A Pre-Xmas Bosniak Update. . .

Here is where things are for December 23rd.  Look closely, and you'll notice different browns on the hooves depending on whether a leg has a white marking, or not.

As a reminder, here is what the squadron looked like back on December 1st.  So near, and yet so far, eh?

Well, here it is December 23rd already.  The deadline of the friendly painting challenge between myself and a number of friends around the world.  I have not managed to finish my pledged 14 cavalry above, but I have made some terrific progress toward that end.  Look very closely, and you'll spot a number of small details, including a tiny dot or line of dark gray highlighting the tips of boot toes on the 14 riders.  Yes. I know.  I know.  Something only detail freaks will care about, but there we are. 

While I hope for another session in the painting chair for this evening, that might not happen since the Grand Duchess needs my table here in Zum Stollenkeller to finish her Christmas wrapping this evening.  We'll see.  In addition, I hope she might whip up one of her authentic Dresdner Stollens for us during the next few days, something that is always a high point of the Christmas season for yours truly. 

Long-time visitors might recall that it was about December 5th, 2005, as The Grand Duchess made two stollens in the kitchen across the hall from my office (the much missed 'Purple Room') in our old apartment on McLean Avenue in Bloomington, Illinois.  I was having one of those thinks, as Phil Olley calls them, at my desk, wondering what I might call my planned fictitious mid-18th century wargaming project that had been on the ol' mental list since the summer of 1994, when I first obtained a copy of and read Young and Lawford's  Charge!  Or How to Play War Games (1967).  

Like a grand piano falling from the sky, The Grand Duchy of Stollen hit me.  The PERFECT name for the project.  To be completely fair and upfront though, I had a little help.  I had already stumbled upon three webspaces about a month earlier that were the final ti;ping point for me into the mid-18th century with a fictitious bent.  First, Greg Horne's Duchy of Alzheim blog, with its focus at that time on Greg's impressive units of mid-18th century RSM95 figures, was love at first sight.  Next, the Old School Wargaming Yahoo group was absolutely abuzz with activity way back then.  

In a way that must have been somewhat like Don Featherstone's old newsletters in an earlier age, there were inspirational ideas and conversations taking shape almost daily via Old School Wargaming.  For a while, it was hard to follow everything.  Last of all, Phil Olley's original War Cabinet site was also of no small influence.  The three together were just what I needed to revitalize and focus my hobby interests, shaking me out of my (long-stalled) 15mm corps-level Waterloo doldrums.  

I finally started this blog in August or September 200 after reading an article by Greg in an early issue Battlegames on wargaming and blogging.  And here we are just a little over 14 years later still moving ahead, adding to the collection, and playing the occasional game albeit at a somewhat slower pace since The Young Master arrival in late October 2009.  

While my hobby time and related activities are a bit more scarce depending on what life throws my way in any given week, the ongoing Grand Duchy of Stollen project continues to provide a quiet space where I can indulge in occasion painting and games, much reading or one kind or another, and considerable daydreaming and/or planning.  It would, moreover, be remiss of me not to mention the many interesting and entertaining personalities that I've met through this blog (and theirs) during that time.  

I cannot easily think of a hobby that affords all of the advantages brought about by miniature wargaming.  As much as I love things like cross-country skiing, playing the guitar, and a few other pastimes of note, these activities really cannot hold a candle to my lifelong pursuit of toy soldiers and the constellation of related activities that has gradually developed around that interest.  There is just a certain something about sharng one's enthusiasm and interests with like-minded souls.

Please check in right here during the next few days since I plan a number of seasonal treats, including the Grand Duke's annual Christmas message from his palace in the capital city of Krankenstadt and possibly a solo game of some sort.  I've got the itch.  Until then, may dreams of shiny toy soldiers, books on colorful uniforms, or the exploits of the armies of history and their generals fill your heads.

-- Stokes