Happy Feast of Stephen!!!

By Christmas Morning 2020 (yesterday), it was clear that Santa Claus/Father Christmas and the reindeer had indeed made a quick stop at our house sometime in the night. Now, call me superstitious, but I strongly suspect that ol' Saint Nick is anxious about stepping on the scale today.

A lovely, relaxed Christmas Day yesterday here The Grand Duchy of Stollen all things considered. A fire on the hearth, quiet German carols in the background along with other festive music throughout the day, far too much good food to enjoy, delightful company of The Grand Duchess and Young Master, Christmas crackers and charades, and so forth.

And of course a few gifts. Highlights include some Fife& Drum Hessian musketeers and grenadiers given to me by The Young Master, and (Surprise, surprise!) Minden Prussian musketeers given to The Young Master by yours truly. A toy soldier Christmas indeed.

It reminds me of the time that my sister and I each gave the other a copy of the album Parallel Lines by Blondie (remember them?) for Christmas of 1979. Goodness, gracious does that seem like a thousand years ago! In a number of ways, it might as well be.

Anyway, it looks very much like The Young Master will learn to paint figures in early 2021 as we work together to prepare his 32+ figures for their tabletop debut. I've already suggested a few of the Prussian garrison regiments to him given their relative simplicity (lots and lots of dark blue) which he can manage while ol' Dad assists with some of the smaller detailing, fleshtone, and a few of the finer points for example.

As for our planned Guilford Courthouse game, we've decided, by mutual agreement, that we'll set up the table today and play the actual tabletop battle tomorrow (Sunday). This will allow us time for a more relaxed approach to the day today. Who knows? I might even be able to find time for some more brushwork on those nine Minden Austrian horse grenadiers and dragoon regimental staff at some point.

-- Stokes

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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