The Seasonal Spirit is Beginning to Take Hold. . .

Here's a Christmas market very familiar to the Grand Duchess. It's the one held each December in Dresden, Germany.

And that means a few gifts to purchase, a few to order and have sent to friends and family members around the world, and cards to address and send. And you know what? I love it! But still a few days of school to get through before the fun and festivities can begin in earnest.

Nevertheless, I managed to find about 90 minutes or two hours last night to apply the final touch-ups to that middle batch of nine cuirassiers, followed by the first coat of Future/Klear acrylic floor finish. And the soldiers look smashing this morning, resplendent in their unabashed shinyness (is that even a word?). One more coat this afternoon, and they are all finished. Watch for a photograph here of the now 21-strong regiment. Only nine figures left to go! And then it's onto an artillery battery, a few generals, and their ADC's. Nothing like the feeling of being almost done with part of a project of long standing, is there?

And here's my personal favorite, the Luebeck Christmas market. This is my favorite place in Germany where I wasted quite a bit of happy time in the mid-1980s and again in 1990. Sadly, none of it was during this December event. It looks so bright and inviting. I can almost smell the food and gluehwein!

Comments

Ross Mac rmacfa@gmail.com said…

Finish? Not for me, oh don't get me wrong, I like the exhilaration of fielding a new unit or figure but I dread that sense of impending closure that means there are no more figures to paint. (Perhaps that is why I finish so few?) Past experience tells me that if I declare "Done!" then I will slowly cease to play with that army as a new one grabs my imagination. As M Protz likes to say we tend to play what we paint and for me I always hanker to paint what I just played or am about to play. Long live the open ended collection! (and a never end stream of pictures!)

1:21 PM

Rob Young said…

Let me see. My first metal figures were Garrison and Minifigs 'S' Range 20/25mm Greeks and Persians back in 1970. I've since had several different ranges and even delved into 15mm (see Garrison gallery). What do I have on my desk now? Garrison 20mm Greeks and Persians. Why no Minifigs 'S' Range? Because they (as in the previous owners) wouldn't sell me any.

I don't believe in finishing armies, it doesn't work.

1:12 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...

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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