The Grand Duchy of Stollen

  Good reason to keep busy at the painting/scratch-built terrain desk  as long as possible, eh?   -- Stokes

    S ounds like a Syd Barret-era Pink Floyd composition, doesn't it?  Or possibly something from The Move.   T he above book arrived via DHL a couple of hours ago (our mail lady brought it to the door for a signature), and I am just tickled pink by the depth of the subject matter and overall fine quality of the reprint.  I actually forgot all about my order of the book a few weeks back, so its arrival was a lovely surprise. Anyway, 510 pages of copious text (in German), photographs, mechanical drawings, and tables.  Very pleased with the purchase!  A source I have been aware of, and meant to purchase a copy "one day" for several years, but it was not until Charles Grant's recent how-to piece in the 2023 Wargamers' Annual and the related discussion over on the Fife and Drum Miniatures forum that I took the leap. A bit pricey, but look around online for alternative sellers to Amazon, which is what I did, and you might be able to pick up a cop...

  The materials and brushes used to apply fleshtone and flesh wash to the unit currently under the brush. Both brushes are  synthetic 'rounds,' a new #4 used to apply the fleshtone itself, and an older #3 to apply the less precise wash. G ood Saturday morning everyone!  A New Zealand visitor to the Grand Duchy of Stollen has asked about how I paint the faces (and hands) on my figures.  Thank you for your question Paul, and here's how I do it in three steps: 1) Start by applying Winsor & Newton alkyd oil flesh tone, which dries in less than 24 hours [although any good acrylic, suitably peachy flesh tone will do].     2) Give faces and hands a quick wash of Army Painter Flesh Wash during the next session.   3) A day of two later, and using a very small brush with a good point, retouch the cheeks, bridges of noses, the occasional brow and chin, and the more exposed knuckles or backs of hands with a dot or dash of the original flesh tone....

My favorite skiing holiday photograph from this season.  The Young Master and Bad Dad (his nickname for me) in Northern Michigan during a brief pause from gliding up and down the trails during mid-January 2023. The trails this morning around Lake Lansing, just five minutes from the house.  Quite a few other skiers out today taking advantage of the warm temperatures (Upper 30s F.) and possibly final (???) appreciable snowfall for the season in our part of Lower Michigan. S tarting the 15 Fife & Drum jaegers in earnest this evening -- They have been base-coated for some several weeks now. --  with fleshtone on the hands and faces, possibly continuing on to the basic dark green coats and light tan breeches if things progress well.  But this morning, The Grand Duchess and I each managed to slip away for an hour or so of skiing local trails very close to the house in the wake of our snowfall last night. The rest of this post is not wargaming or painting related, so fe...