The Grand Duchy of Stollen

The view from our front porch this fine Memorial Day afternoon. T aking a few quiet minutes to remember our war dead this afternoon. -- Stokes

It's hard to beat the richness of oil-based metallics.  The Minden mounted colonel that I worked on yesterday evening.  He ought to look pretty good when finished. I spent a pleasant hour or so last night, following The Young Master's bedtime, carefully teasing tiny bits of Winsor & Newton, or perhaps Grumbacher, gold and silver oils onto the mounted Austrian officer, who will oversee the composite battalion of Minden Austrian grenadiers.  They, of course, are the fellows in the foreground. Those of you with longer memories might recall that these miniatures have been on the painting table since January.  Real life, however, has meant that progress has been at a standstill since late February.  I even put them away in a box for a couple of months to reduce dust and cat fur build-up!   However, I managed to get my seat back into the painting chair last night, and here we are.  A steady hand, despite the usual after dinner infusion of...

The Elstermuehl near Plessa in Brandenburg.  I really like the colors and silhouette of the main part of the the building where the waterwheel is. W ell, only a conference presentation -- on reading compliance among undergrads --  remaining tomorrow (Wednesday) morning, and then I am relatively free until mid-August when it all begins again.  A little time daydreaming today about a few more buildings I want to tackle this summer along with wrapping up those various painting odds and ends.  And Crann Tara shall soon release several new batches of figures!  The two I have my eye on are a generic mounted officer and another on foot peering through a telescope, both wearing open greatcoats.  Imagine the possibilities for those two!  In the meantime, here are a bunch of photos on which I'll base those three or four new structures.  I think it's going to be a good few months. -- Stokes   A couple of photographs of ...

'Tafelrunde' by Adolph von Menzel.  Very loosely translated, the title means something along the lines of dinner table conversation.  In any case, a pleasing representation of ol' Fred, Voltaire, and others chewing the fat during a meal. H ere we are.  Almost May, and I realize that I have done nothing hobby-wise since late February.  The usual onslaught of family and work life as I have written many times before along with a health scare for ol' Mom in March.  Things have settled down in recent weeks however, and there is some light at the end of the tunnel.  Classes for the spring semester are now over, and barring a few last pieces of final grading, an approaching conference presentation, the conclusion of a hiring committee, together with a faculty mentoring group I've recently been part of, it's time to dive back into some toy soldiering.   So, where am I again?  Well, besides picking up the paintbrush to finish the last few item...

Stirring scenes like this one, courtesy of the late Peter Gilder, are largely responsible for the way I go about the wargaming hobby now.  Coincidentally, this is one of three early issues of Miniature Wargames that somehow turned up on the shelves of a hobby shop I frequented as a callow youth during the early 1980s.  I still have the original copies, #6, #7, and #12, although I have since replaced them with 'newer' less well-thumbed copies as I have filled in holes in the collection of hobby print matter.  Finally, I'll go out on a limb here and state that the covers of 'modern' wargaming magazines in current publication are rarely as charming or inspiring. A t its heart, my wargaming hobby stems from and grew out of playing with green, gray, and blue plastic toy soldiers, tanks, etc. as a child during the 1970s.  Probably like many of you  GD of S visitors.  I also have very vague recollections of paging through a Phillip O. Stearns (?) book on ...

Ol' Frederick II leading his troops forward at Zorndorf, on foot no less, with renewed vigor. W ell, after information flooded in from various wargaming friends and acquaintances during the last 36 hour or so (Thank you, everyone!), I seem to have a better handle on the differences between these three terms.  I've cobbled together the working definitions and explanations below based on the responses to my question posed yesterday.   Please feel free to leave any additional relevant comments as they occur to you, which might enable me to clarify things further.  New observations are welcome since many are well read and, no doubt, have a much better grasp of the subject than me.   Remember, though, this is a work in progress by a dabbler and hobbyist (yours truly), so no one need tip over a figurative table full of figures and scenery in anger or annoyance like once happened long ago during the early days of the hobby as related by the late Donald F...

The Young Master just post-introductory lesson in Tae Kwon Do.  A genuine smile instead of over the top clowning for the camera. T he Young Master, who has recently expressed an interest in the martial arts, tried out an introductory lesson of Tae Kwon Do this (Saturday) morning to see if it is a good fit for him.  He deals with a number of sensory and cognitive challenges, so we were not sure how things might go, but it seems Paul took right to it.  Besides giving him something to do that he enjoys, it will provide goals, focus, self-discipline, self-respect, and help with self-control things he has already grasped better after working with a Tae Kwon Do instructor one time.  A good good fit it seems, and I am so pleased for our son that I can hardly speak.  Wow! -- Stokes

I actually enjoy these idealized old paintings of Famous Napoleonic battles more than cinematic attempts to render the same events.  Although I have not watched it in 20 years or more, I always find myself picking about Sergei Bondarchuk's version of Waterloo (1970), which seems to completely ignore most of the allied troops who were part of Wellington's army in Belgium that spring. R evisiting three early issues of Miniature Wargames this morning, specifically a few related articles by Mark Clayton on Napoleonic troop morale, and I remain confused after all of these years.  1) What is the difference, within a horse and musket era context, between troops that retire, those that retreat, and those that rout, please?  2) How might you make these distinctions readily apparent in rules and on the tabletop?  Any clarification would be greatly appreciated. -- Stokes

One of the three sizes of Winsor & Newton Cotman watercolor brushes I ordered this afternoon.  Should have 'em by the weekend! T here is something nice about sitting on Amazon giftcards for a little while until clarity reveals what one ought to use them for.  Such was the case with a remaining Christmas gift from my in-laws this year.  I finally put together an order this afternoon to replace a few dried up, or soon to be, bottles of Citadel colors and also selected two of each of my three preferred brush sizes -- #1, #3, and #6 rounds.   These are synthetic bristle brushes intended for watercolorists, but I have long used them for figure painting, and the points usually last long enough for three or four units, depending on the size, before they are relegated to the base-coating and dry-brushing jar.  They give me the results I seek and seem to provide a nice compromise between ready availability, durability, and usefulness on the one hand and ...

The details are starting to make the composite grenadier battalion come together really nicely. For good measure, here is another photograph to show how they look from behind. A rare nine hours of uninterrupted sleep last night resulted in clear eyes, an unusually steady hand, and the patience for a lengthy session in the painting chair this afternoon.   Some touching up to start, followed by lots of slow, painstaking attention to teasing fine lines of light brown onto canteen straps, white on cartridge pouch straps,  and dabbing bits of more white carefully onto fur-covered haversacks and musket straps.  My supply of hobby acrylic white is running out, so I made do for most of the latter with simple leather brown for the enlisted men.  I also hit the shoulder straps on the left shoulders since I was on a roll and lots of these things came together very quickly.  It is not always so! Still a few things to do, but we're staring to see s...

Three photograph updates showing where things stand with the composite battalion of Kurkoeln (left) Hessen-Darmstadt (right) grenadiers. W ell, it took a while, but the red facings, turnbacks, and bags are done with dark red, red, and a dot or two (or a very careful short dash) of pure scarlet highlight to make the red really stand out.  Still a number of steps to go until they are finished and ready to gloss, but they are finally starting to look like something.  Next: touching up the black areas and dark brown musket stocks before moving onto the white highlight for the shoulder belts. -- Stokes

The view from our front porch a short while ago this afternoon at about 1pm.  A high temperature of about 16 F. is forecast for today, almost 30 degrees warmer than yesterday, so the three of us are headed out to ski later this afternoon once the Grand Duchess and Young Master arrive home. F rigid winter weather provides the perfect excuse for extra time at the painting desk.  After all, one can hardly be asked to go (ok, 'sent') outside to clean out the gutters or engage in other kinds of domestic husbandly pursuits that, if we are honest, many husbands/male partners would rather not do.  So, I too have been plugging away with the 30 or so grenadiers in the composite battalion currently on the table.   Most of my efforts the last few days have gone into getting the facings and turnbacks started with a dark red -- Citadel's Khorne Red -- which will then get a dash of Evil Sunz Scarlet applied very sparingly atop that.  I've also started to clean up ...

Seemingly endless white washes followed by a feather touch of the bristles, each application holding a small drop of black paint, to the gaiter buttons has yielded a nut unpleasing effect to this company of Hessen-Darmstadt Leibgrenadiers.  I was extremely careful to run the very tip of the bristles across the raised buttons and, fortunately, made very few mistakes that required fixing.  Some days, the stars align just right! T he Young Master's school district, along with many others in the area, has closed and, in a very rare move, so too has Michigan State University and will be again tomorrow (Thursday).  The university has only closed half a dozen times due to winter weather in its history, so you know it's cold.  My sister tells me that a client of hers, who is based in Minneapolis, Minnesota and with whom she spoke on the telephone this morning, mentioned that is was -27 degrees Fahrenheit there.   "Zoiks!" as Shaggy used to into...

Backtracking a bit here for the white clad Hessen-Darmstadt Leibgrenadiers at right, a frustrating exercise, but this is where we are as of 3:59pam Eastern Standard Time on Sunday afternoon. T ime spent this morning and mid-afternoon redoing the white gaiters and garters on the Hessen-Darmstadt half of my composite grenadier battalion (Argh!!!) .  I've taken the opportunity to add the basic brown horse color for the mounted officer as well as the red (Khorne Red, Evil Sunz Scarlet, and very spar se pure Scarlet atop that)breeches, waistcoats, and saddle cloth for the officers plus the drummer's coat for the Kurkoeln Wildenstein drummer.   And now, it's time to do something that actually helps pay the bills (and purchase life's essentials. . .  more brushes, paints, military history or wargaming hobby books, and soldiers).  No more putting it off.  No way.  No how.  I absolutely must see to some preparation for tomorrow's two classes befor...

Two shots taken this afternoon after the latest couple of Saturday morning and afternoon painting sessions.  They're actually beginning to look pretty good if I do say so myself.  Blast!  Looking at Kronoskaf again, I see that the Hessen-Darmstadt Leib Grenadiers at right had WHITE gaiters, and the officers wore RED breeches and waistcoats.  Sigh.  Back to the ol' drawing board. S ince last we met, I have finished up the various white areas using mostly a #1 round, especially on the waistcoats peeking our from beneath the coats, painted in the black and red stocks, mustaches, and blocked in grey and dark brown for the shoulder straps.   While I was somewhat anxious about painting these given the level of detail on Minden figures, painting so far has, on the contrary, been a real joy.  There is just no getting away from it.  The absolute winning combination of:  1) well-sculpted, crisp castings; 2) brushes with good points, and...

A couple of quick photo updates showing where things stand at the moment with my composite grenadier battalion. A wintry, icy day has meant that The Young Master's school was closed today, and I got to remain home with him, which is no hardship by any stretch of the imagination.  A perfect time, then, to bite the bullet and get to those various white areas on these 30+ Minden Austrian grenadiers.  Very careful application of 3-4 almost washes with a brand new #1 round.  Slow going, but it yields nice, subtle results, I think, over the tan undercoat, which gives a warmer, 'woolier' look than does a gray undercoat.  Not quite done, but getting very close.  Maybe I can finish the whites this evening? -- Stokes

Here's where there's are as of Monday afternoon . J ust a quick update before The Young Master and I head out to ski while the skiing's good.  The battalion has had its bases painted green, dark red applied to the silk bags atop bearskin bonnets, all fleshtone, and royal blue highlights applied in the last couple of day.  Next up, the white highlights for the Hessen-Darmstadt part of the battalion.  Huzzah! -- Stokes

Next up, fleshtone to the faces and hands.  Usually, I have always applied this particular color first, but it seemed like a good idea to shake things up a bit this time around. A lthough not really a conscious New Year's resolution, I have quietly determined that I will not let myself be distracted from hobby pursuits this year because of various work and life commitments.  Life is for living, and we should not permit the stressful and/or tedious things to impede our enjoyment of all the free time activities that we enjoy.  But I have done just that and allowed the stress and tedium to overtake everything else the last 3.5 years.  Good for neither the mind, nor the body in the long term.  Enough!   It has begun to seem , to me at least, that I have lost my hobby bearings the last few years as a result, the residual effects of our big move back in June 2015.  High time now to get things (and myself) back on track.  While I want to avo...