The Grand Duchy of Stollen

  T he flags are in place at long last!  Just finished carefully gluing the standards in place and gently furling them while holding my breath.  Only a few white edges to disguise tomorrow evening with a lick of paint after the glue has dried for 24 hours or so. And then I'll add a few highlights here and there. I remembered to paint the inside edges of the flags the same dark red as the many flames to prevent any large white edges from showing once the two halves  were cemented into place. But I managed to match up the edges pretty well this go around, so no huge mishaps this time.  There is also a small square of kitchen foil inside each flag to help maintain their furl as the Elmer's PVA glue dries. Ok, enough time at the painting table for today,  It's been a tough road hobby-wise the last week or so.  That, and it's Finals Week.  Classes for the semester/term ended today (Sunday???), and I fully expect the usual spate of panicked emails from ...

  The second set of flags awaiting a few more judicious highlights once successfully (??!!) cut out and attached to the flagpoles carried by the two ensigns. P urportedly the words of a GDR tank commander as his formation rolled into Prague in 1968.   I certainly feel a similar case of deja vu following a long Saturday afternoon of carefully painting the second set of Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment standards in a week.   Fortunately, it was another chilly, wet day highly conducive to remaining down here in Zum Stollenkeller with some vintage Miles Davis and John Coltrane playing in the background. A "No Day" as I proclaimed to the Grand Duchess while we enjoyed a glass or two of pinot noir together late Friday evening. But back to the flags Mk. II. Plain old white printer paper this time around, which is a bit easier to work with than rice paper.  Not too bad all things considered.  Now, if only I can trim and attach them without repeating last week's mishap...

  A nd I certainly feel like it.   The great rice paper flag experiment has not worked as planned, and one of my carefully painted over flags has been ruined in attempting to glue it carefully around the pole of the first standard bearer. The rice paper is so absorbent that the glue grabbed and set before I could manage to match up the edges of the two halves.  The error was so glaring that even furling the flag around the pole as though carried in a Force 10 gale would not have helped.  The only thing to do was throw away the sad flag once the shreds were all removed from the flagpole. Sigh.  Can't remember if ever I've had such a hobby setback quite like this.  More than four hours of brushwork Saturday down the drain.  You can just imagine the blue language muttered internally to myself at the moment.  I imagine the feeling of defeat is something very similar to what model ship builders might feel when they discover a major mistake with th...

  H old your collective breath with fingers and toes crossed, everyone.  Here we go. . . -- Stokes

  A chilly, wet Saturday, conveniently enough, meant that I could remain ensconced down here in Zum Stollenkeller all day with a clear conscience to work on a couple of things.  Final video edits for a course podcast I produce each week of each semester/term for students in my hybrid courses ( The Collaborative Cafe @WSTKS-FM ) AND work on painting the two standards designed for the Anhlat-Zerbst Regiment.  You might recall that these were designed for me by David Morfitt, of the Not by Apointment blog . His work was based on a written description in the Osprey title German Troops in the American Revolution (2) .  David does amazing work as I'm sure many other habitues  of his blog will agree.  Regardless of provenance, I typically paint over top of each color after printing out the flags since computer inks fade over time. I also like to match the color palette of the troops a little more closely wherever possible.  I hope I've done justice to David...

  Eight figures to each 60mm x 40mm base as laid out in Gilder's In the Grand Manner.  The mounted colonel with two standard bearers, an officer on foot, and an NCO on the odd-shaped base in the middle. The nine singles in groups of three at the back are reserved for company officers on foot, NCO's, and musicians.  My unit organization continues to follow, more or less, those outlined in Young and Lawford's Charge! Or How to Play War Games (1967) with a few tweaks.  And the single bases enable me to approximate a partial third rank when the formation is drawn up in line. W hen working on a large project with several different parts, it is sometimes helpful to change things up a bit and work on another part of the project for a while.  Which is what I've done yesterday evening and for about 35 minutes mid-afternoon today (Thursday).  Playing hooky from real life -- or sagging off from school -- for a few minutes you understand. In any event, here are the Lit...

Almost there with the final third of the Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment! F ollowing a day of clean-up and mowing outside (seven or eight bags of grass clippings and winter debris all told, whew!), I returned to the painting desk for 6o minutes or so after a shower, fresh pajamas, and dinner with the Grand Duchess.  Armed with a fresh mug of dark roast coffee, bright lights, and a "let's get this done!" attitude, I went to work about 7:45pm.   Roughly an hour later, the remaining buttons on waistcoats and red lapels were done, and I could breathe again (as the great Robert Plant sang in 'Little by Little' about 1985).  Not too many mistakes along the way although there were a few in the tighter spots.  Grrr.  But nothing that couldn't be fixed in the mix after the fact. Now some might sigh and say, "Stokes, why on earth do you go to such lengths and paint things like buttons and horse hooves when absolutely and categorically no one else will notice those details ...

  F riday evening. And while the Grand Duchess whips up some of her Massaman Curry upstairs, I couldn't resist sharing a photograph of the entire Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment. Yes, the final 20 figures or so still need buttons on their red lapels and waistcoats plus flags and touch-ups before glossing and permanent basing.  But still. As usual, I've brightened and sharpened my photograph just a bit in Fotor, which does a nice job as long as you don't ask AI to do too much.  Found out the hard way when I realized, some months back, that figures were appearing with backwards heads, arms, and gargoyle-like facial features! 60+ figures altogether, in keeping with my approach for almost exactly 20 years of the Grand Duchy of Stollen Project.  Sheer painting willpower?  Easily entertained?  Or just a terminal case of Johnny One-Note?  You be the judge.    Just how long has it taken us to get to this point with this particular unit?  Well, I started ...

  H appy Easter everyone!  Well, as the delightful old tune by The Beatles goes, it's getting better all the time (and couldn't get much worse).  Despite a solid week of reviewing  and evaluating student learning team projects (My brain is mush, and I'll enter the grades tomorrow), I've managed to squeeze in a few brief painting session here and there during the evening hours after the house quiets down.  But anyway.   With the notable exception of the many buttons and the flags, we're just about there except for a few minute touch-ups with flesh tone, to cover blemishes on a couple of faces and hands where I have managed to slop a dash or two of other colors since the faces and hands were first tackled back during the winter.  Here are a couple of shots taken this morning and brightened in Fotor (my usual online editor) to illustrate where we are with the third and final batch of the Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment. Wow, that first sentence was a gallop!...