The Grand Duchy of Stollen

The 'Ooh, You're So Awful' vignette from Eureka Miniatures, which will go will with all of those frolicking aristocrats that I painted several years back.  My figures have had their two coats of white gesso and are already attached to a couple of circular permanent bases.  Fleshtone and a peach color for the lady's dress this evening.  More if that goes well.  Maybe the kitchen maid's more somber attire? T omorrow is June 1st, and I am almost done with quite a bit of gardening here, tender lower back notwithstanding.   Mostly various flowering perennials to attract bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds for the Young Master in the front and back yards following the construction of a wonderful screened back porch (Michigan is extremely buggy most summers thanks to low-lying, swampy areas).   So, time once again to begin thinking in earnest about more toy soldierly things, Grand Duchess and Young Master permitting.  I still don't know how ...

A suitable image to help get me back into the proper frame of mind.  Prussian infantry colors of the Seven Years War. F inished the last bit of the spring semester yesterday afternoon with a 90-minute presentation and talk on increasing student motivation, engagement, and success.  Whew!  I'm always mentally and physically drained after one of these sorts of things, but I find myself relaxed this morning and looking forward to getting back into my hobby after several months away.   There is, of course, the small Christmas solo raid game to play as well as some mounting those almost finished replacement Minden infantry standard bearers with their parent units, some more cavalry painting, and maybe also a few more buildings to add during the relatively care free summer months here at Stollen Central.   But for today, I am simply going to daydream and enjoy a rainy cool day with nothing on my plate.  Is it me?  Life just never seemed t...

Ol' Frederick II at the battle of Kolin in 1757. A bsolutely nothing happening hobby-wise since my last post at the start of the month.  Running up to the end of the semester now with final class meetings next week, final student projects, reviewing scholarship applications, and trying to write a conference presentation in there somewhere.  Sigh.  But I did learn about a new blog, or rather a recently resumed blog (started way back in 2008) that might be of interest to those of you with a particular interesting in sculpting and/or painting your figures.  Check out Making Miniatures , which has all kinds of interesting discussion on the topic.  Ok, back to the salt mines for yours truly. -- Stokes

I've just placed my advance order for this forthcoming book via Amazon. P lease forgive me if this is old news, but I have only just stumbled across this particular book, and thought that it might be nice to share the news with anyone else who might have an interest in the subject.  If any of you have searched in vain for the out-of-print Instrument of War by Christopher Duffy, you'll have noticed that the book has appreciated since it first appeared.  To the tune of several hundred US dollars, and in a few cases, copies of said book exceed US$1000.  Um. . .  right. While I consider the Grand Duchess and myself to be quite comfortable at this point in our lives, I cannot imagine dropping quite that much on a single used book.  So, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Duffy has a new (revised?) edition on the Austrian Army of the Seven Years War period due out this fall.  If, like me, your pockets are not infinitely deep, this might be an ...

As of yet, I have not managed to a figure company that produces and Easter range of rabbits and chickens.  Maybe we could persuade Eureka to add some along side their teddy bears though? F or one, I have already overindulged in jellybeans and chocolate (Blagh!), and Easter is not until tomorrow.  In any case, if you observe, have a delightful East er Sunday [Thank you, Nobby!] and holiday. -- Stokes

Major Welch writing his memoirs? N ot very much happening here in the Grand Duchy of Stollen the last several weeks.  After Spring Vacation at the start of the month, it has been hard to get started again down here in Zum Stollenkeller for one reason or another.  But a much needed boost to my hobby spirits arrived Friday afternoon.  And only about five years late.  Yes, yes.  Extremely gauche of me I now realize.  Please don't cane me, Sir!  I was led astray. Returning to the point at hand, a few weeks ago, you might imagine how surprised I was to see that a copy of John Ray's A Military Gentleman (2013) had popped up in my Ebay feed in very good condition and at a very inexpensive rate.  I still cannot quite fathom why someone in possession of such a book, and having gone to the retail expense of purchasing it when new, would wish to part with it, but mine is not to reason why.  I made an offer to the seller and procured the b...

 Ok, maybe not quite this formalized, but you get the idea. H aving dug myself out from under the first stack of student papers and team projects at last, my mind can turn to a long overdue open weekend!  Our snow here in mid-Michigan is now gone, replaced by flooding from recent heavy rains and snowmelt (no more skiing for now sadly), so free time this weekend can be spent down here in Zum Stollenkeller .  What's on tap then?  Glad you asked. 1) Apply any final touch ups to all of those replacement infantry standards and standard bears. 2) Apply two, or possibly three, coats of acrylic gloss varnish to everything. 3) Cement the finished figures and flags into the spaces left for them back when I rebased everything in September of last year. ************ The Grand Duchess and I also have plans for dinner out Saturday evening, following the babysitter's arrival, at a place that is supposed to be quite nice.  Might that actually mean tablecloth...

Prussian infantry at the Battle of Kolin. A re you tired?  Rundown?  Feel like you've lost your wargaming mojo?   Well, there is an easy cure for what ails you.  B roaden your gaming outlook, historic, and hobby knowledge by dropping by the Fife & Drum Discussion Forum !    While the core interest has to do with the warfare of the mid-18th century as well as the delectable Minden, Fife& Drum, and Crann Tara ranges of miniatures, the forum has grown by leaps and bounds since its inception a year ago to cover much more besides the wars and soldiers of Maria Theresa and ol' Frederick II.   In fact, the Fife & Drum Discussion Forum has become a veritable community of the current wargaming illuminati and cognoscenti from around the globe, who routinely share their thoughts on subjects as diverse as figure sculpting, scratch-building tabletop scenery, painting, basing, flags, uniforms, and tactical doctrine of different hist...

The last two Hessian standards 'borrowed' into the Stollenaian Army.  They will take their place at the head of the very first line regiment (Revell 1/72 tall, thin plastic Prussians) completed way back in the late summer of 2006.  These Minden figures will stick out a little less sorely than the single, rather squat MiniFig first assigned to the regiment way back in '06.  The flags are also certainly more colorful than the original. W ell, despite the coffee catastrophe yesterday morning, and the trip out to replace the keyboard, I managed to have a fairly balanced day.  Balanced in terms of mostly hobby tinkering with rules and plowing through the remaining half dozen papers for one of my classes this semester yesterday afternoon.  Mercifully, the latter were pretty good to, in the case of two, excellent, so I was left with time for other things.  The Young Master even managed to prepare most of his science fair project on the Space Shuttle unsuperv...

Not my own image, but you immediately grasp the point of today's pos t. S o there I was.  Saturday morning about 11am.  Still in my pajamas and back down here in Zum Stollenkeller after breakfast upstairs at the dining room table with the Young Master.  I returned to my chair here at the computer, second large mug of fresh French press coffee in hand, meaning to return to typing into my ever evolving mid-18th century rules a revised version of Mark Clayton's morale rules from Miniature Wargames issue #7. I was about two minutes back into this activity when I reached for said mug of coffee, without really looking at what I was doing, and, of course, it slipped from my grasp.  The contents spilled all over my keyboard, some papers nearby, a box of paperclips, and my non-functioning Swiss pocket watch that I've been meaning to take to the jeweler for repairs.  Needless to say, I turned the air momentarily blue with muttered curses, took the steps upstairs t...

The Young Master and Dad having hot cocoa in the warming hut (with woodstove) of a local ski area Sunday afternoon. N ot much time at the painting table the last week or so I'm afraid.  We have accrued a rather impressive amount of snow on the ground here in Mid-Michigan, and so any free time has been taken up with cross-country skiing.  Yesterday, Sunday, afternoon we suited up and hit the trails in the woods around Lake Lansing, and it was amazing.  Great traction, fantastic glide, ideal temperatures (about 20 degrees Fahrenheit), and quite a few other skiers and snowshoe enthusiasts out enjoying the day.   The Young Master has really come into his own on skis this winter and has become quite a daredevil on hills (he takes after his mother, who was part of an alpine skiing club when she went to high school in Reno, Navada).  These family outings on skis are always, in my view, some of the nicest times the three of us have together.  Very speci...

The latest batch of replacement infantry standards.  I figured the Hessian flags at front right had details large enough that I could risk letting them show and have a crack at actually painting them.  Seemed to work reasonably well.   P lugging away this (Saturday) afternoon and late into the evening here with another two pairs of replacement infantry standards.  Some obvious touching up tomorrow to clean up a few lines as well as a few remaining brass buttons and neck stocks to add on the ensigns (in light blue coats) destined to join shortly Stollen's Leib (Grand Duchess Sonja's Own) Grenadiers , but we're getting there.  Not perfect, by any stretch, but rather pleasing to the eye in any case.  Only one final pair remaining after these, but I need to pick up some orange paint before tackling those.  It's after Midnight here, so it's time to hit the sack.  Nighty night! -- Stokes Sunday Morning. . . For those who might be i...

F orgive my fanboy ravings, and I am getting to this a bit late, but, like a phoenix from the flames,  the much missed Battlegames magazine with noted wargaming author and hobby personality Henry Hyde at the helm is poised to make a return.  The late magazine rises again as a digital venture of sorts with the help of a growing list of patrons around the globe.  Perhaps, I'd best let Henry explain in more detail though.  Visit Battlegames on Patreon forthwith and become part of this exciting development in the hobby virtual press.  Henry has also retooled his blog to reflect this venture, and you can read all about that by visiting the Battlegames Blog . -- Stokes

  A magnetic gluing jig available from Micromark.com.  Micromark. . .  The small tool specialists! A quick post this Friday morning, before I begin the great sport of playing telephone tag with several area contractors. . .  to line up someone to take care of a few home improvements for us here at Totleigh-in-the-Wold this summer.  Hopefully.   If there is anything more mind numbing than work-related meetings, similar gatherings at your child's school now and then, or time spent in the waiting rooms of doctors and dentists, it surely must be transmissions into that vast black void, otherwise known as voicemail.  So many waking hours in our terminally "wired" and connected era seem to be taken up with calling and leaving messages on people's phones never to hear back from them.  Without three or four follow-up calls on your part over the next several days that is.  Ground control to Major Tom?  Major Tom?  Major Tom...