Stollenian Army Quits Field!!!

The battle for Pickelhaubewicz over, Stollenian Colonel von Grundig leads the shattered remains of his army from the field around the village. . . and, indeed, from the Duchy of Schleiz, which now must be ceded back to the Electorate of Zichenau.

Colonel von Grundig, at the head of his troops, puts on a brave face, but he must surely be thinking of returning to the family estate in Courland and a rather more quiet life than he has enjoyed in recent weeks.

Meanwhile, from the heights just to the east of Pickelhaubewicz, Major von Hirschbiegel and his aide observe the departing Stollenians. Ever the gallant and fair victor, the good Major raises his sword in salute to his stalwart foes.

Here's a panorama of the whole scene as it unfolds. Imagine the shame von Grundig's men will feel as they march back into Stollen proper, toward the capital of Krankenstadt and their Grand Duke, Iriwn-Amadeus II. Well, at least the gun wasn't abandoned!

And as the sun sets in the west, what further (mis)adventures await the soldiers of Stollen? Which enemies will they meet on the field of Mars next? And what of Colonel von Grundig? Might he be coaxed from a premature retirement into obscurity? And if so, what tactical blunders might he commit? What opportunites for victory might he miss? And might the chance for a Stollenian victory against uneven odds be possible at this point given Stollen's 0-3 record in the last year? Tune in again right here to find out!

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

A Little More Brushwork. . .

A little more brushwork on the first batch of (my version of) the Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment yesterday (Saturday). Taking a different tack this time and addressing many of the details first before the white coats and other larger areas of uniform. The eagle-eyed among you will notice that I've painted the (dark) red stocks of the enlisted men. Always a difficult and frustrating item to paint, it made sense to paint from the inside out as it were and get that particular detail out of the way first rather than try to paint it in later after much other painting has been accomplished. Trying to reduce the need for later retouching of other items on the figures you understand. Hopefully, I will be able to get back to these later today after a second trip back to the Apple Store for help with a couple of new iPad issues and, following the return home, some revision of Google Slides for tomorrow's meetings with my students. -- Stokes P.S. And according t...

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 Grand Duchy of Stollen

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