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As I was saying. . .

  Two quick progress shots of the first half and a bit more of the 28mm Eureka Saxon cuirassiers.  Still lots to do, but they are beginning to look like something. C ontrary to anything you might have heard, I have not fallen from the edge of the earth, but have been frightfully busy with work-related stuff and a bit of painting lethargy these last couple of months.  Still, little by little the first 16 of 30 Saxon cuirassiers are taking shape, more or less as the  Plötz Cuirassiers , which had lovely green facings and standard. About two weekends back I decided it was time to clean and (re-) organize my painting area, which had become kind of, well, grungy in recent months.  Cobwebs, dead spiders, dust and such.  Blagh! I also put up large pieces of white poster board to bounce and diffuse light from my three painting lamps around the one end of the built-in table/desk area where I have done most of my painting since we moved into our house back in December 2015.  Although it was not
Recent posts

Having a "No Day". . .

  F or the almost 20 years that she lived in Mexico, one of my late mother's Irish friends frequently mentioned having a "No Day."  A day with no social obligations, chores, tasks, or other work that interfered with whatever personal interests took one's fancy on the day in question. Since today -- a gray and chilly Saturday -- is Mom's birthday, the Grand Duchess is out with friends, and the Young Master is ensconced on the sofa in the TV room with a cold, yours truly is taking his own such No Day.  I think Mom would approve of my decision to make the world go away, as the old Eddie Arnold song intoned, even if only for a little while. So, I will spend Saturday afternoon focused on that first squadron and small regimental staff of Eureka Saxon cuirassiers.  These have stood waiting  untouched over on the painting table for almost three weeks while we skied and otherwise gadded about with snowy, winter outdoor activities. I hope to share a painting update Sunday a

The Sloppy 16. . .

  Nothing much to look at, and still on the sloppy side, the first (slightly more than) half of the 30 Saxon cuirassiers are nevertheless underway. S ounds like a film title, eh?  One of those war dramas from the 1950s or 1960s.  Kind of along the lines of The Guns of Navarone , The Heroes of Telemark , The Dirty Dozen , or perhaps Where Eagles Dare. Cinematic delusions of grandeur aside, it seems like a good idea to share some painting progress where those Eureka Saxon cuirassiers are concerned.  Not much to look at quite yet since I am still at the stage of blocking in main colors, but it's  a start. The first squadron and regimental HQ  mounts have already received two coats of black.  Not sure yet whether I will dry-brush these with a dark blue or a dark gray before adding white markings to muzzles, legs, and the moving onto the hooves and horse furniture, which will be highlighted here and there with dark gray before adding metal highlights where appropriate.  Not everyone doe

2023 Was Not a Complete Wash However. . .

  The 15 Ansbach-Bayreuth Jaegers mentioned below and finished during mid-2023. I n a postscript to yesterday evening's post, and looking back at the year just ended, painting output was not completely abysmal it seems.  I managed to complete the following infantry units: 1) 60+ Wied Infantry (Minden) -- Finished early in 2023. 2) 15 Generic -- Ansbach-Bayreuth -- Jaegers (Fife & Drum) 3) 15 Generic Frei-Infantrie --  Von Hordt --"Double Blues" (Minden) 4) Started 16 of 30 Saxon Cuirassiers (Eureka) in November.   So, not a huge output rolling off the ol' painting desk in 2023, but not too bad either given the various commitments vying for my time the last 12 months or so.  The next post, will look quickly at planned painting once the Saxon cavalry have been finished. -- Stokes The 15 Von Hordt Frei-Infanterie all based and ready to go.  Combined with the jaegers above, they form a 30-strong light battalion  according to the rules -- Suggestions? -- outlined in Yo

A Belated 2024 Greeting from the Grand Duchy of Stollen. . .

J ust back from a week five hours north in Ontario on what was to have been a skiing excursion.  Not a typical winter up there so far thanks to an El Nino year, global warming, and whatever else Mother Nature decided not to do this year, so it was an odd week of sitting on our hands, with some hiking and limited sightseeing since much is closed for the winter season in the area in and around Sault Saint Marie on the Canadian side.   The area we had hoped to ski -- Stokely Creek Lodge -- had lots of snow on the ground a month ago. with many trails groomed and open for skiing, but warmer temperatures and lots of rain put paid to that in the 10 days or so before we journeyed north on December 27th.  Lots of dirty piles of snow, or pure ice here and there, but nothing remotely skiable on the trails themselves.   Back down here in Mid-Michigan, the ski trail situation has been equally disappointing thus far.  Most years that we have been here, there is usually at leas six or eight inches of

It's Already Christmas Eve 2023. . .

  One of my favorite vintage images of Father Christmas,  There is just something magical about him.  A far cry from the near universal Coca-Cola image of Santa Claus that we see everywhere in the 21st century.  The follow above certainly fits right into the Grand Duchy of Stollen pantheon. T he ground is white with fresh snow east of the sun and west of the moon in the far off Grand Duchy of Stollen. Billowing, silvery drifts are piled throughout the country. The rivers and lakes are frozen solid. The woods are still but for the distant jingle of sleigh bells in the bracing air. The sky is slate grey, and heavy coal smoke hangs over the villages and towns. It is Christmas Eve here in the Grand Duchy, somewhere very near to Frederick’s Prussia, but a bit east of the sun and west of the moon, sometime during the mid-18th century.  Citizens of Krankenstadt bustle to and fro through snow-covered streets of the small capital city of the Grand Duchy, running last minute errands before th

It's Almost Christmas in The Grand Duchy. . .

  A suitably snowy vista across part of the capital city Krankenstadt of the Grand Duchy of Stollen, a place which bares a striking resemblance to Riga, Latvia. T hings are busier than I would like here in the Grand Duchy at the moment, further early brushwork on the first 16 Eureka Saxon cavalry has been put on a back burner, and a slight cold for a few days threw a wrench into the works.  Grrrr.   But I am on the mend now and steaming full ahead with the few last minute details and errands out ahead of Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and our December 27th departure for a week of cross-country skiing in Canada through the new year.  In the meantime, it seems like a nice idea to share a few of our favorite traditional carols here in the Grand Duchy of Stollen.   Given the many traditional carols out there, this has been a tough call to make since there are some truly beuatiful pieces, but his long-suffering manservant Hives and I have managed to narrow the list to Grand Duke Irwin-Amadeu

Delusions of Grandeur Perhaps?

  Part of Peter Gilder's famed Waterloo set-up with the Chateau Hougoumont in the foreground.  An image familiar to many of you no doubt!   A propos of nothing, it has been quite a while since I had a model soldier dream.  However, last night came very close in that I had a making-terrain-for-model-soldiers dream.  In said dream, I starred in the role of, if not the late Messrs. Peter Gilder and Ian Weekley, then at the very least a master terrain modeler.   The layout wasn't Waterloo, but there were already some units -- It wasn't clear if these were my own, 18th century, Napoleonic, or another sub-period of the horse and musket era. -- scattered around the large tabletop, which had realistic and convincing undulation, buildings, and some copses already in place.  I was simply finishing things up on parts of the large board that were not quite done to my liking.   Dusting with Woodland Scenics materials here and there you understand.  Spraying with fixative scenic cement. 

A Saturday Visit to the Tailor. . .

I t's 1 0:30 Saturday morning, and I am still waking up with the first mug of coffee, and the two cats milling around here in my office at home.  A dark, wet, and dreary day outside, but I've got much activity planned since the Grand Duchess and Young Master have decided to visit Chicago for the day and left very early this morning. First off, and following a hot shower, a visit to my tailor to take in a new three-piece suit from J. Press for the usual minor alterations.  It arrived yesterday, and was/is a gift to myself for some good news professionally speaking earlier this fall.  And since three-piece suits are generally pretty hard to find in 2023, I leapt at the opportunity after spotting this particular number on the J. Press website two weeks back.  A charcoal Donegal weave, very soft to the touch, and perfect for the cooler months, which here in Mid-Michigan are, conveniently, October through April, and sometimes well into May.  So this one should get a

Leuthen Day 2023. . .

  T o mark Leuthen Day 2023 -- The battle was fought on 5. December 1757 -- here are a few previous photographs of my versions of King Frederick II listening to von Seydlitz hold forth about this, that, something, or other.   Minden figures of course (1/56 scale).  First painted back in 2011 or 2012 (or possibly 2010?) when Frank Hammond still owned and ran the company.  Paints were a mix of alkyd oils for the horses and larger areas of ol' Fred and Seyd with hobby acrylics for most (but not all) of the smaller details.   I rebased  the two at some point post-2020, using a smaller Litko terrain base. They still look pretty good to my eyes. -- Stokes

Saxon Cuirassiers Underway. . .

  30 Eureka Saxon cuirassiers and horses stand at the ready for the usual basecoat of white acrylic gesso. I n between various and sundry other Sunday chores and things, including some mid-Sunday afternoon German milchkaffee (cafe au lait to the rest of the world) with the Grand Duchess, I have managed to affix the 30 Saxon cuirassiers to their horses and thence to their permanent 3mm ply bases from Litko.   This has become my preferred method for painting cavalry, transport, and light infantry formations since there is enough room between multiple-based figures to wield the paintbrush in a way that is not possible for closer order line infantry, who I mount to temporary  cardboard strips for painting and glossing before careful transfer to their permanent bases. The base dimensions I use for my close order troops are those stipulated within the late Peter Gilder's In the Grand Manner .  These have always looked pretty close to perfect to me for horse and musket-era troops.  Close

Down But Not Out. . .

Next on the painting table, 30 Eureka Saxon cuirassiers, purchased back in October 2016 just ahead of "a certain birthday" as a gift to myself for rounding the half-century mark.  Time to get busy with 'em!   A well packed box of Minden goodness that took just three days to arrive in the Grand Duchy from Der Alte Fritz in Hesse-Seewald. Just a few of the river sections after some basic color revision.  Still not quite done. but they are shaping up nicely and, most important, heavy and flexible enough to lie flat on the table without shifting around at inopportune times.   W ell, sometimes it seems like life puts itself in the way of hobby activities, doesn't it?  And thus it was and has been the case with my planned Thanksgiving Weekend game.   We have been going through a rough patch lately with the Young Master, which has kind of got in the way of much else.  He's fine, just 14.  And as a result of these ongoing issues, the game(s) of toy soldiers continue to b

Happy (U.S.) Thanksgiving 2023!

  T o U.S. citizens everywhere, Happy Thanksgiving 2023!    No toy soldiering today since I will be helping in the kitchen and setting the table, but I plan to touch up some river sections if/when  the time presents itself.  Tomorrow (Friday), the table and troops will be laid out, and the Combat at Spargelzeit (Zinna refight) game kicks off on Saturday with a possible finish Sunday.  A solo affair this time unless the Young Master decides he wants to join me.  Looking very forward to beholding my troops and terrain as I maneuver them around the table.  Stay tuned! -- Stokes

A Few Von Hordt Vignettes. . .

  M essing around this evening with Fotor, my online photo editor of choice.  Lots of AI help and other features there to present pictures of our collections as advantageously as possible. Looking again, I have spotted a few very tiny imperfections, but in the interest of preserving the smidgen of sanity left to me, we'll call 'em done.  It's time to move on.   Time and the paintbrushes wait for no one.  Besides, I've got Saxon cuirassiers and Hanoverian hussars waiting for me. -- Stokes

Von Hordt Frei-Infanterie Done!!!

  A bit delayed today, but my stock of pebbles was depleted, so I had to remedy that after another round of leaf duty, in the front yard/garden this time.  Almost finished with that for the season.  Whew! -- Stokes

All Glossed with a Place to Go. . .

  The tabletop troops in question.  I took this photograph with my iPhone.  Other than some brightening and cropping in Fotor, it provides a good representation of the (almost) finished company,  The fetching Grand Duchess gave these Fife & Drum Hessians to me for Christmas 2022. L ong overdue greetings everyone!  The generic company of Frei-Infanterie shown above, based on the von Hordt regiment, is finished and glossed.  Finally.  Not quite as spectacular as their companion company of Anspach-Beyreuth jaegers showcased in August, but handsome in any case.   The 30 figures together make up  the light infantry contingent for the Grand Duchy of Stollen whose small army is based very loosely on those of ol' Frederic's Prussia and its neighboring allies.  But less ably led and with lower morale in general. It has been slow going with the paint brush these last couple of months due to usual cocktail of life and work, but here we are at last.  A few related painting and gaming p

In Memorium. . .

  The shoulder insignia of my later maternal; grandfather's outfit, the 13th Airborned Division, for part of his service during 1942-1946, T hinking today of my late maternal grandfather, David Lewis Stokes from Lexington, North Carolina, who answered the call like so many others more than 80 years ago following the attack on Pearl Harbor.  Initially anti-aircraft personnel in a Pennsylvania-German National Guard unit, he later served as glider infantry before taking the opportunity to train as a paratrooper ahead of the planned invasion of France.   Miraculously, he, along with his two older brothers and three brothers-in-law (Uncles Baxter, Jack, Sid, Charlie, and Bob) all managed to come home and lead relatively normal lives for many decades afterwards.  Since so many others did not, I have always wondered how our family was so fortunate given the sheer magnitude of the 1939-45 war. Likewise, a special mention of the only First World War veteran I knew, Harrison Terre