Happy Feast of Stephen.. .

A cheery seasonal street scene from somewhere that caught my fancy when I saw it.

A clear, starry, moonlit Christmas night has given way to a frosty Boxing Day here at the new Stollen Central. As I have written here in previous years, the calm of Christmas Week following the big day is always a welcome part of the holiday season, and we will continue enjoying the Christmas Festival today with quiet seasonal jazz, our usual mix of traditional German and English carols on CD (remember those?), and a family stroll in another nearby park or nature preserve this morning before more seasonal goodies and yet another fine meal prepared jointly by yours truly and the Grand Duchess.

There is also the daydreaming about how I might paint the Minden SYW personality figures and Russian artillery given to me by the Grand Duchess for Christmas. It's just the added impetus needed to get my painting gear set up on the new painting table. And I have it on good authority that one of the Grand Duchess' authentic Dresdner stollens is in the cards.

In the meantime, I will enjoy a second mug off coffee this morning with sugar and cream, something I never do anymore, having made the move to black coffee several years ago. However, its these kinds of small indulgences that make the Christmas period so delightful. We are extremely fortunate, and I feel very lucky this morning. "Happy Day After!" as my maternal grandfather used to say all of those years ago in snowy rural southeastern Pennsylvania. . . and Happy Feast of Stephen from the three of us here at Totleigh-in-the-Wold!

-- Stokes

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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...

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...

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

The Grand Duchy of Stollen

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