Two very different Christmas Images Today. . .

Yep, you can't argue with that. Just above, is an image of Santa Claus from, I think, the late 1940s, probably what many, if not most, of us (at least here in the United States) have in mind when we think of the big, jolly guy who brings presents to children around the world on Christmas eve. Strange, how many of our enduring Christmas ideals stem from either the Victorian era or roughly the mid-2oth century -- The Depression and World War II periods.

Just below is another image of the Russian Grandfather Frost. Now, I'm not sure at all myself, but I am curious to know, so please chime in if you do. Does Grandfather Frost truly have his roots in Russian folklore, or was this something dreamed up by the Soviet authorities during those times of trouble? In any case, you can't argue with the magical feeling he invokes with his staff and opulent robes.

And yes, more to come from the unfolding Action at Pickelhaubewicz later this evening after the workday is through and dinner has been had. Classes might be over, but there is grading to do, some more translation proofreading, a newsletter to compile, and a few other things on the table, either literally, or figuratively. And I added another two painted fusiliers to the bunch last night, bringing the unit to six. Gosh, only 74 more figures to go! And I was worried it would take a long time to paint all of them.

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...

Continued Regional Map Revisions. . .

F ooled around a bit more with the revised map just before and after dinner this evening, using the Fotor app to reinsert missing text . I also removed a few other things using the 'Magic Eraser' function, which works surprisingly well. Now, we're getting somewhere. I just have to figure out how to ensure that the text is all a uniform font style and maybe figure out a way to add a few bunches of trees to suggest forested areas, Ninja AI is not always entirely cooperative to the tune of "I'm sorry Dave. I can't do that." -- Stokes

The Grand Duchy of Stollen

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