Skip to main content

The Arrival of Mademoiselle de Ambuscade. . .

 
Presenting. . .  Mademoiselle Amalie de Ambuscade
Things are all abuzz at Krankenstadt Palace today.  By mid-morning, the Mademoiselle de Ambuscade and her entourage arrived after an arduous winter journey across Central Europe from Strasbourg in France.  It seems, the Grand Duke's aunts, in their quest to see Irwin-Amadeus II tie the knot and produce and heir, have taken over his social schedule in the New Year and have invited another suitable lady of marriageable age for an extended stay.  Complicating the matter is the fact that the Lady de Badinage [Thanks, Jeff!] and her retinue are already ensconced within the east wing of the palace along with the visiting General Leger de Main in the west wing.  Predictably, the Grand Duke has retired to his favorite red fainting couch in his private apartments with a dram of Absinthe and his favorite clay pipe packed with the finest Virginia tobacco.  Washing his hands of the matter for a few hours, at least, Hives has crept away following the Grand Duke's breakfast, bath, and shave for an early lunch at his own club for gentlemen's personal gentlemen. 

Comments

Bluebear Jeff said…
Oops! I thought that the "other lady" was Lady Solange de Badinage; with "General Etienne Aigner Leger de Main" being anything but a lady.

Surely mix-up of names due to Irwin-Amadeus' current flustered state.

Presumably Hives will correct the situation.


-- Jeff

PS, I find Amalie to be the more comely of the two ladies.
12:59 PM
Chris Gregg said…
I like them both, and their names. Thanks for the 18th century female artistic treat
3:17 PM
Fitz-Badger said…
She looks like a saucy minx.
8:08 PM
Martin said…
It's looking like the Grand Duke will have to watch his flanks as well as his rear!

Will Hives be able to save the day? Or will Our Hero's bachelorhood be sacrificed on the alter of matrimony?!
5:43 AM
Bloggerator said…
What Fitz-Badger said! Mrrr-ow!

Greg
10:46 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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
2 comments
Read more

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...
6 comments
Read more

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 ...
5 comments
Read more