It's Easter Weekend in the Grand Duchy. . .

"You mean a clue to the new direction?" Extra points if you recognize which 1964 film that line comes from.

Well, things have ground to a standstill the last few weeks here in the Grand Duchy of Stollen what with a conference out of town two weeks ago, foot surgery for the Grand Duchess last Friday, her envisioned six-week recovery on the chaise in the library, plus the usual end-of-semester song and dance.

There is also the matter of several academic projects with colleagues that have recently fallen into my lap. Should've thought a bit more about those before jumping into the deep end of the pool with all the other kids. What was I thinking? No rest for the wicked as the saying goes.

But, it's sunny outside this weekend, I plan to begin leaf and stick clean-up with an inaugural mow for the 2023 mowing season to suck up smaller debris, and we have a nice dinner to look forward to for Easter Sunday, prepared (purchased) by yours truly at the supermarket yesterday (Friday) evening.

We've also got some eggs to dye later today. And of course, the Easter Bunny -- one Ernst P. Haase. Have you met? -- may drop by late tonight after everyone is in bed asleep, with baskets full of goodies.

Otherwise, painting plans for the 135-140 or so soldiers, outlined in late December or January right here, continue just as soon as I can return to the painting table. But after that, it's back to a large unit of infantry, I think. And we can thank/blame David of the wonderfully long running Not by Appointment blog for providing the inspiration, indeed urgency behind the envisioned unit.

Yes, it's another regiment of the Reichsarmee, which wears pretty typical Prussian-style uniforms with red facings and turnbacks. This time, the Kreisinfanterieregiment Pfalz-Zweibrücken. A pretty poor body of troops by all accounts (E Class morale). But the flags!

This particular unit has long been on my radar screen for years and added to the (planned) painting list. So, while I will stay the course and forge ahead with the existing plans for 2023 (independent companies of generic jaegers, frei-corps, croats, and etc), this particular infantry regiment will be next in the queue. Probably not before Fall 2023, or possibly December and into 2024. Then, it will be time to get back to the cavalry for a bit (Ha, ha!) I think, since there is more than enough of it in the drawer of lead to my immediate left.

But in the meantime, The Grand Duchess awaits and yard work outdoors beckons. Ladies and gentlemen, to the rakes and lawn & leaf bags!

-- 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

Simon said…

A Hard Days Night

2:23 PM

David Morfitt said…

You sound very busy indeed! But I will enjoy seeing those flags with your troops later in the year/beginning of the next perhaps. And there are yet more attractive Reichsarmee flags still to come... :-)

Hope all goes well; good luck!

All the best,

David.

7:53 PM

WSTKS-FM Worldwide said…

Thank you, men! And we have a winner. A very funny scene, although the sequence with Ringo and the unnamed boy walking through the park talking about life and people is priceless.

Kind Regards,

Stokes

7:39 AM

The Grand Duchy of Stollen

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