Self-Timer Test Photograph. . .

The latest vignette in the series. . . a generic Austrian cuirassier officer (Minden) and an equally generic infantry officer (RSM95).

Yours truly spent a wonderfully quiet and still winter's day today down here in Zum Stollenkeller, working on the small scenic base shown above. We had light snow all day, which meant there was little to no traffic on the street, and The Grand Duchess made us special Mexican-style French Toast. She sliced up a left over length of baguette, soaked it in the egg and vanilla mixture overnight, and, once cooked, we enjoyed it with butter, cinnamon, and sugar on it late this morning. Can't recall when I've had French Toast as delicious. And then, bless 'em, The Grand Duchess and Young Master dressed and headed out to the Winter Farmers' Market downtown and then onto some indoor children's things in the same general area. The house was remarkably still for hours, and it was absolutely great. I make no apologies for liking my peace and quiet.

So, after brushing my teeth, dressing, and heating some leftover coffee, it was down here to the painting table with cats in tow -- They love hanging around and sleeping in my office with me when I'm in it -- where I pressed on with these two figures, doing most of the detailing and clean-up this afternoon, adding two coats of gloss just before supper. The groundwork followed the Young Master's bath and bedtime, going quickly. Last of all, I just could not wait to try my hand at the self-timer on my Sony Cybershot camera, hence the painting table shot rather than shooting (ha, ha) for a more finished picture with the foamcore board lightbox.

The self-timer on the camera was much easier to use than the instructions in the owner's manual made it seem. Two seconds don't quite seem enough though, so I've opted for ten here, which gives Mr. Accident-Looking-for-a-Place-to-Happen ample time to back well away after pressing the shutter button. Apparently. My all thumbsness notwithstanding, the photo looks pretty crisp and sharp to me. But I'd appreciate your feedback and (polite) constructive critique since I really want to improve my photography skills and results, so I'm open to suggestions. Thank you in advance for your time and reflection.

-- Stokes

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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