Skip to main content

How does Saint Nick do it all in just one night?

Why, with his team of special reindeer of course! And in honor of those reindeer, here is a long overdue illustration of these magical animals. I imagine that the team of elves in charge of logistics is making sure that Dasher, Dancer, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen, Prancer, and Vixen -- oh, and that young upstart Rudolph -- are well-fed and ready to go at dusk tomorrow evening.

Meanwhile, over in Shipping, another team of elves is surely making final adjustments to this year's cargo of toys and goodies before they are loaded onto the sleigh. Loading a sleigh is never an easy job, and every inch of space must be utilized somehow while still leaving room for the driver and several fur robes to go over his lap. This year, I've read in Mechanics Illustrated that the elves in the Technical Division at North Pole, Inc. have finally added a GPS unit to the sleigh, to track progress and help streamline the journey a bit. The Board of Directors at NP, Inc. decided earlier this year that it was high time for the operation to enter the 21st century.

Over in Production, the rest of the elves are working double shifts to fill remaining orders. And of course, at the head of it all is the big man himself, the head honcho -- Saint Nicholas -- who is making a final check of his famous list in the main office. Yes, I'm sure it's an extremely busy time at the North Pole just now. When I close my eyes, I can just about picture it.
;-)

Comments

Captain Brummel said…
Dear Stokes
here's wishing you a very happy christmas, and lots of stollen.
thank you for the hours of pleasure your blog has given me over the past year.

yours
Adrian
Muenster, Germany.
littlejohn said…
All the best Stokes! Your are an inspiration to us all!
old-tidders said…
Looking forward to following your blog over the coming months.

Merry xmas and a happy new year

-- Allan

Popular posts from this blog

It's Early Days Yet. . .

M aking some early progress with Batch A of the Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment over the last several days/evenings.  Nothing terribly exciting just yet, but the basic black, brown, and flesh areas are done as are the green bases, and gray undercoat.   The latter two areas needed some careful retouching early in the week.  Next up, the neck stocks.   I might just do these in red for the enlisted men although some of my source material suggest they were black, but I always look for an excuse to shake things up a bit.  Any errant splotches of red (or black) can be covered with another application of light gray before I move onto the next step.   "Giddy up!" as one Cosmo Kramer might have said. -- Stokes

And We're Off!!!

  Arrrgh!  Gotta go back into camera settings on my iPhone to bring all of the frame into focus.  Blast! Painting is underway on the 60 or so Minden Austrians, which are slated to become my version of the Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment of AWI renown.  More or less indistinguishable from Austrians of the era really, right down to the red facings and turnbacks, but the eventual flags (already in my files) will set them apart.   I went ahead and based-coated all of them over a couple of days lthe last week of August, using a mix of light gray and white acrylic gesso, before next applying my usual basic alkyd oil flesh tone to the faces and hands.  In a day or two, I'll hit that with Army Painter Flesh Wash to tone things down a bit and bring some definition to the faces and hands.   As usual, the plan is to focus on about 20 figures at a time, splitting the regiment roughly into thirds along with the color party and regimental staff.  Depending on ...

The Eventual Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment. . .

  The Anhalt-Zerbst regiment musters in the drill square to sort themselves into platoons and companies during the coming weeks  Fall maneuvers if you will. A large dose of real life the last few days with the start of classes next Monday, various preparatory meetings, and finishing up a few other things this week.  But, I managed to sort out 60 or so Minden Austrian infantry from the pile and get 'em stuck to temporary painting bases.  Must carefully drill out the hands of several NCOs for flagpoles and pole arms this weekend before the usual basecoat.   I'm thinking of mixing the usual white gesso with the usual light gray to kill two birds with one stone so to speak.  Applying both base- and undercoat in one fell swoop as my grandmother used to say. In the meantime, the recently finished squadron of Saxon cuirassiers has been placed carefully in one of the clear acrylic boxes on my shelves until I have the suitable flag to affix.   -- Sto...