Let's embrace our eccentricities as wargamers!

Yours truly, doing the all but forgotten 'First Day of Spring Dance' on our patio, March 2012.

My wife, the Grand Duchess, and I often have heated discussions about my personality, habits, interests, and world view. Most recently, she implored me to attend a non-mandatory reception for faculty and staff at our university early next week to show that I am capable of being a "normal person." Her exact words.

She has also, at different times in the past, used the term 'eccentric' to describe your truly. Imagine my pleasure and surprise, then, when I unearthed the online presence of The Eccentric Club, which indeed confirms my wife's accusations, specifically the following language from their "Are you an eccentric?" page. To wit, an eccentric is described as:

nonconforming;
creative;
strongly motivated by curiosity;
idealistic; he wants to make the world a better place and the people in it happier;
happily obsessed with one or more hobbyhorses (usually, five or six);
aware from early childhood that he is different;
intelligent;
opinionated and outspoken; convinced that he is right and that the rest of the world is out of step;
noncompetitive, not in need of reassurance or reinforcement from society;
unusual in his eating habits and living arrangements;
not particularly interested in the opinions or company of other people, except in order to persuade them to his - the correct - point of view;
possessed of a mischievous sense of humour;
single;
usually the eldest or an only child; and
a bad speller*.

The first five characteristics listed here are the most important and apply to virtually every eccentric.

Nonconformity is, of course, the principal defining trait of the breed..."

(Dr D.Weeks, J.James "Eccentrics: A Study of Sanity and Strangeness", 1995)

Well, not that I ever really minded my wife's assessment, but I've decided that with the approach of my 46th birthday in early November, and being at approximately the half-way point of my life, simply to roll with the punches and embrace my eccentricities. In other words. . . Hello! My name is Stokes, I'm an eccentric, and the possibility that I might be weird no longer bothers me. I like to play with toy soldiers and dress nicely even though most places no longer require it. There now. That didn't hurt, did it? We now return you to your regularly scheduled broadcast.

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 ...

The Eventual Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment. . .

The Anhalt-Zerbst regiment musters in the drill square to sort themselves into platoons and companies during the coming weeks Fall maneuvers if you will. A large dose of real life the last few days with the start of classes next Monday, various preparatory meetings, and finishing up a few other things this week. But, I managed to sort out 60 or so Minden Austrian infantry from the pile and get 'em stuck to temporary painting bases. Must carefully drill out the hands of several NCOs for flagpoles and pole arms this weekend before the usual basecoat. I'm thinking of mixing the usual white gesso with the usual light gray to kill two birds with one stone so to speak. Applying both base- and undercoat in one fell swoop as my grandmother used to say. In the meantime, the recently finished squadron of Saxon cuirassiers has been placed carefully in one of the clear acrylic boxes on my shelves until I have the suitable flag to affix. -- Sto...

The Grand Duchy of Stollen

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