The Grand Duchy of Stollen

  F inding inner peace in toy soldiers is something that I expect non-wargamers, painters, and collectors would not quite understand, but it helps calm me as we prepare to return to campus and business as usual (??!!) tomorrow morning.   Faculty, staff, and students have been advised time and again by our university, in the wake of Monday evening's shootings here at Michigan State University, to practice self-care and find joy/peace/calm/salvation in ways that work for us. So, with that in mind, I made the decision to press on yesterday evening and this (Sunday) afternoon with wrapping up my version of Austria's Wied Infantry, which I've been tinkering with since last August.  Time to get back on the horse and get 'em done.   And they are almost there.  Just a few remaining teeny, tiny things to touch up -- details no one but me will ever notice -- and then Bob's your mother's brother.  I'll call 'em done and get moving with that company of 15 gen...

  Arielle Anderson, Alexandria Verner, and Brian Fraser. T hree students here at Michigan State University died senselessly in yet another (apparently random) mass shooting earlier this week.  Five others were seriously injured.   A colleague, a man with whom I have served on a committee in the recent past, taught two of them and saw them shot during his evening class on Cuban history.   Not the first time something like this has happened in the U.S., and I expect not the last.  There really are no words to adequately describe or explain any of this.  But yes.  Let's do keep shouting loudly about and lobbying for the right to keep and bear arms.  You know.  To keep that secretive world army at bay, which is just poised to invade beyond the Canadian border.   If finding an academic job, picking up, and moving were easier, I am now ready to relocate to a somewhat more peaceful society.  What a world we hav...

  W ell, Sir.  The glossing of my version of Austria's Wied Infantry is finally complete.  Yes, at long last. Two and a half coats, by my estimation, of Liquitex Professional High Gloss Acrylic Varnish.  The last half coat is applied just to raised areas of the figures more likely to be touched as units are handled (upper arms, front of left leg, rear of right calf, tricornes, cartridge pouches, etc.).  It also catches the light in a most pleasing way Warmer temperatures today (Saturday), which means some cross-country skiing this afternoon after the Young Master's usual Tae Kwon Do practice.  The careful process of transferring the 60+ figures from temporary to their permanent bases is slated to begin this evening.   With any luck I can get that all done, snap a few photographs of the entirely finished regiment, and then basecoat those 15 Minden Prussian jaegers tomorrow. Photographs with this post, taken using my iPhone, include two brightened ...