The Grand Duchy of Stollen

W ell, The Young Master has been too busy for a game with ol' Dad this Christmas week as I had hoped, so I have instead busied myself at the painting table to clean up and make some headway with his version of Prussia's 3rd Garrison Regiment.  Here is where things stand this (Thursday) evening.  Getting through the highlight stage before adding lots of fine detailing.  The two drummers at this point need another thinned coat of very dark blue before I tackle the white sleeve chevrons and swallows wings.  So too do a few of the hats, which need some thinned black in the corners.  Overall though, the figures don't look half bad considering there were two of us working on them last January, February, and March before my son took a break from fairly routine painting in short bursts with me. Clearly, The Young Master prefers the actual games to painting.  And that's ok.  The wargaming hobby is a borad church after all.  And as Greg Horne, t...

  T he Grand Duchess baked her 2021 stollen this evening, and the yeasty aroma in the house is amazing.  Sadly, I overindulged at the dinner table, and it is doubtful that I'll feel like sampling any of the fresh stollen until tomorrow morning at the breakfast table.   Looking very forward to that eventuality however.  There is nothing like a thick slice or two of fresh stollen with a large mug of fresh dark roast coffee. -- Stokes

  A s my much loved and missed maternal grandfather used to say, while he stirred his mid-afternoon scotch and water with his forefinger and flicked the drop or two of moister into the nearby kitchen sink, "Happy day after!"  There is something very pleasant about the relative quiet and calm of December 26th after the busy run up to Christmas Eve and Christmas Day as nice as they are in their ways. Here in The Grand Duchy of Stollen, we have continued to enjoy too many seasonal treats, Christmas music, and yet more Christmas dinner with some delightful French and Italian red wines.  The Young Master enjoyed receiving his Russian artillery, and we hope to have a game sometime during Christmas week although that depends on what he decides to do since it is Christmas Break and he is so over scheduled the rest of the time with one thing and another. In any case, I am already thinking ahead to what I might paint up for him for his next birthday and next Christmas.  One ve...

  A big day here in The Grand Duchy of Stollen.  We began with The Young Master racing downstairs at about 10am to see if Santa Claus and the reindeer had eaten the treats left for them and to read the annual letter to him from Santa as his mother and I readied breakfast.  We wrapped up the day with my tucking him in a short while ago at 8:40pm with a final wish of Merry Christmas one more time, a brief recap of the day, and a kiss on the forehead before I closed the door to his room and stole quietly back downstairs. The Young Master is now 12 although rather immature in some ways due to ASD and related learning disabilities.  At the same time, he now seems so adult in other ways.  I am sure Santa Claus will not hold the same excitement for too much longer.  Our little boy is growing up with a consuming interest in natural history and the sciences as well as cartoon strips, social and political history, and working toward his black belt in Tae Kwon Do....

    A pre-Christmas gift from my wonderful sister in Washington, D.C.  An official Dr. Who Tardis mug.  As she wrote in her email to me this morning, "It holds more coffee because. . .  It's larger on the inside!" Easily the coolest mug I have ever had, I will use and enjoy it often.  Wearing my extreme nerdiness proudly here, I have been a fan of the series for over 40 years since 1977, when WHYY (Public Broadcasting Service) in Philadelphia used to air Tom Baker episodes every Saturday afternoon.  Usually all four installments of a particular story in one two-hour block.   My sister and I used to sit down together to enjoy these together each week, at nine and ten years old respectively.  In fact, she was the one who introduced me to The Doctor.  While I am open to other doctors, my personal favorites remain Tom Baker, Jon Pertwee, and Peter Davison.   Hmm.  The mug is empty.  Time for a refill.  -- Stoke...

  Another old seasonal favorite of mine.  You don't see magical Father Christmases like this anymore sadly.   T he ground is white with fresh snow east of the sun and west of the moon in the far off Grand Duchy of Stollen. Billowing, silvery drifts are piled throughout the country. The rivers and lakes are frozen solid. The woods are still but for the distant jingle of sleigh bells in the bracing air. The sky is slate grey, and heavy coal smoke hangs over the villages and towns. It is Christmas Eve here in the Grand Duchy, somewhere very near to Frederick’s Prussia, sometime during the mid-18th century.  Citizens of Krankenstadt bustle to and fro through snow-covered streets of the small capital city of the Grand Duchy, running last minute errands before the Christmas festival begins in earnest. The red brick North German Gothic storefronts feature special Christmas items and treats like the marzipan for which the city is known, and the happy faces of children pee...

    F inal touch-ups and two coats of extra shiny acrylic gloss tomorrow (Thursday), followed by careful wrapping, and placement beneath the Christmas tree.  A reasonable approximation of SYW Russian artillery.  Whew!  I wasn't sure I could manage it there for a couple of days. -- Stokes

  Said battery and crew.  The guns are basically finished and mostly glossed.  Still quite a bit to accomplish for the crew however.  Not my best painting, but they should still reasonably good at arm's length once painted and glossed.  I am, however, very pleased with the red coats, breeches, and waistcoats. H a rd at work in the evenings recently painting the Minden SYW Russian artillery for The Young Master's Christmas gift. At the fine detailing point now, so maybe I can get them done and glossed, carefully wrapped , and beneath the tree in the next couple of evenings.  Or three.  Since these are imaginary troops after all, I am ignoring some of the historically correct details and going for the overall effect.  They are nevertheless looking pretty good to my eyes at this point.  Certainly far from perfect, but I think our Paul will appreciate using them against ol' Dad's troops during our Christmas Week game.   On that note, I ...

  A Featherstonian battle in progress from decades past.  Photograph "borrowed" from the Man of Tin blog. R ules of Wargames in the American Civil War Period (pp. 34-35 of Feathertone’s Complete Wargaming, 1988) “The effects of being fired upon or taking part in a hand-to-hand melee are reflected by the morale of the unit as a whole being affected in that it is – Unaffected , when it remains where it is on the field, able to move, fire, or fight in the next game move in the normal style. Shaken – when the unit withdraws its normal move distance, still in good fighting order, but not able to move forward (or towards the enemy) until the next game move.   It may fight in the normal way if attacked. Disordered – when the unit withdraws its normal move distance, but ends with its back to the enemy, unable to fight or fire until its owner   is able to score a 4 or over on the dice, which he may throw at the beginning of each subsequent game-move.   Each failure...

  The usual delightful Minden castings, already looking pretty good although considerable brushwork remains. T aking a couple of days this weekend for myself after two weeks of galloping through life following the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday weekend.  Best of all, I have returned to the painting bench to continue work on the two-gun battery and crew of Russian SYW figures for The Young Master this Christmas.  The figures are reasonably far along and at the detailing/touch-up stage.  But it was time to get a jump on the cannon themselves.  Here is where we stand after half an hour or so of dark undercoats to de-emphasize all of those troublesome nooks and crannies that go hand in glove with artillery pieces.   The models already had been based coated with a mixture of white acrylic gesso and gray acrylic paint. Doing so kills two birds with one stone and provides a nice, solid base for later paints, regardless of type (acrylics, solvents, oils, etc.)....

  Metacognition from a Frequent Commenter -- Stokes    P.S. It's got nothing whatsoever to do with military history, toy soldiers, or wargaming.