The Grand Duchy of Stollen

Sadly deceased Swedish figure sculptor Holger Eriksson gazing at some of his larger creations. By all accounts, Mr. Eriksson was extremely an talented individual, carving many of his master figures from wood. The mercifully long Thanksgiving weekend has just about finished here in U.S., and besides lots of time for family, food, and related fun, I've been able to spend a reasonable amount of time here in Zum Stollenkeller doing a few hobby-related things. Besides yesterday's box o' bits, I've managed to get that 30-strong regiment of Holger Eriksson cavalry ready for basecoating. These should be fun and fairly rapid to paint. I'm setting a challenge to myself to see if I can complete the regiment by December 31st. More on this later right here. I've also purchased two NEW tubes of superglue (remember the annoyed rant the other evening?) and assembled a couple of MiniFig generic SYW-era cannon, which are waiting patiently to the left of the HE cavalry at the ...

Two of my (now-painted) classic Spencer Smith dragoons at left along with a couple of Holger Eriksson dragoons at right. This photograph appeared originally on the Grand Duchy of Stollen blog during July or August of 2007. Since the Grand Duchess and Young Master Paul are visiting relatives (who don't live far enough away) this afternoon, I've had a little time to do something on the mental to-do list for months and months. Yep, go through the pile of lead here at Stollen Central, take stock of what's in it, and weed out the various and odd bits, pieces, and sundry things people have sent me, weird and broken figures, etc., etc. The good news is that I have discovered an extra regiment of 60 RSM Prussian musketeers and command plus an extra 60 RSM horses. All of these are over and above the remaining units for my initial Sittangbad-sized project. So, I'll be able to add a few more units once I have filled my initial order of battle. Related to those 60 RSM horses a...

Don't you just hate it when you need a few drops of super glue -- You know, to glue the wheels and accoutrement to a couple of gun carriages for example -- and all of the various tubes here and there around the house are either dried up, or the cap has become fused to the rest of the tube and won't budge? Or, better yet, you cannot find the extra couple of new tubes of the stuff that you so carefully dropped into a kitchen drawer a month or two ago. Grrrrrrrrr. . .

Happy Thanksgiving to all American visitors to the Grand Duchy of Stollen wherever in the world you might find yourselves. We have a chilly, gray day with falling temperatures here in our neck of the Midwest, the Grand Duchess brought me a H-U-G-E mug of black coffee a short while ago as I yawned and woke up in bed, and we have over an hour until ol' Tom Turkey goes in to oven. Otherwise, it's still in the house at the moment, which is never a bad thing. Happy sigh. It's a good day. And I feel very fortunate indeed. Between preparing a couple of pies yesterday along with another dish, which I can't quite recall at the moment, I managed to squeeze in a couple of hours work on those Garrison Miniatures Prussian artillery crew, who are actually looking much more like Schaumburg-Lippe artillery crew with their pretty, light blue uniforms. Not much left to do there except for a couple of tiny things, and then its onto my usual two coats of Future/Klear acrylic floor f...

Some Hessian mercenaries retreating during the Saratoga Campaign of 1777. A new line of realistic, life-like 1/56th, or 32mm, figures with human proportions (in campaign dress as they actually appeared, no less) is in the works for the American War of Independence! The sculptor is -- Wait for it! -- the famous Richard Ansell, who has also done yeoman's work for Frank Hammond's Minden Miniatures among others. You can view several photographs of Richard's greens in-progress by visiting the Hesse-Seewald blog , whose own Alte Fritz is heavily involved in the project. You can also click on Battleroad Games & Hobbies , to be transported directly to the website of the U.S.-based producer and distributor of these figures-to-be. Or, you can scroll down the page and look for the links to both at the bottom right of this page. While the American Revolution is not exactly my period of interest, you cannot help but feel excited and inspired by these wonderful previews of the ...

Well, you knew it would happen, didn't you? Yes! Although I have several other units in-progress, as well as within the painting queue, I am already thinking ahead to which uniforms I might paint onto that final 60-figure unit of Stollenian infantry sometime during 2011. My own travels and related interests make me partial to using the red-coated infantry from the Free Hanseatic Cities of Hamburg, Bremen, and Luebeck as models for the last unit of RSM95 Prussian musketeers, which has been in the pile of lead here at Stollen Central since early 2009, courtesy of a fellow long-distance voyager in Arizona, USA. So, besides a brief referral one evening last week to my Funcken volumn on the subject, which shows two SYW-era grenadiers from Bremen and Luebeck respectively, I've been trawling the trusty ol' Internet (many thanks to former Tennessee senator and one-time vice-president Al Gore for inventing it) for additional illustrations of similar troops. Surprisingly, I turn...

As promised, here is a rather bright photograph of the now finished Von Auflauf Infantry (Huzzah figures, mercenaries purchased from nearby Hesse-Seewald during summer 2008), a strange conglomeration of native Stollenians and drafts of SYW veterans from within and around German-speaking Central Europe. As you might expect then, not always the most cohesive or effective fighting force on the battlefield. Certainly not up to par with Stollen's elite Leib (Grand Duchess Sonja's Own) Grenadiers or the Jaeger zu Fuss. Best of all, only one more 60-figure unit of infantry to go, and that portion of my initial Sittangbad-sized project will be all done! So, here are the promised photographs of what's underway, or just done, here at Stollen Central. The tiny digital camera we have, a Canon, seems to eat batteries as if they are going out of style. Inevitably, it takes days to locate another two NEW ones to replace the old ones, take a few photos, and upload them here. Not lik...

Up frightfully early this fine, chilly Sunday morning thanks to. . . Well, not really sure what woke me just after 4am since we didn't conk out until Midnight, but I finally gave up the ghost at about 5:15, came quietly downstairs, made some fresh coffee, and retreated to my office here in Zum Stollenkeller . Even Princess Rannveig the Cat is not up yet! Normally, she spends much of her time hanging around down here with me, sitting in my lap as I work, touching my arm with her paw for attention, and just generally making herself at home. Clearly, neither cats, the Grand Duchess, nor Young Master Paul suffer from insomnia. . . Just ol' Dad! Spent a little while yesterday afternoon getting started on those Garrison artillery figures, which will become Schaumburg-Lippe-Buekeburg artillery crew before too long. Nothing terribly exciting quite yet. Only the green bases and faces have been done so far, but it's a start. Hopefully, I'll have time this evening to appl...

Please take a moment today to remember the fallen and the survivors of wars past and present.

They really ARE finished now, honest! Here is that final company of Huzzah Prussian musketeers -- painted as Wurtemburg's Garde zu Fuss -- as their first coat of Future/Klear acrylic floor finish dries. Next on the painting block, twelve Garrison Prussian artillery crew and a mounted officer just off camera to the right here. A few odd RSM and Minden figures loiter in the background. Well, then, you'll appreciate my surprise a little while ago as I was rooting around through a drawer here in the bedroom, looking for a long forgotten and misplaced giftcard when I decided to check my leather passport wallet. Among scads of unspent Mexican pesos and some euros (Sigh. Wish they were old German Marks), I discovered $80 US! This has obviously been in the wallet since our trip to Germany during the summer of '09 before Young Master Paul arrived. This is far better than discovering $5 in my jeans pocket a few times as a teenager when I began doing my own laundry. At any rate, ...

Finally, I have figured out a way to get my MSWord Painting Progress Chart to appear when I paste it into Blogger -- a nagging problem here since June 2008 -- Paste it into MS Publisher and save as a JPEG file. Slightly convoluted, and so typically Stokes, but it works! In any case, here is where we stand at the moment with the two Sittangbad-sized forces I set out to paint, beginning in August of 2006 after the Grand Duchess and I returned from our camping honeymoon across the Dakotas and Minnesota. Just four units to go you'll see! Those final sixteen Huzzah Prussian musketeers, painted as Wurtemburgers, just need their white cuff and lapel lace, and then they stand ready for their two coats of Future/Klear acrylic floor finish. We're so close to completion of the initial project. . . so, so close! However, I must make a terrible admission to those of you who visit the Grand Duchy of Stollen regularly. I placed a small order to the Dayton Painting Consortium for some A...

Do you generally avoid attempting figure conversions to this degree? Have been letting my mind wander lately, given the reduced painting activity and number of postings here in recent months, thinking about figure conversion possibilities. Certainly, I observed plenty of lovely examples in the pages of Miniature Wargames , Military Modelling , and Wargames Illustrated back in the 80s. Usually, these were 25mm Napoleonic staff figures along with the occasional unit from the likes of Bill Gaskin and Doug Mason. Impressive stuff, to say the least! Fastforward 20+ years. . . It strikes me that fewer "everyday" wargamers attempt conversion work like this today because we are so spoiled for choice. There are so many different ranges of figures within the same period on the market now that there no longer seems to be a point in painstakingly converting figures for most of us. At least when we are talking about metal figures. The situation is somewhat different when di...

Just the coat-tails and some touching up left, and we are ready for the two coats of Future/Klear acrylic floor finish! Spent a couple of hours painting red collars, cuffs, and turnbacks last night. Just the coat-tails left now plus the white lace in pairs on top of the turned back lapels. Then, it's on to the two coats of protective "varnish" tomorrow evening. I can next carefully pop them off their bottlecaps Wednesday evening, and the unit will be finished. . . FINALLY. Meanwhile, I've got 13 Garrison Prussian artillery crew waiting in the queue to be painted as Schaumburg-Lippe-Buekeburg troops. See the illustration below. . .

FOR SALE. . . 30 RSM95 hussars, a three-squadron regiment and staff organized, more or less, according to the guidelines presented in Charge! The first US$20 (plus domestic shipping and handling) via Paypal takes them! For those of you looking to beef up your light cavalry, I'm clearing out the cobwebs here at Stollen Central by selling a few figures I don't need. The proceeds will help augment my heavy cavalry (probably RSM French cuirassiers in bearskins). This time around, it's a large unit of RSM95 1:60 (true 30mm) hussars. The figures are shown above -- 25 Prussian hussars and five Austrian hussars in colpacks, for use as regimental and squadron officers. A few minor conversions with the hobby knife, putty, and the paintbrush will easily provide the required trumpeter and standard bearer. The price for the thirty figures pictured above is a very reasonable US$20 (plus shipping and handling). If you are interested, email me offline. Thank you! PLEASE NOTE -- ...

Besides those new, black tasseled loafers I mentioned in an August posting, my wardrobe also includes these nifty, red Converse sneakers. Blame it on the Easter Bunny! Nope. Nothing to do with painting soldiers or gaming. But when I got up this morning, a tiny inner vocie said to me, "Stokes, you've gotta wear those new Converse Chuck Taylor high-top sneakers to school!" And so. . . Actually, the Grand Duchess wagered a cup of latte or cappucino, at one of our local cafes, that I would not teach wearing these. Baaaaaaad decision. . . especially since caffeine is involved! At any rate, my Film Noir students this fine Friday morning were treated to another bout of male fashion wackiness from yours truly. Enjoy the weekend everyone!

A few hours of uninterrupted painting yesterday (Sunday) mean that only the red turn-backs, facings, and shoulder straps remain before the third and final company of Huzzah Prussian musketeers (painted as Wurtemburgers) is finished! The company officer, NCO, and drummer are already finished and waiting to the rear , more or less in the middle distance of the picture in amongst some Holger Eriksson dragoons, RSM95 mounted officers, and a few Minden artillery crew. Thirteen Garrison artillery crew (next in the painting queue) are just out of sight to the right. Nope, I have not dropped off the face of the earth! Just haven't had much to say here lately that I haven't said many times before, and free time for painting has been scarce since the start of the fall academic term. Teaching along with developing a new film course for Fall 2011 (or Winter 2012?) has eaten into normally free evening hours ravenously. And then, of course, there has been the parenting side of things, w...

Britain's 93rd Highlanders repelling Russian cavalry early in the Crimean War of 1854-56. I discovered scads of soldiers like these in a shop I visited in my dreams earlier this morning. Before I was awoken from my slumbers at 8:40am this fine Saturday morning by the charming little banshees of five and almost nine next door, who are permitted to squeal and shout at the top of their lungs whenever they play outside, I was in the midst of a delightful soldier dream. I have this dream about every 18-24 months, and it's fairly similar each time. I've mentioned these dreams here before. However, this go around, I remember distinctly finding boxes and boxes (LARGE boxes) of used HARD plastic 1/72 Crimean-era British infantry in some anonymous shop somewhere. Normal line infantry in the Albert shako, rifles, highlanders, the works! In red plastic no less. For example, I took the lid off one box labeled "British Officers and Musicians" to find enough of said red ...

Here's a shot of the old town square at the center of Riga, Latvia. . . an old Hanseatic town, featuring some of the delightful North German gothic architecture that you'll find in cities and towns scattered throughout the Baltic region from Bremen to Gdansk, Stockholm, Tallin, and Hamburg. I've used buildings like these as inspiration for the many I've made for my Stollenian and Zichenauer troops to contest. The last few weeks have seen painfully little time for wargaming related activities. Oh sure, a tiny bit of painting here, a tiny bit of gaming there, and some work on finishing a few buildings for the tabletop. But by and large, nothing of any real consequence sadly. We're almost a month into the fall term (Week Four starts tomorrow!!!), and the days just seem to fly by. All of the sudden, it's 10:45pm, and, to be honest, I just don't feel like sitting down to paint by that point in the evening. Much nicer to retire to bed with a book or magazin...

I've been carefully cutting out pieces of heavy cardboard, making mistakes, and trying again the past couple of days. The goal? To produce something that looks like the Lubeck Rathaus, or part of it, at the far right in the photograph above. One of the tricks is getting the five little vertical feaux-towers right. Another is keeping the "footprint" of the building small, so it does not take up too much room on the tabletop. I'm thinking about 3 1/2" by 2". Well, for me. Kind of. Summer vacation is sadly OVER, and my first class of the fall term is in a little less than three hours at 9am. On the bright side, I have a new pair of shiny black tassled loafers (I know, I know) to put on with a newly cleaned and pressed suit, so it's not all bad I suppose. ;-) And it's a film class, so I'll get to talk about movies in very general terms this morning before we get down to real business on Wednesday. It has been a wonderful summer, but not as...

If the thought that the Grand Duchess and I are down to our last 10 days or so of summer vacation before the fall term starts weren't sobering enough, I have had to turn on comment moderation again because some stooge in Japan continues to leave comments with links to a distasteful website. This has caused me no end of irritation in the last year or so, but I suspect that e-mailing a polite request to the responsible party or parties would not stop the problem. Hence the renewed comment moderation. I apologize for the inconvenience and extra steps required to leave your comments and suggestions but hope that many of you will continue to so. It looks like the comment moderation will remain on for the foreseeable future though. Grrrrrrr. . .

As a Zichenauer officer conveys General Phillipe de Latte's sword to General von Tschatschke, the latter invites his officers to salute their enemy, as a fellow officers and gentlemenn, while the Stollenian 11th Engineer Battalion and 3rd Kuirassiere look on. Thank you everyone for dropping by, plus your kind remarks and comments, during the last month (hard to believe!). I've had a blast playing these two related tabletop actions, based on Charles Grant's Tabletop Teaser in Battlegames #19 from last year. One of the many things that made the game enjoyable from a soloist's point of view had to do with the crowded nature of the battlefield, in common with many TTTs, which made any broad, sweeping maneuvers difficult. It was nevertheless interesting, in hindsight, how most of the decisive action, for both Day #1 and Day#2, seemed funneled into the relatively open space between Effibriest at the center of the valley and Crampas Farm at its eastern end with no help from...

Moves Seven and Eight were pivotal in the ongoing tabletop Battle for Teodorstal Valley between Colonel von Adalnowksi and his houseguest, the younger Major von Topfsange, who was still somewhat reluctant to pull up a chair given his recent accident during the wild boar hunt. But let's peek in on the two gentlemen in the drawing room and see how things are coming along. . . At the far western end of Teodorstal Valley, the large cavlary mele was resolved at the end of Move Seven with a few casualties on both sides and the squadrons invovled both retiring 12" to rally after everything was wrapped up. The beginning of Move Eight saw Colonel von Adalnowski give chase with a fresh squadron of Grenadiere zu Pferd. "Ha, ha! Take that!" shouted the Colonel with renewed vigor. To his dismay, von Adalnowski soon discovered that his vehemence and sabre rattling may have been somewhat premature. Major von Topsange quietly informed his elder host during Move Eight, "I...

An hour and a quarter later, Colonel von Adalnowski returned from his walk, collected the good Major, and the two returned to the drawing room where the former exploded on observing the new situation at the wargaming table. . . At the western end of Teordorstal Valley, the center company of Major von Topfsange's Leib Grenadiers occupied two of the three houses, making up the village of Instetten. The 1st company (above) moved off to strengthen von Topfsange's extreme right flank. "Well, I'll be damned!" howled the Colonel. "Von Topfsange, have you been at these figures in my absence?" The Major coughed nervously in reply. Colonel von Adalnowski next observed an aide informing a taciturn General de Latte of the deteriorating situation at Instetten (above) and turned angrily toward Major von Topfsange, unleashing a torrent of choice words upon the younger officer. "And I thought I told you not to touch this table until I returned! But now everyt...