The elves are shifting operations into high gear in the Grand Duchy of Stollen!

This is, I think, my favorite image of Santa Claus/ Father Christmas this season due to the wonderful red-brown robes and the fact that he is on skis. Some of you Stollen regulars my recall, while I am by no means an expert Nordic/Cross-Country skier, and I have more than my share of face-plants each time we have been lucky enough to get out on skis, I am an enthusiastic participant. Now, if Mother Nature would just send about 6"+ of the white stuff to our neck of the American Midwest!

Things are clicking into high gear fairly smoothly here at Stollen Central this early afternoon. The Grand Duchess is off to have lunch with a friend from school and then to the supermarket to shop for Christmas Dinner. Meanwhile, yours truly has been busy folding and stowing clean laundry and ironing a few things to wear on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. I am nothing if not a thoroughly domesticated male. Thank good ol' Mom, who once told me while demonstrating how to wash clothes and then iron them when I was about twelve, "Pay attention! Someday, your wife will appreciate this."

In a little while, Young Master Paul will have lunch and then a nap. Then, onto a little gift-wrapping, ordering a Christmas centerpiece for my sister and brother-in-law, and a couple of Amazon online certificates for Mom and Step-Dad. Oh, and I managed to get the two-part process on the red coats of the current batch of ten RSM95 musketeers early yesterday evening. Be sure to check back for a photo update later today! Tonight, it's onto the browns: musket stocks, hair, and mustaches.

A rather cheerful representation of the Big Man. The basket of fruit on his shoulder is a neat touch, and of course I'm a sucker for the purple robes and wreath of holly that adorn this particular Santa Claus/ Father Christmas.

Comments

Bluebear Jeff said…

Well, while I'm sure that it is nowhere nearly as good as that made by the Grand Duchess Sonja, one of our local bakeries had stollen for sale . . . so I got some and my wife and I both liked it.

-- Jeff

4:54 PM

tidders2 said…

Stokes

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

-- Allan

7:42 AM

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...

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...

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

The Grand Duchy of Stollen

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