Brrrr... We're winterizing some doors and windows!

Well, the title says it all. Following a late breakfast, we've been adding weather stripping and a few other things to some doors at the front and rear of the house to minimize drafts and adding some of that window insulating plastic to a few of the old windows that have not yet been replaced. So, here i am, it's already after three o'clock, and I am just now getting down here to Zum Stollenkeller to add today's Christmas graphic and comment!

Next on the agendas is to go into the other room and make sure I have moved all of Jonathan's troops according to his orders, and then we have that musketry dual to resolve. I think this will finally allow us to wrap up Move Seven of our continuing play-by-email game and open the way for the next turn.

I did manage to paint another two fusiliers late last night, and pretty good they look too. All they need are a couple of coats of the usual Future/Klear treatment. I'll post a pohoto or two later this evening. Ok, I could easily sit here pontificating about this or that for the rest of the afternoon, but Jonathan has been very patient, so I must get to gaming table and take stock of what's what, what? ;-)

By the way, the above picture shows an Austrian image of Saint Nicholas from either the late 19th, or early 20th century. And yes, the Grand Duchess was very tickeled by his visit and treats left for her in her New Balance jogging shoes. St. Nicholas left some nice, choclately goodies (for me too), which should tide the both of us over until a little closer to Christmas when more treats make their official appearance. Geeze, I love this season!

Comments

Bluebear Jeff said…

Ah, good. Now on with the battle.

-- Jeff

3:59 PM

Fitz-Badger said…

Any ideas why there's a devil standing behind St. Nick in that depiction?

6:27 PM

Anonymous said…

St. Nicholas is usually depicted working in a good-cop-bad-cop routine with another, more sinister character, who carries the birch rods and lumps of coal for naughty children (or those who haven't adequately mastered their catechism, depending on your religious background). The dark sidekick goes by many names and faces across German-speaking Europe--Schwartz Pieter, Pelznickel or, as shown here, Krampus, the most daemonic of the shadow-Klaus characters.

9:21 PM

Fitz-Badger said…

Ah, interesting, mein Herzog! Danke! :-)

Kind of like the original old fairy tales and such often had some pretty dark stuff going on.

9:07 PM

And We're Off!!!

Arrrgh! Gotta go back into camera settings on my iPhone to bring all of the frame into focus. Blast! Painting is underway on the 60 or so Minden Austrians, which are slated to become my version of the Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment of AWI renown. More or less indistinguishable from Austrians of the era really, right down to the red facings and turnbacks, but the eventual flags (already in my files) will set them apart. I went ahead and based-coated all of them over a couple of days lthe last week of August, using a mix of light gray and white acrylic gesso, before next applying my usual basic alkyd oil flesh tone to the faces and hands. In a day or two, I'll hit that with Army Painter Flesh Wash to tone things down a bit and bring some definition to the faces and hands. As usual, the plan is to focus on about 20 figures at a time, splitting the regiment roughly into thirds along with the color party and regimental staff. Depending on ...

Sunday Morning Coffee with AI. . .

A rmed with a second cup of fresh, strong coffee, I messed around a bit this morning with artlist.io using its image to image function in an attempt to convert my hand-drawn map from September 2006 to something that more resembles an old map from the mid-18th century. And just like my experiments with Ninja AI in June, the results are mixed. The above map is pretty good, but Artlist keeps fouling up the place names and has trouble putting a faint overlay of hexes across the entire area. Hexes, admittedly, are not likely to be found on any genuine maps from the era in question, but there we are. Frankly, I prefer the appearance of the Ninja map, but there were problems getting it to correct its errors. Grrrr. As is the case with so much having to do with the various AI's out there now, the output generated is a direct result of the prompts entered. For text alone, and when you develop a lengthy, highly detailed prompt, it is...

Warboss Green Bases. . .

I t's amazing how something as simple as applying two coats of Citadel 'Warboss Green' (ex-Games Workshop 'Goblin Green') can enliven a unit of figures and get 'em that much closer to glossing and completion. In much the same way that applying fleshtone early in painting process helps bring the figures to life. Just some limited dry-brushing to bring out the manes, tails, and some equine musculature, and I'm calling my version of Saxony's von Polenz Cuirassiers, circa 1733, done and dusted. Longtime visitors to the Grand Duchy of Stollen might recall (the blog will turn 19 years old in September) that I generally go for an old school approach when it comes to unit bases and paint them a nice, bright green. Exceptions include command vignettes, skirmishers of one kind or another, transport, camp followers, and various other civilian one-offs. The approach is not to everyone's taste, but I like the cheery toy soldier appearance once everything...

The Grand Duchy of Stollen

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