Here's yet another helping of Stollen!

Meet General Hermann von Kallweitschen and Major Anders von Gedacht.

Just a quick post today because the Grand Duchess and I are preparing for a Swedish “midsommar” (or ABBA Fest as we call it) party, which we are throwing here tomorrow evening. We got the idea from our Minneapolis-based grad school friend “Swedish Allison”, the originator of the yearly ABBA Fest tradition. But that’s a whole different story. Anyway, we do this to put the Grand Duchess in better touch with her "Sweduality". Sonja is almost enitirely Swedish-American, although she is named for the Norwegian figure skater Sonja Henie.

Anyway, at the top of this post is an in-progress photo of the latest general in the service of the Electorate of Zichenau and his ADC. Meet General Hermann von Kallweitschen and Major Anders von Gedacht. Still lots to do, but you get the idea. RSM figures almost seem like they paint themselves. Wish it was always that easy!

Next, and especially for Jeff von Saxe-Bearstein, we have a couple of photos below, showing the new Huzzah miniatures next to RSM’s. As you can see, the two lines are exactly the same height and work quite well next to each other. The former is marketed as a 30mm line, while the latter, when it was Pax Britannica in the early 1980s, was also promoted as a true 30mm line.

According to Jim “Ale Fritz” Purky, the Huzzah figures are a bit too small next to his Stadden and Willie figures, which is the reason why he sold them to me, but Huzzah miniatures are fine next to RSMs. The size differential between RSM/Huzzah figures and my plastic Revell figures (in the left background below) is also acceptable – at least to me. And the price of Huzzah figures is good too even with the crummy US Dollar right now. About on par with Spencer Smith figures. So, I encourage you Stollen regulars to try out a unit or two with your own collections.

Finally, keep you elbows off the table! ;-) Kidding aside, there have been a number of encouraging remarks and questions about my painting progress tables, posted here the other day. Thank you everyone. The idea came to me like a bolt out of the blue a few nights ago. Early the next morning, I whipped up two quick tables in MS Word, filled in the requisite information, and then copied and pasted them into the blog posting. Easy! As additional units are completed and the next mini-project started, I’ll copy and paste updated tables into future blog entries.

Ok, that’s about it for today. I’ve got some errands to run and pictures to hang in the upstairs hall before our bike ride late this afternoon. Bis balt Männer!

The 18th century? What's the Fascination?

Hessian musketeers by All the King's Men Toy Soldiers of Snellville, Georgia, U.S.A. Just a quick post post today, but I thought the above question might be interesting food for thought. Obviously, there is an array of possible periods, theaters, and conflicts that might catch our eyes. But what is it about the era 1700-1799 -- either real, or imagined? Is it the commanders and politics? The fairly straightforward tactics? The myriad of uniforms and flags? The variety and scope of the conflicts? The patchwork of various and sundry petty states, (at least in Central Europe)? I'm very interested to learn your thoughts. Don't be a lurker! Please leave a comment -- or even two or three. Have a nice day everyone!

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...

Basic Reds Done at Last. . .

S till quite a way to go with the current batch of 20 human figures and a horse (of course), but they're actually starting to look like something after all of the red distinctions. Quite a bit of painting in hour-long sessions the last week as and when time has allowed. Mostly applying the basic dark red to facing areas and turnbacks followed by the inevitable touch-ups to clean up wobbly edges and those misplaced, minute splotches of Citadel Khorne Red. They're looking like so many Austrian infantry regiments of the era at this point, but the eventual flags will turn them magically into the Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment, more or less, of the AWI period. But I'm getting a bit ahead of myself. One frustrating point (ahem) of sad discovery. I've started trying to use those Winsor & Newton 'Series Seven' brushes (#1 rounds) purchased last spring, and the blasted things simply will not keep a point. Very frustrating since I have heard over the y...

The Grand Duchy of Stollen

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