A Trip on The "Real" Polar Express. . .

I completely understand the excitement felt by train spotters and vintage rail enthusiasts. I got a big lump in my throat watching this beast let out clouds of steam, plumes of coal smoke, and sounding its whistle before we boarded one of a dozen or so vintage passenger cars for the trip. It was an amazing experience.

A rare family selfie, taken just before we boarded The Polar Express in Ashley, Michigan to come home from the annual Christmas Village last Saturday evening. The Young Master got to stay up way beyond his bedtime, and did remarkably well given how many other children of various ages fell to pieces during the train journey home. And yes, it was as cold as it looks here. About 19 F. by 8:15pm just before we found our car and climbed aboard.

Saturday afternoon, The Young Master, The Grand Duchess, and yours truly, aka Ogre Dad according to my son, drove up to Owosso, Michigan where we boarded the REAL Polar Express (Engine #1225 of the former Pere Marquette Railway), for a trip further north to the annual Christmas Village held in the small farming village of Ashley, Michigan. While festive and fun, the highlight of the trip was the train ride up and back, pulled by #1225, one of the few remaining steam locomotives this large in the United States that is still operational. Engine #1225 was also the inspiration behind the train featured in the children's Christmas film Polar Express. You can read more about this particular engine by clicking here.

In a word, it was an awesome rail experience. We tend to forget just how HUGE these locomotives were. As I remarked to the Grand Duchess during the trip home, just imagine what it must have been like to be in a passenger rail station with eight or ten steam trains coming, going, or sitting idle be the platform as passengers embarked or debarked.

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In other news, after examining a number of old SYW-era heavy cavalry illustrations by Knoetel and others, I began work affixing the previously neglected cavalry carbines to the almost finished second squadron of horse grenadiers last night. The job was finished in 30 minutes or less, and, miraculously, I don't seem to have destroyed any of the brushwork or left behind any super gel induced fingerprints. A dot or two did the trick, and carbines are position in a mix of barrel down and barrel up since the sources I examined showed various similar positions.

The metal clip that secured the carbine to the large white shoulder belt worn by cavalry troopers appears to have been similar in design to the modern snaffle at the end of dog leashes and on some livestock leads. In any case, the figures don't look too bad, and I can get on with finishing up the carbine barrels, locks, and brass fixtures before moving onto the various tiny metal bits on the bridles and martingales of the horses. The squadron standards will be the final touch before both squadrons and regimental staff get a coat or two of acrylic gloss varnish.

-- Stokes

So, here is where things stand today -- after carbines were glued into place -- for the current squadron of cavalry on the painting table.

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 Good Soldier Svjek said…

As a child of the steam age (my father worked on the railways) trips out as a small boy were taken by steam train (my father got free passes ) and the smell of steam engines brings waves of nostalgia to me !.

2:32 PM

Der Alte Fritz said…

It sounds like a wonderful family outing.

9:23 AM

Gallia said…

I am inspired by your train ride.
Wonderful.
Bill P.

9:46 PM

WSTKS-FM Worldwide said…

Thank you, men! It was a wonderful afternoon and evening all the way around.

Best Regards,

Stokes

4:30 PM