. If you look closely at the Oberfeldwebel Klatschen, you'll notice that I've performed a few minor "touch ups" -- cleaning up where his right shoe meets the accompanying gaiter (there was previous a bit of white paint og the sho...