A Pre-Christmas Baking Calm Settles over the Grand Duchy. . .

Here's the finished product just out of the oven. Time to make some fresh coffee and indulge. And the house still smells amazing this morning!

The Grand Duchess and I decided to try our hands at making some Swedish lussekatter (saffron buns) in honor of Santa Lucia Day yesterday evening. The verdict? A resounding success. About two hours of preparation time, including two rounds of letting the dough rise, but it goes pretty quickly with two people working together. Dare I suggest that it's a fun culinary activity for partners and spouses to undertake in the run up to Christmas?

Here is an earlier photograph of the Grand Duchess brushing eggwhite glaze over the dough before it went into the oven for about 15 minutes.

Now rest easy. The piece-de-resistance should be along shortly when the Grand Duchess bakes her authentic Dresdner Stollen in the next few days. And I'm really looking forward to that. Some of you long-time visitors to the GD of S blog might recall that it was during one such Stollen preparation session way back in early December of 2005 that the name for my burgeoning old school wargaming project, in the spirit of Charge! and The War Game, first occurred to me. Anyway, that is so full of butter that you can almost feel your arteries clogging as you enjoy a slice or two, but it's about the best Christmas treat I can think of. . . especially when enjoyed with copious amounts of fresh, strong coffee!

This particular old post card must be British, judging by the salutation and use of the name Father Christmas.

Finally, the next 10 RSM musketeer figures stand ready for two coats of white acrylic basecoat later today followed by the application of green to their bases, fleshtone, and black on the hats, shoes/gaiters, and cartridge pouches this evening. I'll tackle five in one go, so I can have a batter chance of making the January 16th deadline for the painting challenge in which I am participating. Ok, enough idle chit-chat. I've got paint brushes to warm up and Humbrol enamels to stir!

Presenting the Anspach-Bayreuth Kuirassiere!!!

Here they are, with the rearmost nine figures still drying, three squadrons of the Anspach-Bayreuth Kuirassiere, now in the service of the Grand Duchy of Stollen. And now, it's onto that artillery!

And It's the End of September!!!

Saxony's Ploetz Cuirassiers, an illustration lifted from the Kronoskaf website, which has thus far guided my spectacularly glacial painting of 30 28mm Eureka Saxon cuirassiers purchased all the way back in October 2016. A gray, cool Saturday here in Mid-Michigan with rain in the forecast. The Grand Duchess is away at a conference, so it's just "The Boys" here at home. The Young Master (almost 15) has retreated to his room for something or other following breakfast while I have stolen back down here to Zum Stollenkeller (masquerading as my office) with a second mug of coffee and both cats comfortably ensconced nearby. Enjoying the late morning and still in my pajamas! Not much planned for today beyond designing a couple of promotional flyers for workshops my department is presenting (small parties we will throw?) in October and November. With maybe a bit of on the next podcast script. More important, I am toying with the idea of returning for an hour or...

Happy September 2nd!!!

T his weekend, the question of what, precisely, constitutes an "imagination" came up in an online forum of which I am a part. To be fair, the issue originates from further afield in a Facebook group that I am not a member of, but I weighed in with my own view. The following was in response to the question posed yesterday (Sunday) morning by an exasperated member of my own rather more gentlemanly town square, who had been met with a strident response to information he shared about his (admirable) hobby activities on said FB group. Here is, more or less, what I wrote: To my mind, the concept of imagi-nation(s) is a broad one. It can range from historical refights or what-if scenarios/battles/campaigns between armies of a particular era, to completely made up combatants operating in a quasi-historical setting, to the rather generic red and blue forces of the Prussian Kriegspiel that examine a particular tactical problem, task, or exercise. ...

The Grand Duchy of Stollen

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