Splash! Gulp, cough, sputter. . .

When I was about eight years old, through most of 1975, I had a music teacher in elementary school, one Mrs. Kaiser. She was, even then, a lady of a certain advanced age, who actually taught my class how to dance The Minuet (depicted above). We absolutely hated it at the time, of course, at least the boys in the class did. Or they pretended to. But I wish I could remember the dance now simply as a curiosity piece. My wife the Grand Duchess, however, might suggest that I am already eccentric enough without adding that to the mix!

Just a brief post to apologize to my long suffering and very patient opponent, General de Latte, for my disappearance these last couple of months. Real life has me swamped. Ok, drowning in various details, duties, and commitments that are the complicated minuet making up my life recently. Sadly, wargaming and related hobby activities have fallen through the cracks. Besides family life, with all of the highs and lows that entails, I am teaching another May Term film course -- which meets daily for four weeks, three hours at a time -- and developing another (rush delivery) for administrative approval, to be taught in the fall. Well, starting in August, really. Geeze, Louise! Summer vacation hasn't even started yet.

Then, there have been various writing projects on the table in different stages of completion, something that goes with the territory. You work a little here, revise a little there, delete quite a bit there, etc., etc. On a hobby-related note though, my article "Simplify Your Painting! 24 Tips to Help You Paint and Complete Tabletop Armies Faster and More Easily" appeared recently in Battlegames #29. Shameless self-promotion, yes, but I'm reasonably pleased with the piece which, for some odd reason, took quite a while to come together before I could submit it for consideration. Hopefully, it will be received well and might even help a few wargamers out there with their own painting.

Ok, it's on to my morning class planning now. Sigh. But the good General de Latte and I should be able to resume the Battle for Neu Sittangbad before too much more time has elapsed. And I see that the Grand Duchy of Stollen blog is only a few posts away from the 1000th post, which should warrant some kind of small celebration or exhibition here in some form or other. Watch for that in the coming days and weeks.

-- Von Tschatschke

The 18th century? What's the Fascination?

Hessian musketeers by All the King's Men Toy Soldiers of Snellville, Georgia, U.S.A. Just a quick post post today, but I thought the above question might be interesting food for thought. Obviously, there is an array of possible periods, theaters, and conflicts that might catch our eyes. But what is it about the era 1700-1799 -- either real, or imagined? Is it the commanders and politics? The fairly straightforward tactics? The myriad of uniforms and flags? The variety and scope of the conflicts? The patchwork of various and sundry petty states, (at least in Central Europe)? I'm very interested to learn your thoughts. Don't be a lurker! Please leave a comment -- or even two or three. Have a nice day everyone!

An Early July Hussar Update. . .

Marginally neater in appearance with green bases, girths, and ivory horse markings added, but I need to neaten up some hooves now before moving onto the rest of the tack. W here in the world did June go? While I still ponder the answer to that question, how about a quick painting update on the first batch of 14 Minden Austrian hussars and Nadasdy? Good. I'm glad we are of a like mind. Still on the sloppy side, but I've managed to move things along, painting the green bases, white (ivory) horse markings, and beginning the miles and miles of tack adorning the various horses. I always like to begin with the girths spanning the horses' ribs which helped hold the saddles in place. Even with the figures mounted individually on temporary painting bases, these can be kind of tricky to access, but there we are. I've also used various Army Painter washes (Mid-Brown and Strong Tone) as well as their Speed Paint (Grim Black) to make the manes and tails of the horses a bit m...

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...

The Grand Duchy of Stollen

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