The Grand Duchy of Stollen

  T oo much to do here in Stollen Centrale lately! We had a long weekend cross-country skiing up in the northern part of Lower Michigan last weekend, and the shortened week back has been busy.  Meetings (and related email) seem to multiply in one's absence.  But there has been one saving grace.  The snow and cold here has meant that skiing has continued along local trails whenever a free window has appeared.   Today (Saturday) will see me make some time to complete glossing on the last dozen or so of my version of Austria's Wied Infantry. I've also discovered a group of six that still need some of their brass buttons painted (Grrr. . .) .  If all goes well, I might even be able to transfer the 60+ figures to their permanent 3mm ply bases tonight or Sunday.     Watch this space for a few photographs of the completed unit. Next in the queue, 15 Minden (or Fife & Drum) jaegers to paint as a generic unit although those of Ansbach-...

  The later uniform worn by Austria's Wied Infantry, courtesy of Kronoskaf.  We'll just ignore the erroneous nature of 1762 uniforms paired with flags from the War of Austrian Succession in the 1740s! F ollowing the Young Master's bedtime yesterday evening, I retired to Zum Stollenkeller for a couple of hours for some painting before my own bedtime.  The Grand Duchess is away until Sunday evening at a conference, so it's just the boys you understand. Anyway, I quickly added green corner tassels to the tricornes of the enlisted men (the gold for officers were done some time ago), and then went to work on touching up the two flags and adding a few very thinly diluted white highlights here and there.  Washes blend into previous paintwork nicely I find.   The trick with flags is to do this -- add highlights -- in a very random way, taking care to leave some of the slightly darker undercoat showing here and there.  The subtle results more closely approximat...

  S trapped for time this week, what with the start of the new semester on Monday next (January 9th) and the usual preparation for that.  But I did take a few minutes to glue down a company of jaegers to their Litko 3mm ply bases last night before my own bedtime. I've gone this time for a mix of singletons and small vignettes on ROUND bases to represent light troops in more open order that can be sprinkled around the peripheries of tabletop battlefields.  Contrary to expectations, I like the look quite a bit.   So much that I will probably give my envisioned company of generic 'Double Blues,' which will form the other half of this composite light battalion, similar treatment when the time comes.  Hmmm.  I've also got a third, as yet unpainted, company of Croats that could do with a similar presentation.   But that is putting the cart before the horse and deviating from The Plan before we even get started in earnest.  Someone swat that b...

  Y es indeed.   T he planning and painting muse is flitting about Stollen Centrale once again!  So, I must strike while the iron is hot.   Taking stock of things and inspired by a number of my fellows across Bloglandia, here is what I aim to paint -- and I've never been one to do this -- during the next 12 months: 60+ Wied Infantry (Austria) -- Almost Done  ------------ 15 Generic Jaegers (Minden) 15 Generic Frei-Infantrie "Double Blues" (Minden) 30 Saxon Cuirassiers (Eureka)  14 Russian Dragoons for The Young Master (Minden) 60+ Reichsarmee Infantry -- Specific Unit TBD -- (Minden) +____________ 134 figures in total, not including the 60+ Wied Infantry Ambitious, yes.  Especially in light of my usual plodding output.  But as Phil Olley once wrote, and I am perhaps paraphrasing badly here, "Man with no target hit nothing."  Time for targets then.   In years past, I used to keep and revise a painting progress and completion cha...