More, More, More Vignettes!!!

More RSM95 figures removed from their old single bases and regrouped into command vignettes.

I have just finished regrouping older figures in my collection, painted during the last several years, into three additional command 'scenes,' one Stollenian at the front and two Zichenauer at the rear. On the rear left, you'll note General Phillipe de Latte (dark blue) conversing with his rather animated ADC Major Paolo di Biscotti (white), who makes the point that one can never truly enjoy coffee cakes and sweetbreads without fresh espresso.

Comments

tidders2 said…

nice work on regrouping your old singles into great vignettes

-- Allan

7:23 AM

Mad Padre said…

They look terrific. I really like the irregularly shaped bases.

Cheers,

Michael

12:32 PM

Independentwargamesgroup said…

Evening Stokes,
Over the last few months I have admired the finish on your figures. What gloss varnish are you using?
It gives a lovely finish to your troops.
Thanks Robbie.

2:31 PM

warpaintjj said…

I can't get over the depth of colour that high gloss varnish gives - really lovely toys.
Best wishes
JJ

2:38 PM

WSTKS-FM Worldwide said…

Thank you, men! Very kind of you to leave such nice remarks. The varnish I am using right now is Liquitex (acrylic) Gloss Medium and Varnish. It stays exactly where you put it since it is somewhat thicker than Future/Klear floor finish, which I have used since 2006. The problem with the latter though is that the stuff runs everywhere. The Liquitex stuff, while slower to apply, stays put and dries crystal clear in about 10 minutes. A second coat makes the figures even shinier and makes the colors even more vivid. The bases are just heavy pieces of approximately 1/8" thick card that I've chopped into irregular shapes and then carefully rounded the corners with judicious trimming with a sharp hobby knife. I'm after a "look" similar to all of those great old vignettes by Doug Mason that used to grace the pages of Miniature Wargames and the early Wargames Illustrated in the 80s and early 90s.

3:15 PM

Bloggerator said…

"You don't say, Biscotti, you don't say..."

de L

5:30 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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