Happy Feast of Stephen!

A thoroughly charming and thought provoking title.

Or, Happy Boxing Day if you prefer. I hope your Christmas Day was happy and surrounded by friends and loved ones. Or maybe quiet and calm? Whichever you prefer.

Today, the wonderful Grand Duchess (assisted by Young Master Paul) will prepare and bake her annual Dresdner Stollen! I cannot wait (something of an understatement). In the meantime, a large piece of chilled pumpkin pie with fresh coffee for breakfast in a few moments I think.

Yesterday was a toy soldier Christmas for yours truly and included the title above, a lovely large format book on German armies from roughly 1740-1945, featuring mostly previously unpublished Herbert Knoetel watercolors, and a small box of Minden Miniatures (various French Staff figures and some Austrian dragoons). The Grand Duchess tells me that some Hessian infantry are on the way once they are back in stock.

I felt like a child again for a few hours yesterday, but the best part was spending Christmas with my wife and son, watching them open gifts, and not having to venture out the front door to go anywhere. Although we did enjoy a nice, long mid-afternoon walked around the absolutely quiet neighborhood given our unseasonably warm weather here in Mid-Michigan at the moment. Usually, we have snow on the ground by this point. Still, it was a special day.

Today, the forthcoming stollen as I say (wife and son are preparing the dough in German overhead in the kitchen right now), more idle time for daydreaming, more watching the cats enjoy their Christmas catnip mice, more pleasure derived from seeing The Young Master happily engaged in play or reading new books, more good food, more quiet Christmas music, and some delicious leftovers for dinner by candlelight. I might even be able to find an hour or so for some additional brushwork on those 14 Bosniaks. Christmas contentment. Ahhhh. . .

-- Stokes

Comments

Simon said…

Those A Gentleman’s War rules are a great read. Very humorous, the melee rules seem a bit clunky though.

10:11 AM

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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