Most of the now finished Stollenkeller, Mk. II as you enter via the staircase down to the basement and make an immediate left, looking, more or less, eastward.
Well, the university semester has begun, we are a week in, and things are about to become terribly busy as usual, so time to make a huge push to get things finished down here in my den before free time becomes a rare commodity what with teaching, professional, and family commitments here at Totleigh-in-the-Wold.
With that in mind, I spent yesterday (Friday -- I have no classes and few professional commitments on campus on Fridays), hanging my things, putting a few remaining items away in our ample closet space down here, and getting rid of the last moving cartons and packing paper that have cluttered one end of the main central room since before Christmas.
While there are still a few things I would like to do down here eventually, in general, I am pleased with how things have shaped up. So too is the Young Master, who joins me down here in the afternoons once he is home from school and has had a small afterschool snack. His knights and castle from Christmas 2013 will probably find their way down here before long as only seems right and proper.
Watch for a Sittangbad E-fight update or two here as Greg, Ross, and I play things to their conclusion here over the next few days.
-- Stokes
P.S.
Thank you or your kind comments everyone! Yes, I have been thinking about lengthening to table by two, or four feet taking its length to 12' x 6' or possibly 14' x 6'. 12' x 6' seems like a nice size, though, for the size of my forces and the kinds of non-historic, scenario-based battles I envision when time permits. The Young Master, cats, and I have already spent many happy hours puttering around down here in Zum Stollenkeller, Mk. II during the last month (can you believe it?), and I imagine many more are to come.
Last night, I managed to sit down at the painting desk and apply a white gesso basecoat to a vignette base consisting of a Lutheran pastor by Black Hussar Miniatures, who is attempting to save the souls of several ladies of ill repute by Suren/Willie. I followed that fairly quick exercise with sorting through a few more civilian figures in my odds and ends box for a new series of camp follower vignettes, and next got my next batch of 20 RSM and Minden figures ready to go for the third part of that monster 80-figure regiment that I began painting last year at this time. A delightful 90 minutes at the end of the day. Alkyd oil fleshtone onto the hands and faces this evening. Charge!
Here is another corner at the bottom of the stairs, where I hung two of the six military print reproductions that appeared at the center of Military Modelling for three or four issues in late 1985-early 1986. I actually picked up these issues in Brussels, Belgium way back when during January '86, and finally managed to get the prints framed after the Grand Duchess and I set up house together back in 2005-2006. No, we weren't married yet. Shhhh! Don't tell the Young Master. For the record, I knew as far back as 2001 how I felt about the Grand Duchess. She refused my early attempts to make things permanent, and it took several years to wear her down before SHE finally asked me to get married in January 2005, and we at last tied the knot in late June '06.
Here is a shot of the southern wall of Zum Stollenkeller, Mk. II. That's the Young Master's insect collection atop the bookcases just beneath the old print of Napoleon aboard the H.M.S. Bellerophon.
Here are two more of those old Military Modelling print reproductions on the northern wall over my computer desk. These two are my favorites.
Finally, here is a vintage movie poster from 1965 when The Heroes of Telemark was first released. My stepfather and I spent a couple of hours rooting through stacks of old movie posters beneath a junk shop -- Crown Antiques, which used to be based in the old Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania -- one warm spring afternoon in 1990. He found a couple he liked and also purchased this one for me all three for the princely sum of about US$40. Anyway, this poster hangs at the bottom of the stairs and is the first thing you see as you descend into Zum Stollenkeller here at Totleigh-in-the-Wold.
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