Happy New Year from the Grand Duchy of Stollen!

An rather charming vintage German greeting card for a happy new year, featuring a gnome, the good luck pig, and a sack of good fortune.

Before all of us get too busy with New Year's celebrations, in whatever form those might take, allow me to wish all visitors to the Grand Duchy of Stollen blog a Happy (Happier?) 2025.

Many similar wargaming hobby blogs have fallen by the wayside since the initial rush of enthusiasm back in the first decade of the 21st century, but we're still here in the capital city of Krankenstadt clanking along as and when time and real life permit. The early kernel of thought that became Grand Duchy of Stollen will celebrate its 20th anniversary at the start of December 2025 with the blog itself turning 20 years old in early Fall 2026!

That hyper focus and Johnny One-Note-ism notwithstanding, these upcoming anniversaries provide perfect occasions, now that I think of it, to keep the painting and modelling fires burning. I've already drawn up concrete plans -- progress charts really -- to keep things on track over the next couple of years with, hopefully, more actual battles taking place than has been the case during the last few years. In any case, I hope you might continue along with me for the journey as and when your own schedules permit.

More immediately, I can report on another painting session last evening, about 90 minutes, during which I applied my preferred 'charcoal' highlight to various harnesses and reins on the current 16 horses ridden by the first squadron and regiment staff of these blasted Eureka Saxon cuirassiers. Slow going, yes, but with only one minor brush mishap, which I was able to wick away quickly before the paint splotch dried. Later this afternoon, I'll sit down again to tackle the rather more complicated bridles, and then the part that most of us dislike about painting miniature horses will be finished. Whew!

We're now getting very close to completion of everything that I can manage before the necessary touch-ups and acrylic gloss varnish. And while I have managed their shoulder thingies pretty well, the two musicians' sleeve chevrons, however, have continued to elude aging eyes, painting skills, and patience after several attempts. Sigh. So Max and Moritz will just have to make due with plain white sleeves. Possibly another Kodak moment update on New Year's Day though.

On a slightly more subdued and somber ending note for 2024, I hope we can get through the coming year(s) with a minimum of the now daily discord, strife, willful ignorance, and general ugliness that we have come to expect in what now passes for acceptable sociopolitical discourse. As that fantastic British band The Kinks intoned 40+ years ago, and I may be misquoting their song a bit, I hope we'll find better days for 2025 and beyond.

-- Stokes

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

And We're Off!!!

Arrrgh! Gotta go back into camera settings on my iPhone to bring all of the frame into focus. Blast! Painting is underway on the 60 or so Minden Austrians, which are slated to become my version of the Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment of AWI renown. More or less indistinguishable from Austrians of the era really, right down to the red facings and turnbacks, but the eventual flags (already in my files) will set them apart. I went ahead and based-coated all of them over a couple of days lthe last week of August, using a mix of light gray and white acrylic gesso, before next applying my usual basic alkyd oil flesh tone to the faces and hands. In a day or two, I'll hit that with Army Painter Flesh Wash to tone things down a bit and bring some definition to the faces and hands. As usual, the plan is to focus on about 20 figures at a time, splitting the regiment roughly into thirds along with the color party and regimental staff. Depending on ...

The Eventual Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment. . .

The Anhalt-Zerbst regiment musters in the drill square to sort themselves into platoons and companies during the coming weeks Fall maneuvers if you will. A large dose of real life the last few days with the start of classes next Monday, various preparatory meetings, and finishing up a few other things this week. But, I managed to sort out 60 or so Minden Austrian infantry from the pile and get 'em stuck to temporary painting bases. Must carefully drill out the hands of several NCOs for flagpoles and pole arms this weekend before the usual basecoat. I'm thinking of mixing the usual white gesso with the usual light gray to kill two birds with one stone so to speak. Applying both base- and undercoat in one fell swoop as my grandmother used to say. In the meantime, the recently finished squadron of Saxon cuirassiers has been placed carefully in one of the clear acrylic boxes on my shelves until I have the suitable flag to affix. -- Sto...

The Grand Duchy of Stollen

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