The Grand Duchy of Stollen

  One of my favorite vintage images of Father Christmas,  There is just something magical about him.  A far cry from the near universal Coca-Cola image of Santa Claus that we see everywhere in the 21st century.  The follow above certainly fits right into the Grand Duchy of Stollen pantheon. T he ground is white with fresh snow east of the sun and west of the moon in the far off Grand Duchy of Stollen. Billowing, silvery drifts are piled throughout the country. The rivers and lakes are frozen solid. The woods are still but for the distant jingle of sleigh bells in the bracing air. The sky is slate grey, and heavy coal smoke hangs over the villages and towns. It is Christmas Eve here in the Grand Duchy, somewhere very near to Frederick’s Prussia, but a bit east of the sun and west of the moon, sometime during the mid-18th century.  Citizens of Krankenstadt bustle to and fro through snow-covered streets of the small capital city of the Grand Duchy, running last ...

  A suitably snowy vista across part of the capital city Krankenstadt of the Grand Duchy of Stollen, a place which bares a striking resemblance to Riga, Latvia. T hings are busier than I would like here in the Grand Duchy at the moment, further early brushwork on the first 16 Eureka Saxon cavalry has been put on a back burner, and a slight cold for a few days threw a wrench into the works.  Grrrr.   But I am on the mend now and steaming full ahead with the few last minute details and errands out ahead of Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and our December 27th departure for a week of cross-country skiing in Canada through the new year.  In the meantime, it seems like a nice idea to share a few of our favorite traditional carols here in the Grand Duchy of Stollen.   Given the many traditional carols out there, this has been a tough call to make since there are some truly beuatiful pieces, but his long-suffering manservant Hives and I have managed to narrow t...

  Part of Peter Gilder's famed Waterloo set-up with the Chateau Hougoumont in the foreground.  An image familiar to many of you no doubt!   A propos of nothing, it has been quite a while since I had a model soldier dream.  However, last night came very close in that I had a making-terrain-for-model-soldiers dream.  In said dream, I starred in the role of, if not the late Messrs. Peter Gilder and Ian Weekley, then at the very least a master terrain modeler.   The layout wasn't Waterloo, but there were already some units -- It wasn't clear if these were my own, 18th century, Napoleonic, or another sub-period of the horse and musket era. -- scattered around the large tabletop, which had realistic and convincing undulation, buildings, and some copses already in place.  I was simply finishing things up on parts of the large board that were not quite done to my liking.   Dusting with Woodland Scenics materials here and there you understand....

I t's 1 0:30 Saturday morning, and I am still waking up with the first mug of coffee, and the two cats milling around here in my office at home.  A dark, wet, and dreary day outside, but I've got much activity planned since the Grand Duchess and Young Master have decided to visit Chicago for the day and left very early this morning. First off, and following a hot shower, a visit to my tailor to take in a new three-piece suit from J. Press for the usual minor alterations.  It arrived yesterday, and was/is a gift to myself for some good news professionally speaking earlier this fall.  And since three-piece suits are generally pretty hard to find in 2023, I leapt at the opportunity after spotting this particular number on the J. Press website two weeks back.  A charcoal Donegal weave, very soft to the touch, and perfect for the cooler months, which here in Mid-Michigan are, conveniently, October through April, and sometimes well into May.  So this on...

  T o mark Leuthen Day 2023 -- The battle was fought on 5. December 1757 -- here are a few previous photographs of my versions of King Frederick II listening to von Seydlitz hold forth about this, that, something, or other.   Minden figures of course (1/56 scale).  First painted back in 2011 or 2012 (or possibly 2010?) when Frank Hammond still owned and ran the company.  Paints were a mix of alkyd oils for the horses and larger areas of ol' Fred and Seyd with hobby acrylics for most (but not all) of the smaller details.   I rebased  the two at some point post-2020, using a smaller Litko terrain base. They still look pretty good to my eyes. -- Stokes

  30 Eureka Saxon cuirassiers and horses stand at the ready for the usual basecoat of white acrylic gesso. I n between various and sundry other Sunday chores and things, including some mid-Sunday afternoon German milchkaffee (cafe au lait to the rest of the world) with the Grand Duchess, I have managed to affix the 30 Saxon cuirassiers to their horses and thence to their permanent 3mm ply bases from Litko.   This has become my preferred method for painting cavalry, transport, and light infantry formations since there is enough room between multiple-based figures to wield the paintbrush in a way that is not possible for closer order line infantry, who I mount to temporary  cardboard strips for painting and glossing before careful transfer to their permanent bases. The base dimensions I use for my close order troops are those stipulated within the late Peter Gilder's In the Grand Manner .  These have always looked pretty close to perfect to me for horse and musket...

Next on the painting table, 30 Eureka Saxon cuirassiers, purchased back in October 2016 just ahead of "a certain birthday" as a gift to myself for rounding the half-century mark.  Time to get busy with 'em!   A well packed box of Minden goodness that took just three days to arrive in the Grand Duchy from Der Alte Fritz in Hesse-Seewald. Just a few of the river sections after some basic color revision.  Still not quite done. but they are shaping up nicely and, most important, heavy and flexible enough to lie flat on the table without shifting around at inopportune times.   W ell, sometimes it seems like life puts itself in the way of hobby activities, doesn't it?  And thus it was and has been the case with my planned Thanksgiving Weekend game.   We have been going through a rough patch lately with the Young Master, which has kind of got in the way of much else.  He's fine, just 14.  And as a result of these ongoing issues, the game(s) of toy ...