Winter is on its way!

Here's a understated Norwegian Christmas card from years gone by. For you non-Norwegian speakers out there (and there must be at least a few of you) 'God Jul" means Merry Christmas.

Much is afoot here at Stollen Central currently. The Grand Duchess and the Young Master are hard at work in the kitchen upstairs, assembling a gingerbread house kit that the former purchased earlier this month to replace the six or seven-year-old gingerbread house kit that we never managed to assemble prior to and since becoming parents. They must be having a nice time because it is pleasantly quiet in the house.

In other news -- and I'm well aware that you visitors to the GD of S blog are hanging on EVERY word -- the Grand Ducal Feline Princess Gunnlaug went to the doctor's this morning for the Royal Spaying. The doctor's office called a short while ago to let us know that the surgery had gone well, and we can pick her up tomorrow morning. Meanwhile, her brother Prince Onyx is enjoying his short status as the sole cat in the house. Demanding lots of extra attention, purring, and extra food. And, while I thought he might be skittish without his sister given his unpleasant experience with the ferocious bag monster a few days ago, he seems to be taking it in stride.

Work continues bit by bit on the wooden trucks for the Young Master. The bag of 100 wooden wheels arrived yesterday, and I was very pleased to see that they are, in fact, exactly the right size. Painting of the basic colors can commence in earnest later today, and I hope to complete detailing and attach the wheels by Saturday or Sunday.

Soldier painting has ground to a halt for the moment. There are only so many hours in the day, and sooner or later something had to give. Given my Santa Claus activities at the moment -- and I am wearing a genuine Norwegian fisherman's sweater in cream and charcoal that I've had for 20 years, so I certainly look like an elf in the workshop -- it seems unlikely that I'll get even close to finishing those 20 pledged figures for the current painting challenge, but oh well. As I mentioned previously, there will be plenty of time for painting during Christmas Week. And why kill myself during what ought to be a more relaxed period in our lives than is usually the case?

Finally, we are poised for our first big winter storm of the season! Not much snow predicted, but it's already much colder, gray, and dark here in the Grand Duchy today, so it finally feels like early winter. And hey, it's only a few more days until Festivus on the 23rd with its aluminum pole, airing of grievances, and feats of strength. I especially enjoy telling family members gathered around the supper table how they have disappointed me each year! ;-)

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

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...

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 ...

Fitz-Badger said…

The solstice is nigh, too.

Felicitations to the felines! Good to hear the prince has recovered from his bag incident and that his sister is recovering from her surgery!

Sounds like things all nice and snug there in the Grand Duchy. :)

Happy Festivus for the rest of us!

7:36 PM

The Grand Duchy of Stollen

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