The Grand Duchy of Stollen

A Mid-October Hussar Update. . .

2026-10-18T15:39:35.566-05:00

Back in the painting saddle again yesterday evening and this (Sunday) afternoon for some much needed time with the brushes after a very busy 10-day period. The predictable time spent evaluating collaborative student projects, during which I spent five or six days in bed with some kind of nasty bug that knocked me out. Yet the work had to get done. Not fun, but on the mend now.

Amazing what a shower, shave, and putting on actual clothes instead of pajamas will do for one's outlook, eh?

In any case, I am now about finished with applying the red (Vallejo Flat Red) to the first of four squadrons of the Warasdiner Grenz Hussars. Again, it's an inexact science. About two to four glazes, for want of a better term, to build up the red atop a maroon undercoat, which got a wash of Army Painter 'Red Wash,' ahead of the red itself.

Must admit that I am pleased with the way the red areas are coming along at this point. Still lots to do everywhere else, of course, but the figures are starting to look like something.

On the technical side, I keep the brush very wet, although not sloppily so, and quickly touch each each drop of paint to the surface of the water in my brush-rinsing glass before gently touching it to the surface of each figure. This seems to facilitate very nice blending when done over the course of four cycles. Time-consuming and repetitive? Oh, yes. But Mom always said I was easily entertained.

Still.

Happy too with the way the slung pelisesses (Sp?) look on all of the figures, bar the musician. I went ahead before cleaning my brush today and gave his coat two or three damp brushings of white atop the usual Quaker Gray undercoat and wash of Army Painter 'Strong Tone' wash. Slow progress all things considered, but we're getting there.

Next weekend is our four-day Fall Break weekend (half-term?), so I plan to sit myself down in the painting chair for at least an hour each day in and around the remaining winterizing of the lawn and flower beds. Which is to say gathering up millions of oak leaves. Not one of the more fun tasks that go along with home ownership, but needs must.

-- Stokes

Seeing Red. . .

2026-10-05T13:45:52.189-05:00

Playing hooky/sagging off from schoolwork this lovely sunny autumn afternoon and in the (very slow) process of building (or is that Bildung?) up layers of Vallejo red on this first squadron of my rendition of the Warasdiner Grenz Hussars. Using a very damp brush to facilitate one new layer blending into the previous two, three, or four.

It's an inexact science, but slow going nonetheless since I'm using a small brush (a #1 Cottman round) to allow some of the maroon and Army Painter 'Red Wash' to show through in the folds and crevices. We just won't talk about the hundreds of buttons and braid, or how I might handle those quite yet.

Not to mention the 40+ hussars and mounts still in the pile of lead. Why discourage myself by having ALL of them out and on the painting table at the same time? No, no. Far better, psychologically speaking, to keep the rest put away until these are closer to the glossing and basing stage.

Overall, though, the current batch of Minden Austrian hussars seem to be taking shape nicely so far glacial pace notwithstanding. There are, I've heard tell, model ship builders who move faster.

-- Stokes

Still Alive (Just) Here in the Grand Duchy. . .

2026-09-13T11:20:24.754-05:00

A trooper of the Warasdiner Grenz Hussars, courtesy of the New York Public Library via the Project Seven Years War website. I've used Fotor to sharpen and upscale the image. Officers would have had silver lacing apparently although there are different interpretations of the uniform worn by these horsemen.

Still here but not much brushwork has been accomplished on the current 15 hussars since my last update in August beyond basic black to the sword scabbards and touch-ups to the dark red/maroon undercoat which will later get some sparing red highlights. The usual difficulties acheiving a better work-life balance as the start of the fall semester kicked in on August 31st.

More dramatically, we had a terrific thunderstorm move through the area on the 3rd of September that knocked out power and internet for four days across two power grids. As you might imagine, none of the planned time at the painting table took place across the long Labor Day holiday weekend here in the U.S. Sigh.

What we initially thought was a tornado -- there was a touchdown about 30 minutes east of us in Fowlerville -- was actually a powerful downdraft ['downburst' is the correct term] that, besides knocking out the power, took down many large trees across the area, including one in our backyard and a large limb in the front. Tree guys will be here tomorrow (Monday) morning to tackle those tasks since I lack a chainsaw and am not trained in removing an entire tree safely. Walks around the neighborhood early last Friday and Saturday evenings revealed the extent of the destruction. Considerable large tree damage and some to a few houses too. We were lucky.

We of course have a large propane generator in the garage and two smaller rechargeable Jackery portable battery generators for these occasions, but that's more for the kitchen and refrigerator, water pump, and things like that than luxuries like lights down here in Zum Stollenkeller. It was Monday before the power was back, so just enough time to finish and upload lesson plans and a few related materials to my online course pages ahead of my Tuesday classes following the looooooong weekend.

----------

On a more interesting hobby note, there has bee a recent question via email from John about how I handle painting officers' lace. Well, depending on lace color, I use silver or gold paint applied with a 000 sable round. The same trusty brush given to my by ol' Mom (a trained artist) 20 plus years ago. It's a little long in the tooth now, but still useful although probably not for much longer. I've also had good results with a new synthetic Cottman #1 round with a very precise point. I've long had the habit of using whatever works, and have used Cottman watercolor brushes with (to my eyes) decent results for quite a few years now.

The silver and gold paints are probably not strictly realistic, and for single display figures 54mm and larger a different approach might be called for. But for 15mm-30mm figures it looks right and catches they eye with some wonderful sparkle and glitter. Perfect for Horse and Musket era figures in my view.

I've been using acrylic hobby and craft paints for lace the last 10 years or so since we came to Michigan, but oil-based paints really come into their own for this particular detail. I've used 'em in the past to good effect. Applied neat from the tube and very sparingly they dry in about 24 hours. Faster than other oil colors do typically. Nothing catches the light quite like oil-based metallics.

Hope that might help answer your question, John! Thank you for touching base. ;-)

----------

Ok, time to fetch another mug of coffee upstairs, have a spot of lunch, and then get myself to the painting table to paint the basic black fur trim on 15 pelisses and, depending on how time runs, some very sparing charcoal gray highlights. Giddy up!

-- Stokes

A Late August Hussar Update. . .

2026-08-23T12:04:56.018-05:00

Here's where we are with the current batch of Austrian hussars as we inch along bit by bit toward the goal of an eventual four-squadron regiment of 55-60 men and horses. They're actually coming along pretty well I think. As usual, my iPhone 15 Pro Max photograph has been cropped slightly, brightened, and sharpened in Fotor.

No. Before you ask, I haven't attempted the hair, queues, and mustaches (as threatened) since last we met, but a bit more progress nonetheless on the current 15 Minden Austrian hussars and Daddy Nadasdy. I decided to stick to larger, marginally easier areas for Saturday's two or three painting sessions. Here's how that brushwork unfolded.

First, I applied Army Painter Speedpaint 'Black' to the sheepskins followed by very limited dry-brushing with 'Charcoal Gray,' one of several bottles of cheap craftpaint that serves my purposes well when it comes to highlighting anything black.

Next was basic brown on the carbine stocks, Army Painter 'Oak Brown' in this case, which will get limited highlights with a dash or two of a lighter reddish brown after the metal features have been applied. Finally, I touched up a few of the saddle cloths with a dab of 'Bergundy' Folk Art craft paint. That color, as a reminder, is my darker undercoat, which will have a basic Vallejo 'Red' applied later as the highlight.

As for the squadron officer's and Nadasdy's sheepskins, these were painted first with Vallejo 'Ivory' then hit with a wash of Army Painter 'Dark Tone' and finally sparingly touched up with the orignal color using a new #1 round with a good point. My usual Cottman watercolor brushes. I also gave their yellow boots a wash of Army Painter 'Mid-Brown' before highlighting with the original color once more. Army Painter 'Basilisk Brown' this time, which, to my mind, is more suitable for yellows in 1/56th (or 30mm) than something more garish.

The other brush I relied on for much of the day's painting, before I forget, was a fairly new #4 round that still has a reasonably good point. Greg Horne, on his Duchy of Alzheim blog, made the point several years ago, I believe, that using as large a brush as possible (he likes a #6 round if memory serves) to speed along painting, A larger brush with a good point enables you to load more pigment into the bristles and get further along before the need to return to the palette paper, wet palette, or bottle cap for a refresher.

On the subject of painting implements, most of my painting these days is carried out with synthetic Cottman watercolor brushes. These are either discarded or, for the larger sizes, relegated to the more utilitarian base-coating, glossing, and terrain projects once the points go after a unit or two of miniatures. It works for me.

Before dinner, I came back one final time to give Nadasdy's uniform and saddle cloth a highlight of Vallejo 'Green.' It was then time for yours truly to set the table upstairs, a nightly duty that goes back to my childhood days in the early and mid-1970s, when my maternal grandmother showed my sister and me how to do that, both a basic and a more formal place setting with additional flatware, plates, glasses, and so forth.

But fear not. I kept things basic yesterday evening since Harry and Megan were not joining us. ;-) Just the usual forks, knives, spoons, napkins, water goblets, and dinner plates atop the old cloth placemats we use for the back porch between the start of May and the end of September each year.

Meanwhile back in the kitchen, the Grand Duchess put the finishing touches on a Middle Eastern meal, which we enjoyed al fresco at the table on the screened in back porch. The Young Master, almost 17 mind you, had other things going on, so the two of us enjoyed a delightful dinner to the sound of light rain accompanied with the occasional cool breeze. We ate and chatted until just after 8pm when we cleared the table, made coffee, loaded the dishwasher, and moved onto other things.

But to return to yesterday's painting for a moment, as I always point out, still quite a way to go with these figures, but some good progress made overall. Must admit I'm pleased so far. The thing with hussars, in particular, is not so much that they are any more difficult to paint than other figures. Rather, I think it is more that we tend to psyche ourselves out when looking at all of that braid and the buttons. That's my story at any rate. More than the Zen of figure painting, I think, it is the psychology of figure painting that comes into play for many of us, both the Marie Louises and Old Grumblers alike.

Hmmm. That might be an interesting article to develop time permitting.

Happy Sunday afternoon everyone!

-- Stokes

Basic Horse Tack Finished (Whew!). . .

2026-08-16T11:44:33.396-05:00

A long way to go before these approach anything like "finished", but at least the miles of horse tack have their basic black coat. The martingales, in particular (the strap running from the girth around the ribs between the front legs), were an absolute bear to paint. Even with a very small 000 brush. I still managed to get black paint all over the GD place and had to come back later to cover up those many blotches with the various browns used for the horse flesh itself.

Not fun.

July was a discouraging month as a result, hence the break of several week's duration that stretched into August. Sometimes I find that the best remedy for hobby frustration is to do other things for a while and just. . . take a break. Easy enough to do during the summer months. Climbing back onto the horse now though (ahem).

On that note, I've used Army Painter 'Fur Brown' and Vallejo 'Mahogany Brown' for the chestnuts, and Vallejo 'Chocolate Brown' for the two of three bays. The Army Painter color is lighter than I'd like though. Moving forward, I won't use it for horses, restricting myself to the other two browns. Musicians will, of course, get the usual grays with maybe an odd black or brown and white piebald horse sprinkled into the mix for hussars and officers.

But back to this first batch of Minden Austrian hussars for a moment. The trumpeter's horse is a basic charcoal gray for now. It will have a dappling effect applied with a small sponge later in the painting process.

All well and good, Stokes, but what's next? Well, why make things any easier on myself? I think I'll take a stab at the mustaches and hair/queues. Glutton for punishment that I apparently am.

Still, Happy Sunday everyone! And thank you again for checking in as and when the spirit seizes you to do so. I think another mug of coffee now will suit me nicely on this dark, cool, and rainy late summer's day.

-- Stokes

A Mid-August Hussar Update. . .

2026-08-15T09:39:23.669-05:00

My usual picture placeholder until I have a suitable photograph to share.

Thank you to everyone who has checked in during the last month and bit to see how the first 14 Austrian hussars are coming along. NOT finished yet. I've been struggling to motivate myself to pick up the brush since the last post at the start of July. BUT. . . I can report that the basic horse furniture is almost finished.

Another session or two planned for today, a very gray (and possibly) rainy Saturday, so just the sort of day one needs to press on and get the job done. That's about all you can do when painting horses. The end results are usually worth the time and effort, but getting there is a painting trial to say the least.

Spent a couple of hours yesterday (Friday) evening working on reins and bridles, making several mistakes along the way (Grrrrrrr. . .), which will need to be addressed by trimming in the original horseflesh colors once all of the various reins and other other straps have been finished. Another mug of coffee first, and then back to the painting table.

Wasn't there a John Wayne war picture with that title? Kidding aside, there is something kind of nice about an hour or two of painting while still in one's pajamas on a Saturday or Sunday morning. The absolute height of toy soldier decadence.

-- Stokes

An Early July Hussar Update. . .

2026-07-02T11:51:34.844-05:00

Marginally neater in appearance with green bases, girths, and ivory horse markings added, but I need to neaten up some hooves now before moving onto the rest of the tack.

Where in the world did June go? While I still ponder the answer to that question, how about a quick painting update on the first batch of 14 Minden Austrian hussars and Nadasdy? Good. I'm glad we are of a like mind.

Still on the sloppy side, but I've managed to move things along, painting the green bases, white (ivory) horse markings, and beginning the miles and miles of tack adorning the various horses. I always like to begin with the girths spanning the horses' ribs which helped hold the saddles in place. Even with the figures mounted individually on temporary painting bases, these can be kind of tricky to access, but there we are.

I've also used various Army Painter washes (Mid-Brown and Strong Tone) as well as their Speed Paint (Grim Black) to make the manes and tails of the horses a bit more, well, interesting. This time, that medium worked nicely I think. Looks a little funny at the moment, but I think once everything is finished and glossed, the overall effect should be reasonably good. They'll look like horses even if the coloring is slightly off.

Just one of the many compromises we have to make in the ever present quest to get our units painted to completion. Especially large ones like this. Keep in mind, the plan is an eventual monster regiment of 56 hussars, based on the Warasdiner Grenz Hussars. I know, I know. I ought to have my head examined. I keep thinking about the home for deranged scientists in that old Thomas Dolby video.

But coming back to reality, even if just for a moment, no time to dilly-dally. Gotta keep moving forward with the rest of the tack.

-- Stokes

A Quick(wash) Hussar Update. . .

2026-06-27T10:33:42.925-05:00

Still on the sloppy side, yes, but I am pleased with the way the Army Painter Red Tone Quickwash has gone on and settled into the many folds and crevasses of the first 14 Minden Austrian hussars. It helps define the many complicated areas of their uniforms. Miles of buttons and braid across the chests and pelisses anyone?

Applied carefully with a #6 round brush, an added benefit is that the wash also made helped to made the bergundy undercoat richer. The plan moving forward is to carefully damp-brush plain old red onto the upper areas of arms, thighs, busby bags, and saddlecloths where light would hit while allowing the lowlights to show elsewhere, hopefully giving these exquisite figures their due.

They're not, say, the 11th Hussars in parade dress circa 1854 before heading out to the Crimea, but hey. They're hussars! Might as well go the extra distance with 'em where and when possible. Right?

I tried a little test application of thinned Vallejo Red to that end on one of the hussars sitting next to Nadasdy in the rear rank last night, and the plan actually worked out pretty well. As some of you will no doubt agree, that is not always so with even the best laid plans. The road to hell, good intentions, and all that jazz you understand.

And speaking of Nadasdy, his trumpeter and several horses arrived a couple of days ago, along with a mounted Croat officer, from Minden Miniatures! I'll probably include them in the next batch of 14 hussars down the road in the late summer or early fall depending on how these proceed and the start of the fall semester/term when the university cranks back into action come mid-August.

But I still have about a month and a half before then, so let's not talk about that just yet! It's a sunny, very pleasant Saturday here in the Grand Duchy, and besides some video production, I'm actually looking forward to mowing outside late this afternoon and again in the early evening.

Early evening in the summer was always my late maternal grandmother's favorite time of the day. There are so many happy memories of the family gathering for coffee after dinner in the side-yard, or on the front porch if it was rainy, chatting and laughing about this or that as the sunlight waned and the chorus of crickets and frogs began their nightly opera.

Ask sometime about the infamous exploding bowl of Red Slaw in the summer of 1983.

While we lack the Pennsylvania creek that babbled along past my grandparents' house toward the Susquehanna River, we are in the midst of wetlands with thousands of frogs and the crickets here in Michigan. It's wonderful to sit with the Grand Duchess on the screened backporch just after dark and hear the same sound now so many years later.

But, I digress!

The next steps at the painting table will be getting the horse markings and tack in order before continuing with the hussars themselves. Might as well bell those particular cats.

-- Stokes

This Is Interesting!

2026-06-21T14:40:05.246-05:00

A Sunday Hussar Update. . .

2026-06-21T10:27:36.782-05:00

Looking very sloppy at this point. Grand Duchess, Young Master, and lawn permitting, I'll finish the dark red undercoat on everything across two or three painting sessions today.

Snatching some time here and there the last few days to apply a 'Bergundy' undercoat to the 14 Minden Austrian hussars currently on the painting table, with a planned red highlight to be added later. Lots of nooks and crannies with these as you might imagine given the dolman and pelisse modeled on the castings among other items. But absolutely everything was red according to much of the information on Kronoskaf about the uniform(s) worn by the Warasdiner Grenz Hussars, so I can't complain too much.

I've approached this step -- my own blue period -- like one might when repainting a room interior. Trim in the outer edges first (using a #4 round brush with a decent point, time consuming to say the least) and the fill in the inner areas more quickly after the fact. With necessary touch-ups once all of that is done. Afterwards, I think that I might tackle the bridles, reins, stirrup leathers, and other assorted straps on the horses themselves next since that is always a slog later. Might as well get that particular series of steps out of the way before the dreaded tedium demon rears his head.

Finally, the eagle-eyed among you might notice that ol' Nadasdy lurking at the back left corner has had no color applied yet to his particular uniform beyond the bag atop his own busby. He'll get his own distinct uniform, and I'm waiting to do that until I need a break from the other 14 figures in the batch. But I've got a few in mind to mull over in the meantime.

Happy Summer Everyone!

-- Stokes

Argh!!!

2026-06-18T08:14:30.157-05:00

A bit haphazard, but painting IS moving forward after a fashion.

Not the comedic sound of TV or cinematic pirates, but of frustration. Tried a couple of horses yesterday using the Army Painter speed paints in my collection, and was not pleased with the results. Blotchy, muddy-looking coats. Blast!

That wasn't supposed to happen.

After fooling with two, I decided that normal hobby acrylics would give a better result that I can live with, and chose a couple of Vallejo browns and a third from Army Painter. The latter must contain less pigment because it required a couple of coats to get even coverage over the gray basecoat.

Should've listened to my inner painter ("Wait, Stokes! Not so fast!"), saved the time, and frustration by sticking to the usual approach of many years. And should not have been seduced by the Youtube videos of a professional painter. Live and learn as the saying goes.

Where the speed paint did perform well was on several of the busbies. Here, the Army Painter 'Ruddy Fur' settled nicely into the recesses of the castings and gave a reasonably good impression of fur once dried a short time later.

Which brings us to today, a chilly gray morning more like March or April than mid- to late June.

After a visit to the barbershop later this morning (The excitement never ends here in the Grand Duchy!), followed by a stop at the supermarket on the way home, I'll return to the painting table to finish the remaining headwear, the manes and tails of the two bays in the squadron, and do something for the trumpeter's horse. And then, time permitting, apply flesh wash to faces and hand before a maroon undercoat on just about everything else. Further detailing and highlighting to follow down the road.

Somewhere in there will be a bit of real life too. You know the drill.

-- Stokes

Basic Fleshtone Applied. . .

2026-06-17T08:55:50.706-05:00

The basic fleshtone, Winsor-Newton Griffin Alkyd Oil (dries in 24 hours), has been applied. I'll tone this down later with my usual Army Painter fleshwash, which settles nicely into the eye sockets plus other facial and hand details, making everything a bit less peachy-orange and more akin to what your skin might look like after several weeks of living rough exposed to sun, wind, and probably not washed very often.

For now, there are a few remaining nooks and crannies that the gray basecoat managed to avoid, so some quick touch-ups are in order.

And then, it's onwards to the basic horseflesh. Mostly chestnuts in a couple of lighter browns planned with a couple of darker bays and , of course, a grey of some kind for the trumpeter. I've decided to experiment with speed and contrast paints after watching several Youtube videos from Culloden Painting Studio, of whom I've spoken before.

En avant mes amis!

-- Stokes

Basecoating on the First 15 Finished. . .

2026-06-16T09:10:04.084-05:00

Time to get down to the actual application of paint now I think.

Finally managed to finish applying the gray basecoat to the first squadron of 14 Austrian hussars and Ndasdy there at the back corner, who seems to be looking for his errant trumpeter. That took longer than usual, despite use of a #10 round brush, thanks to all of the nooks and crannies on these figures.

Although I have attempted use of spray primers in the distant past, good coverage always seemed to be an issue, so I have continued for most of my 40+ years behind the brush to tackle the important basecoating step with that most useful of tools. . . a paintbrush. As usual, my preferred basecoat is an inexact mix of white acrylic gesso and acrylic craft paint, 'Quaker Gray' by Cermacoat.

But I finally wised up a little bit.

The bottle of the latter was, after many years of use, about a third full. It dawned on me that I could simplify things a bit and also ensure consistency by squeezing a good amount of gesso from its rather large bottle into the remaining third of the gray, give it a through shake, and voilà! Ready made basecoat with good coverage in a nice light gray without waste, or the inexact science of mixing the two on a piece of palette paper each time I sit down at the painting table. Should also leave me enough to get through the remaining three hussar squadrons as and when I get to basecoating those.

But for now, time to start applying actual paint. And as usual, I'll start with fleshtone before moving onto the horses and dark red undercoat on saddle cloths, breeches, dolmans, pelisses, and busby bags during the next several days. That is when I'm not outside mowing or playing other lawn games, which have some added challenges this summer. . .

Verizon suddenly flagged many front yards in our neighborhood in mid-May, with no communication beforehand, and is in the process of digging holes -- some on the rather large side -- throughout the area with heavy equipment and a crew of workmen that does not always seem to know what it's doing if we're brutally honest.

Gotta love public utilities.

Ostensibly, the purpose of the work, we finally learned from our retired chemist neighbor, is to feed fiber internet cables through underground conduits to improve internet service for Verizon customers. Of course, we are not Verizon customers, so none of this inconvenience, mess, and lack of communication or, apparently, timeline to completion of the work will have anything to do with our internet access or speed. Sigh.

Inexplicably, we have somehow managed to avoid having our front yard excavated thus far (or heavy equipment parked there), but the presence of many small flags marking other utility lines complicates mowing, and my usual May applications of organic fertilizer and organic materials (chicken feed anyone?) has been held up by about five weeks due to the uncertainty of everything. Grrrr.

On the positive side of things, the weather has been cool and comfortable the last few days, the summer solstice is approaching, and goodness knows there are many less pleasant things to worry about both here at home and abroad. The term 'ongoing dumpster fire' comes readily to mind, but that's a topic of conversation for another time and place.

The hussars provide a more rewarding thing on which to focus.

-- Stokes

Three Versions of the Grand Duchy of Stollen Campaign Map. . .

2026-06-07T11:41:24.390-05:00

Early September 2006. Hand-drawn and colored during our final camping trip of the summer at Lake Evergreen outside of Bloomington-Normal, Illinois where we lived and worked at that time. The area was also a favorite destination for our bicycle club the McLean County Wheelers, typically about a 33-35 mile ride there and back.

The second version from just 10 days or so later in mid-September 2006. Created using Microsoft Paint with pasted in compass rose and text entered manually later with Word.

The most recent version of the map, finalized at the start of June 2026.

A question was posed by one Der Alte Fritz (Hi, Jim!) in yesterday's comments, asking how I created the map for my semi-fictitious campaign area. Well, since you asked. . .

The short answer is through repeated attempts and experimentation with various AIs since late May or early June of 2025. I began with Ninja -- I read online that it was good for image creation. Not sure I agree. -- but moved more recently to Claude (my preferred AI), a bit of Gemini, a dash of Chat GPT, and finally back to Claude during the final week of May this year to finish up.

The most frustrating part of the lengthy process has been that artificial intelligence is great at adding one detail while screwing up two or three others that one might wish to remain untouched. It can be, and often is, a truly maddening experience. You look over the latest version of your desired image and think to yourself,

"Ah! Looks good! Couldn't have done better myself had I genuine graphic designer skills."

And then your eyes scan another part of the map, with which you were already happy in a previous version, only to find that your AI of choice took liberties in the meantime and changed or omitted a particular detail.

"Blue language!!!"

I am quite certain the cats learned a few new words, hissed quietly to myself, during those instances of frustrated surprise and consternation. Like all good felines, Gunnlaug and her brother Onyx are always listening. If cats could only speak the way humans do, what might they say to, or about us? My suspicion is that cats would be quite frank, and even scathing in their assessment of humans and our actions of late. An interesting topic for possible discussion but perhaps one better left for another time.

I'll leave it at that.

Back to the topic at hand. The trick with artificial intelligence and map-making or revision seems to be requesting only a single change or addition at a time while also telling the AI, in no uncertain terms, NOT to mess with anything else. And yet there are times when it will still produce something less than desired. It's kind of dimwitted in a way. At least for now.

In the end, I added the last few details manually in my preferred online photograph editor of choice, Fotor, which gave results I can live with in the most recent version of the campaign area map that was shared a few days ago and included above for your easy reference.

If memory serves, the main things I have tried to get AI to do during the last year or so were the following tasks, fairly easy on the surface, or so it would seem:

1) Make the map look like an aged document from the mid-1700s. Accomplished in fairly short order last year.

2) Change the title text in the upper left corner to something akin to old Germanic Fraktur script. I had less luck with the text on the rest of the map as I recall and finally gave up. If Fotor offers Fraktur font, I have yet to find it among the various options available.

3) Superimpose a faint overlay of hexagons. One of the last steps at the tail end of May this year. Again, a frustrating experience that took many attempts and repeated/revised prompting for Claude to nail down.

There might well have been additional changes and features I asked the various AIs consulted to apply during the last 13 months or so, but those were the big three. That said, it took a long time and repeated prompts to get here, interrupted by quite a few months of inactivity on my part during the academic year. There are probably more skilled users of artificial intelligence at this point for image creation and manipulation out there -- In life there are always smarter, faster, more skilled, and better informed practitioners of almost anything under the sun. A sobering thought. -- and if you want something totally random the technology works reasonably well with even cursory prompting.

In hindsight, though, it might have been worth enlisting the help of an actual human graphic designer like one-time Battlegames editor Henry Hyde for example. I have no idea what his rates are, but paying someone who actually knows what he is doing when it comes to computer assisted design would have been faster and infinitely less frustrating I think. Just my two cents worth.

So, that's the long and the short of it with how I developed my map over almost 20 years. And what a long, strange trip it's been. With apologies to the late Jerry Garcia.

There are those, I'm sure, who will say they prefer the original hand-drawn map from September 2006. It does have a certain amateurish charm about it, harkening back to the similar imaginary cartography of my D&D infused high school days of the early 1980s. But the more recent version is nice in its own way. Slicker and certainly more in line with what I envisioned during those heady, early days of the Grand Duchy of Stollen project way back in 2005-2006.

Ok, I've got some hussars to basecoat, but another mug of coffee first!

-- Stokes

Daddy Nadasdy Looks On. . .

2026-06-06T10:29:58.882-05:00

Ok, now we're getting somewhere. At last. All 14 hussars seem to be firmly in place atop their horses with the final two sword arms cemented into their shoulder sockets and, apparently, curing without issue. And would you believe the Gorilla Glue gel grabbed right away on the final arm? There ought to be a law.

But, we had gentle rain all night, which sounded lovely through the open bedroom widows. And the sun is out this morning, so a bit of clean-up in the flower beds outside once things dry off and maybe a trip to our local big box lawn and garden store for a few bags of mulch, which the long suffering Grand Duchess has asked me to see too since last, oh, the end of last summer. I know, I know. . .

Happy Saturday everyone!

-- Stokes

Friday Evening Hussar Activities. . .

2026-06-05T19:17:28.583-05:00

While awaiting the arrival of his trumpeter, Nadasdy observes from the rear of the cutting mat as I attach sword arms to hussars and reattach two of them to their mounts (Grrrrrr. . .). A tedious couple of early steps that are a challenge at the best of times.

This morning, I discovered that about half of the 14 hussars, cemented to their horses yesterday afternoon, failed to grab (Gorilla Glue gel anyone?!), so they required a second attempt. Of those, the two at the right rear have still failed to cure with a firm join in place, so this is the third try in two days. They need to be firmly attached to their horses before I attempt to cement the sword arms in place.

Can't recall when I have ever had so much trouble getting riders cemented into place using gel!

Waiting around on these kinds of delays is maddening, but part of the process. I guess. The Minden Prussian hussars that I tackled back in 2011-2012, painted as Lauzun's Legion hussars, were more cooperative at this stage.

Time now for some evening yoga and meditation I think.

-- Stokes

The Penultimate Campaign Map?

2026-06-04T09:35:19.018-05:00

The final revised version of of the Grand Duchy of Stollen and its immediate environs, a few decades before the region was swallowed up in the various partitions of Poland. Should you wonder, the Grand Duke Irwin-Amadeus II and his gentleman's personal gentleman Hives subsequently decamped for England, where the former purchased a place in Sussex and lived out his days enjoying games of croquet with various guests on the west lawn.

-- Stokes

Striking While the Iron Is Hot. . .

2026-06-02T09:29:48.184-05:00

The first 14 Austrian hussars seated precariously atop their respective, and masterfully rendered, 1/56 mounts.

Thank you everyone for your kind comments about the recently (and finally) completed Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment. The fictitious second battalion in the pay of the conniving Princess Antonia, Elector of Zichenau. The notorious French mercenary-adventurer, General Phillipe de Latte (her not so secret paramour), commands Antonia's army in the field of course.

His aide de camp, the mustachioed Major Paulo di Biscotti, has, in turn, been absent without leave for some weeks. Rumor has it he has been on a grand tour in search of the perfect cappuccino. Di Biscotti was reportedly last seen in Florence. Or was it Trento?

But I digress!

The Anhalt-Zerbst project was a slog at times, but it's done at last, and I'm happy to add it to the Grand Duchy of Stollen collection. The 60+ figures have been, for the time being, stowed safely in one of several large plastic storage tubs that reside in the main closet here in Zum Stollenkeller. Time now to look at the painting road up ahead.

Fired with enthusiasm thanks to finishing the Anhalt-Zerbst project, I took a deep breath and opened the large cardboard, cube-shaped Pandora's box over on the painting desk yesterday evening -- before yoga with the Grand Duchess -- to root around inside and sort out the first squadron of Minden Austrian hussars (pictured above). Sword arms and Nadasdy occupy the plastic envelopes in the background by the way.

My squadrons of cavalry are slightly larger than those in Charge! Or How to Play War Games (1967), consisting of 14 figures rather than Young and Lawford's eight. Typically, mine consist of 11 or 12 troopers and two or three command figures, depending on cavalry type. Since we are talking hussars in this case, that's 12 and two. Looking at what's still in the box, there are enough figures and horses for an eventual monster regiment of 56 (at least) organized in four squadrons along with Nadasdy and his own trumpeter out in front.

And if I've got an extra hussar in the pile, I might even create a charging vignette of the three. But that's putting the cart before the (ahem) horse.

Speaking of which, that reminds me. . . I wanna be a cowboy!

Musical digressions aside, the inspiration for this latest bout of madness (just call me King George) comes from an old color photograph of some French Napoleonic hussars on the rear cover of an early issue of Miniature Wargames (#6 or #7). I've always wanted to do something similar in my own painting and collecting, so here we are. Although mine will be primarily red rather than the light blue, which was the color of those French hussars that first fired my imagination so long ago.

Now, for those of you who might be wondering, continually rising metal costs have meant that I have not purchased all of these in one fell swoop. As my much missed maternal grandfather used to kid about a variety of things, I'm dumb, but I'm not stupid. I've been a bit more rational in my approach to figure purchases for this particular project and have, instead, taken advantage of occasional promotions, usually Black Friday sales in November, to acquire one squadron at a time over three or four years. The figures have been hoarded in the cube-shaped box until such a time as painting can commence, which is this summer.

All of which is a typically long-winded way of saying that I'll start on these in the next few evenings when I attach the sword arms and dive into base-coating with my usual white acrylic gesso. Let's see how long it takes to get through these!

-- Stokes

P.S.

And yes, a small solo game is on the horizon. If not a Sittangbad refight, then Blasthof Heath. . . but with larger units.

An illustration of a Warasdiner Grenz Hussar (from Kronoskaf), on which I'll base my painting of these many metal hussars for the next year or so.

Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment Based at Last!!!

2026-06-01T10:23:50.131-05:00

Yes, you read that right. All 60+ figures comprising the three companies (a Charge-sized line regiment) of the fictitious second battalion of the Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment have been affixed to their permanent bases. The dimensions are those suggested for 25mm units of line infantry within In the Grand Manner. I fudge things a bit by basing my musicians and a few third rank corporals individually. Look carefully and you'll spot them in these two photographs shot just a few minutes ago on the morning of June 1st. About nine months (!!!) after I started them. But no time to dilly-dally admiring my own brushwork. I've got a large, heavy box of Minden Austrian hussars over on the painting desk just out of frame to the right, and it's time to open and organize the first batch of 14 or 15 and glue the sword arms in place before the usual base coat of white acrylic gesso. Onward and upward, eh?

-- Stokes

Updated Campaign Area Map. . .

2026-05-30T12:45:30.826-05:00

The Stollenian Ministry of Cartography has managed fairly well at long last.

Following quite a few failed attempts by Claude to make the fixes I requested -- It has been a very frustrating couple of days to say the least. -- I finally used my preferred online photograph editing application to make those edits manually and sharpen up the image overall. So, I've finally got the map looking very close to what I've been after since the very first hand-sketched and colored map way back in September 2006. And here we are. Complete with a faint hex overlay and a scale of miles in the upper right corner.

Each hex is roughly equal to a day's march, assuming poor, ill-defined roads across the region and that armies of the era typically marched at the rate of their transport and pontoon train(s), which is to say a walk with occasional forced marches notwithstanding. Anyway, I'm relatively pleased with the outcome. There is one last very minor point that I might try to fix later (ok, two), but for now, we'll leave it and move onto other more pressing things.

Speaking of which.

It's time for another driving lesson with the Young Master behind the wheel (it's Saturday afternoon as I write this post) and then a couple of late afternoon errands before potting a bunch of new annuals outside along the front walk early this evening following supper. After dark, it's finally time to cement my Anhalt-Zerbst figures to their permanent bases. Watch for a couple of photographs of the finished regiment tomorrow!

-- Stokes

Cartography Games with AI. .

2026-05-27T17:58:14.328-05:00

Returning to my campaign area map revisions of almost a year ago, but this time using a combination of Chat GPT with substantial help from Claude to fix the former's mistakes. Getting very close at long last, but there are a few small artifacts that will have to wait until another session to eradicate. Can you spot them? In the meantime, I've got to head outside for an hour to take care of a few small tasks before dark.

-- Stokes

Nearly There. . .

2026-05-24T13:46:18.462-05:00

Ok, we're almost home. The weather gods have cooperated again today with gray skies and steady rain, so I've had every excuse needed to avoid yard work out of doors for one more day and steal away to Zum Stollenkeller after breakfast with the Grand Duchess late this morning. An hour or so to c-a-r-e-f-u-l-l-y peel the figures from their temporary cardboard bases and line 'em up atop their permanent bases.

Just need to retouch the green base edges before cementing the 60 or so figures in place, but here they are in company column. Not perfect by any stretch, but they look pretty darn good en masse at arm's length. Overall, I'm pleased although goodness knows it took long enough to finish this particular unit. Almost nine months. Jeeze Louise!

But for right now, it's raining lightly, the house is still, and I'm off to have a Sunday afternoon lie-down with one or both cats, who, like many dogs, usually turn up sooner or later when they discover someone reclined on the bed.

-- Stokes

So, What's Left in the Mountain of Lead?

2026-05-24T10:53:33.519-05:00

Part of the Army of Zichenau during the October 2017 Grand Review after two months of rebasing.

And part of the Stollenian Army across the field, during the same autumn maneuvers that year. Both forces have grown considerably since, and there has been reflagging for many of the units at different points too. Interested parties can scroll back through the various subsequent blog entries to inspect those claims more closely.

This last week, I've spent a bit of time here and there during the evenings -- while waiting for coats of gloss varnish to dry -- to inspect my stock of unpainted Minden and RSM95 figures residing in the infamous Drawer o' Lead to my left. And, of course, to take a gander at the spillover in a nearby closet here in Zum Stollenkeller. The resulting 'audit' is tentatively encouraging (he said), but my work is cut out for me. After the planned monster-sized regiment of Austrian hussars, here's how I plan to complete the Grand Duchy of Stollen Collection during the next (third) decade:

Electorate of Zichenau

Kurköln Wildenstein – Single-breasted Austrian Coats (Blue faced Red). . . Use Russians (60 Minden)
2^nd Ansbach-Bayreuth -- Austrian Coats (Blue faced Black) (60 Minden )
Kurmainz Wildenstein -- Austrian Coats (White faced Green) (60 Minden)
Palatine ‘Effern’ Regiment -- Prussian Coats w/ Swedish Cuffs (Blue faced White) (60 Minden)
Grenadiers in Bearskin (48 Minden)
Lanciers de Saxe (30 Minden)

Grand Duchy of Stollen

3^rd Waldeck Regiment – Hessians (Blue faced yellow). . . (60 Fife & Drum)
Fusilier Regiment Erbprinz – Prussian Coats (Blue faced Rose Pink) (60 Minden )
Miliz Formations – Prussian Coats w/Prussian Cuffs (Gray faced ???) (60 Minden )
Grenadiers in Mitre (30 Minden)
Holstein-Gottorp Dragoons (30 RSM95)
Nassau-Sarrebruck Cavalerie in Bearskins (30 Minden )

Odds and Ends

One Wagon, One Stagecoach, and Teams
Various Villagers/Civilians
Various Generals and Staff
One Squadron of Russian Dragoons (Young Master Paul’s)
30 RSM95 Prussian Hussars (not sure what I'll do with these just yet)
Leftover officers, NCOs, musicians, and a few others (again, not sure what I'll do with these besides drawing on them for the grenadier formations)

So, that is the not inconsiderable stock of figures to draw from. Hence the self-imposed moratorium, more or less. on further purchases or gift requests in recent years. But when is a hobby project ever really "done"? Model railroad enthusiasts always seem to be working on one or another part of their layouts over many years. And some of them occasionally tear down their work and start from scratch as they perfect the art of replicating the real world in one or another scale.

Parenthetically, I've become a real fan of N Scale layouts thanks to Youtube. But back to toy soldiers!

As I told the Grand Duchess late Friday evening over a second glass of wine by the hearth -- she was kind enough to ask (blame the grapes) although I kept my reply short and sweet to avoid her eyes glazing over -- the long-term plan outlined above should do it for the painting part of the GD of S project. The goal is then to play with them into my dotage. By that point, I suspect, the ol' eyes just won't manage close-up work anymore beyond the odd group of staff or villagers, and it will be time to simply enjoy the collection.

And on that note, I think I'll set up my table this summer and get some terrain laid out. The Young Master is older now as are the Grand Ducal felines Gunnlaug and Onyx, so I think things might be safer left in situ than once was the case. Because the Grand Duchy of Stollen enters its 20th year in 2026, I'm feeling like another attempt at Sittangbad. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Time to fetch another mug of coffee and get the Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment onto its permanent bases!

-- Stokes

Most, but not all, of my scratch-built structures laid out during the same Grand Review during October 2017, A rather large market town somewhere along the Baltic coast from the look of things.

Shiny, Shiny, Shiny. . .

2026-05-23T19:01:51.595-05:00

A rainy, cool Saturday here in the Grand Duchy was just the excuse necessary to push ahead with glossing the final third of the Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment (the fictitious 2nd Battalion). And here they are. The finished unit. Tomorrow, I'll finally get 'em onto their permanent green 3mm Litko bases, just peeking out from behind the regiment in the upper right-hand corner of the photograph. Then, after a couple of days off, it's time to get cracking with the fist 14 or so Austrian hussars.

-- Stokes

A Tuesday Glossing Update. . .

2026-05-19T06:54:46.730-05:00

The first 2/3 of the fictitious second battalion of the Anhalt-Zerbst regiment all glossed and waiting on their final third (with flags) to turn up.

Well, glossing has gone a bit slower than expected during the last 10 days or so. The Grand Duchess has been away on a work trip (Indonesia and Singapore), so it has been the Young Master and yours truly holding down the fort here at home with the cats. Fairly calm and quiet all things considered. Even the evening driving lessons around the quieter streets of our neighborhood.

Besides the usual outdoor things at this time of year, I've been scrambling to get a project finished out ahead of June 1st, so free time in the evenings has been scarce since classes finished at the end of April and grades were due on May 5th. But, here is where we are at the moment with the Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment.

Only two tiny errors noted that are so egregious I've got to correct it with a small dab of flesh tone on a chin and another of dark red on the rear of a cuff. The latter fellow in the left file, front rank all the way at right. That is, the three figures marching backwards to their own beat (story of my life). Otherwise, any painting glitches are so tiny that only I will ever notice them, and we'll leave it at that. As my advisor advised many years ago, there are two kinds of theses. Those that are perfect, and those that are finished.

That observation remains sound advice, and the same goes for units of model soldiers. At some point, we've got to call 'em done and move on to the next project.

But otherwise, things have gone reasonably well with the application of approximately 2.5 coats of the Liquitex acrylic high gloss varnish. It is runny straight out of the bottle, however, and I find that the stuff goes on best after about 10 minutes once some of the moisture in it has evaporated from the small puddle on my palette paper, and it becomes a bit more viscous.

That last half-coat (the .5) goes on those raised areas likely to get a bit more handling and in need of a little added protection. Which is to say hats, outer arms, left legs/toes, skirts of waistcoats, and on the back their shouldered packs/haversacks. More involved for cavalry of course, but there we are.

And speaking of cavalry, that rather heavy box of Minden Austrian hussars and mounts has been whispering its siren song to me from the closet here in Zum Stollenkeller the last few weeks. Gotta hurry up, get these finished, and based so I can get started with the first squadron. No rest for the wicked in my ongoing quest to slowly paint down the lead mountain of Minden and RSM95 figures!

Hence the self-imposed moratorium on figure purchases.

A related task for the summer is to take a look at everything and develop a concrete plan for painting the rest of it during the next several years before the ol' eyes make the activity difficult. It dawned on me recently that somewhere in the last dozen years or so I stopped working from a list of units to complete, and paiting output slowed down appreciably.

Not that I was ever able to crank 'em out the way some hobbyists manage you understand.

In any case, high time to get back on track beyond the more vague aspiration of fielding two armies too large to deploy everything on the table at one time. You know, that particular wargamer's affliction.

But that's a topic for another time.

-- Stokes