The Scene Takes Shape. . .

The post-hunt picnic takes gradual shape.

Painting is now complete on the 18 Jackdaw frolicking aristocrats! Just the clear glossy acrylic coat and limited groundwork to do before moving on to the two Minden mounted ladies, who will become the Grand Duke's aunts Irmgard and Waltraud -- two thirds of that formidable triumvirate of mature members of the female persuasion, who are determined to see Irwin-Amadeus II marry and produce an heir -- this weekend. Then, it's back to things military with a company of Minden sappers/miners and some additional command vignettes. No rest for the wicked!

Dogs, discussion, and dancing take center stage.

It seems that Signore di Polenta likes girls too. And what a dandy fellow he is!

Ponderous Poetry and Presentations.

Aunt Hiltrud and Uncle What's-His-Name observe the festivities.

Comments

John said…

What cool figures! What brand are they?

1:58 AM

Andy McMaster said…

Those are looking very good and colourful! I've got some of the Jackdaw to paint myself so will be look at yours for colour schemes!
Andy

1:58 AM

Conrad Kinch said…

Wow ! What a display ! Well done stokes, they're beautiful!

2:24 AM

Chris Gregg said…

A very imaginative and charming set of figures. I particularly like the artist. Your painting technique makes them look like 18th century porcelain.
best wishes
Chris
http://notjustoldschool.blogspot.co.uk/

3:11 AM

WSTKS-FM Worldwide said…

Thank you for the kind comments, men! The figures are a mix of Jackdaw (aristocrats and servants), Eureka (musicians, conversing Frederick and Voltaire, and dogs), and three odd leftover dualists from Blue Moon that I converted recently into a painter, a micro-managing country squire, and his valet.

Best Regards,

Stokes

5:43 AM

tidders2 said…

lovely set of vignettes

-- Allan

6:53 AM

Bloggerator said…

Delicious Stokes.

Like Sr Polenta. And I'm sure his liking for the ladies goes so far and no further.

de L

4:18 AM

Springinsfeld said…

Lovely bright colours and finish, I will check back for inspiration when painting mine.

8:23 AM

Scheck said…

Thats really a fantastic set you did! Great colour sheme, good harmony - a enjoy to look at them. Jackdraw only produces in 28-30mm, ian´t it?
Peter

2:03 AM

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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