Banging the Grand Duchy of Stollen Blog into Shape. . .

At the moment, I am between projects, awaiting the arrival of some new figures, and sitting tight to see how the "Which Tabletop Scenario Should They Fight?" question pans out over the final ten days or so of the poll.  So, there has been some nice, lazy almost inactivity going on here in Zum Stollenkeller of late.  However, things have not ground to a complete halt.  I have been slowly giving the Luebecker Musketeers their second coat of gloss varnish and cutting out their bases from 1/16" plywood.  Should look really good once I get those ready to tack the figures to them.  And I've also managed to attached a few artillery tools to the hands of those Minden and RSM gun crews and glue the figures to temporary bases for later painting.  Might just start that this weekend if the mood strikes me.

And then there is some housecleaning and home improvement to do with regard to the GD of S blog itself.  Some of you more eagle-eyed visitors to the Grand Duchy of Stollen just might have noticed the beginnings of a navigation bar just below the collage of pictures at the top of the GD of S homepage and a few additional pages to the blog during the last couple of days.  I have thought for some time that the right-hand side of the GD of S blog has become a little crowded, requiring an awful lot of downward scrolling to see everything.  So, I'll transfer the campaign geography and personalities to their own pages over the next week or so.  

What else?  Well, there will also be a new page, featuring some campaign history, a gallery of photographs of my own units in miniatures and their previous tabletop exploits, a guest gallery for anyone who might like to share clearly focused, well-lighted photographs of their own 18th century collections, and a page for guest blogposts.  More of that anon, but there are some guest contributions lined up for 2012 that I hope you might find interesting and perhaps inspiring, or even useful.  

And now, for some full frontal nerdity.  Following a delicious Indian dinner with the Grand Duchess yesterday evening, I retired early to bed with a mug of fresh, very black coffee (delusions of being the Sean Connery-era James Bond here, you know?), and the first 13 issues of Wargames Illustrated from the late 80s.  I then spent a delightful few hours looking carefully for photographs from the old Wargames Holiday Centre when it was still run by the late Peter Gilder.  Specifically, I sought photographs of bridges.  Bingo!  It did not take long before I spotted at least two that will provide handy points of reference for my own modelling efforts here in Zum Stollenkeller.  Now, when the Grand Duchess next asks why I hang onto these old magazines, I'll have a ready answer!

Anyway, I made a trip to the local arts and crafts store here this morning where I purchased a couple of  long 1/8" square strips of Balsa wood (perfect for support beams of one kind or another) along with a Revell/Monogram balsa project bag.  And if that weren't exciting enough, by looking carefully through all of the bags hanging on the rack, I was able to find one that consists almost entirely of thin pieces that will make ideal walls, pillars, and planks for the various scratch-built bridges, wagons, carts, and pontoons that I have planned for this year in view of the planned Tabletop Teaser scenarios.  Now I just need to find about a dozen suitable limbers and about 40 assorted wagon wheels.  Any suggestions?

Last of all, the Grand Duchy of Stollen blog has had approximately 185,000+ visits since its inception in August 2006.  I say 'approximately' because from time to time the counter I use has gone on the fritz for a few days at a time, so the number of actual visits may be greater.  But we'll just be happy with the number actually shown by the counter.  In any case, thank you for your interest in, and support of, the Grand Duchy of Stollen during the last few years. And on a related note, the GD of S has also picked up a few more followers during the last several weeks, so a hearty welcome to you from the Grand Duke Irwin-Amadeus II, his gentleman's gentleman Hives, and all the rest of the cast here at Stollen Central.

Now, why is it that whenever you are expecting a shipment of new figures in the mail, it seems to take forever, but the bills reach you about two days after being posted?