Leuthen Day. . . a Day Late. . .

An atypical seasonal image: Ol' Fritz speaking to his officers before the Battle of Leuthen began in earnest on 5 December 1757.

When Mom is away. . . The Grand Duchess has taken a bunch of her students to the annual Kristkindlmarkt in Chicago today, so it's just the boys around the house on a dark, windy December Saturday. After breakfast, I thought the Young Master and I might take a walk downtown to one of the cafes there for some hot chocolate and a cookie of some kind for the boy plus the usual observations and conversation about whatever happens to catch our eyes along the way. Then it's back here to Stollen Central for whatever Saturday activity the Young Master might imagine for himself. Ol' Dad will, at some point, retire down here to Zum Stolenkeller for some painting time -- basecoating 24+ Minden pontooniers with my usual white acrylic gesso -- and final assembly of the Minden/Westfalia Maurice de Saxe carriage vignette.

The next several items in the painting queue here at Stollen Central.

Before signing off for today, allow me to provide a few more details about the middle photograph above. Along the back row, the new General Phillipe de Latte at far left, currently awaiting the arrival of his ADC Major Paolo di Biscotti, who should be with us any day now. Skipping over the partially painted and head-swapped RSM95 Prussian hussar officer, a recently acquired group of Crann Tara British staff (the Duke of Cumberland, the Earl of Albemarle, and Lt. General Hawley), who in my semi-fictitious Europe of the mid- to late 18th century will become Lord Huffington-Blather and his officers, all three on loan from the Army of Duchy of Brunswick and Lüneburg (also known as Hanover), who oversee the pontoniers to their left and before them in the mid-distance.

And last of all, a decidedly less martial and more characteristic seasonal image: December 6th is Sankt Nikolaustag in the German-speaking world and, no doubt, in some other cultures as well. Sometime in the night of December 5-6, Sankt Nikolaus visits homes and leaves small treats in the shoes of boys and girls. Sankt Nikolaus visits our household each year and leaves a number of small goodies in a pair of the Young Master's shoes. . . and yes, in Mom's and Dad's too.

Finally, in the foreground, we have the exquisite Minden-Westfalia collaborative vignette, featuring Maurice de Saxe (aka General Alfons von Bauchschmerzen) and his whicker carriage, which needs only its traces attached before base-coating and painting can commence. Von Bauchschmerzen, besides suffering from perpetual tummy problems, is the officer in charge of Stollen's recently completed supply and pontoon train. Can't wait to begin painting ol' von Bauchschmerzen and his coach as well as his uhlan escort(s)!

-- 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...

Warboss Green Bases. . .

I t's amazing how something as simple as applying two coats of Citadel 'Warboss Green' (ex-Games Workshop 'Goblin Green') can enliven a unit of figures and get 'em that much closer to glossing and completion. In much the same way that applying fleshtone early in painting process helps bring the figures to life. Just some limited dry-brushing to bring out the manes, tails, and some equine musculature, and I'm calling my version of Saxony's von Polenz Cuirassiers, circa 1733, done and dusted. Longtime visitors to the Grand Duchy of Stollen might recall (the blog will turn 19 years old in September) that I generally go for an old school approach when it comes to unit bases and paint them a nice, bright green. Exceptions include command vignettes, skirmishers of one kind or another, transport, camp followers, and various other civilian one-offs. The approach is not to everyone's taste, but I like the cheery toy soldier appearance once everything...

The Grand Duchy of Stollen

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