Skip to main content

Berlin or bust!!!

About this time tomorrow morning, I'll board the shuttle bus for the ride up to Chicago-O'Hare and this time Wednesday (Berlin time that is), I should be disembarking, collecting my baggage, and stumbling into waiting arms of the Grand Duchess, a weary, jet-lagged man. I'm taking a couple of P.G. Wodehouse novels (Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves and one other title) to pass the time since I rarely sleep on long flights: O'Hare-Charles DeGaul-Tegel.

The last few days have been fairly calm with bit of work on the wargaming book project that languished on the back burner during last fall and winter while I worked on that translation. Yes! I managed to write almost 2000 words yesterday afternoon, so another short part is almost done, barring some revision today. And the final twenty RSM Prussian fusiliers all have their tan undercoat and are awaiting their coat of white. Don't know if I'll actually get to any of that step before I hit the sack this evening, but we'll see.

Best of all, the corner room of Zum Stollenkeller that was all wet a week ago has dried out completely. Cheap carpeting, the concrete floor beneath it, everything. And almost none of that tell-tale, slightly damp basement odor either. Hopefully, there will not be any deluges of rain while I'm away. Keep your fingers and toes crossed!

Otherwise, that's about it for right now. I may, or may not, make a few blog postings while in Berlin. It depends on how often we walk to the internet cafe that the Grand Duchess reports is near our apartment. The wireless internet connection there does not work with Sonja's laptop for some reason. Anyway, part of me wants a few weeks away from a computer screen and keyboard. We'll see whether that happens or not, but there will be so many other things to do too, and then there is our trip up to Luebeck, where I have not been for almost twenty years, to celebrate our third anniversary. Where does the time go?

Ok, everyone. See you in July! Paint' em well and roll'em high!

Comments

andygamer said…
Have a pleasant flight and a good vacation, Stokes. And, coincidentally enough, I'm expecting my first book order from Berlin Zinnfiguren [sp?] this week.
tradgardmastare said…
Enjoy the trip and it would be good to hear from the Duchy of Stollen on tour...
best wishes
Alan
Bluebear Jeff said…
May you have a good flight and a wonderful trip.


-- Jeff
David Morfitt said…
Looking forward to the pictures of the trip!

Good luck and have fun...

David
http://nba-sywtemplates.blogspot.com/
Fitz-Badger said…
Have a good sojourn in Berlin and safe flights there and back!
A J said…
I hope you have a good vacation, Stokes. Do keep us updated with your adventures and discoveries.

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 ...

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...