The Grand Duchy of Stollen

  T he batch of 15 jaegers is very close to being finished.  Just metallic bits and many small buttons left to do.  I know, I know. . .   In the meantime, a reprise of various images of AWI-era troops that I found online sometime ago.  Mostly Hessian with a Prussian or two, but the top illustration apparently represents a pair of Ansbach-Beyreuth soldiers.  All have provided handy points of reference during brushwork on the current project. Osprey titles et al are great, but sometimes it's fun to look around online for other uniform references, you know?  As I mentioned in the previous post, I got a couple of details wrong on my figures and reversed the colors on the hat ribbons.  Discovered that rather egregious error only AFTER finishing the tiny detail in question on figure #15 a few evenings ago.  Sigh.   Ah, well.  My forces are imaginary after all, but we'll still call 'em the Ansbach-Beyreuth jaegers.  St...

  A few incorrect details (Grrrr. . .), but my generic jaeger company --  based loosely on the Anspach-Beyreuth Jaegers, who fought in the AWI -- is almost ready for glossing.  Just the brass details along with a few of the usual touch-ups here and there, and Bob's your mother's brother.   I hope to have these all finished for our planned Battle of Spargelzeit in about two weeks.  The Young Master, in his guise of the tactically astute General Paul von Stollen, will have the honor of commanding them in their inaugural action.   In the meantime, it's onto the so called 'double blues,' a generic company of frei-corps infantry, which you'll observe waiting in the background.  These have already had the basic Winsor & Newton Griffin alkyd oil fleshtone applied followed by Army Painter flesh wash to provide some definition and tone down the bright flesh just a bit.   Very eager to begin in earnest with these since I have wanted to ...

  B eliever it, or not, I actually got myself into the painting chair for two or three decent sessions yesterday after a four-month break!  It turns out the company of generic jaegers are further along than I remembered with just various small and relatively quick details to add before they are finished and ready for glossing, followed by a bit of suggested terrain on their bases.   These were a Christmas gift from the Grand Duchess and Young Master in 2022.  The usual Minden, or in this case Fife & Drum, figures.  I am nothing if not predictable in my painting and collecting tastes. For ease, the figures making up the 15-strong company have been mounted already in skirmish order on circular bases of various sizes.  Two groups of three, a pair, and several singletons to array in skirmish order as needed.  The usual 3mm ply bases from Litko.  No photo updates today, however, since my camera battery needs charging, and my phone is upstairs ...

  I opted for the 'Fine Lake' sheets, which I believe is the one furthest to the right.  No raging rapids and gale force winds in the Grand Duchy of Stollen during campaign season, you know. P oking around Amazon a couple of evenings ago, looking at books (Imagine that!), I somehow stumbled onto these PVC water effect mats, which might be just the thing for easy to use, fairly convincing scenic accessories once cut and trimmed to shape and colored [on the underside according to what I read online], or placed atop a suitably colored surface.   These might provide a reasonable compromise between less than convincing blue streams and rivers and hyper-realistic but time-consuming model representations of water, resin and all.  We'll see once the mats arrive, but the price per approximately 20" x 10" sheet seemed very reasonable, so I ordered a few to check 'em out.  Click the link above to have a look at the details. -- Stokes

  A couple of photos "borrowed" from the internet illustrating two key points.  First, the similar appearance of the forests and coasts along the U.S. Great Lakes and Norway's Lake Mjoesa (between Oslo and Lillehammer).  And second, the dark gray-blue appearance of water.  Especially, though not exclusively, on cloudy days. J ust back yesterday (Saturday afternoon) from time away with the Grand Duchess and Young Master on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, not far from Lake Superior and the city of Marquette, where we rented a small cabin with a couple of bedrooms, kitchen, and bath on the shore of Shag Lake just outside the village of Gwinn.   A wonderful way to recharge the batteries at summer's midpoint before the inevitable rush toward the start of the fall term/semester at the end of August.  My only regret is that we could not stay another week!  Beautiful country with plenty of boating, hiking, biking, and skiing possibilities.  Plus wil...

The Pine Creek arm of Manatawny Creek in Berks County, Pennsylvania.  Not too far away from where yours truly grew up (District Township).  My grandparents' creek, just in front of the house, looked very much like this.  Unless heavy rains turned it into a raging river for a few days.  It could, and did, sweep away cars.  Remind me to tell you about that sometime W ell, Sir.  I've got the creek sections and a long, narrow pond roughly penciled in on the cheap, pres-stretched and pre-gessoed pre-stretched canvases that were purchased a few days ago.  Painting will begin this evening with dark brown brushed onto the center of each section to suggest depth.   If that goes well, I'll proceed with blending in lighter brown and muted greenish-brown on either side of that along the banks, which will be suggested with some Woodland Scenics materials later. Why the brown and not blue?  Well, at my grandparents' place, where I spent most ...