The Grand Duchy of Stollen

  The Anhalt-Zerbst regiment musters in the drill square to sort themselves into platoons and companies during the coming weeks  Fall maneuvers if you will. A large dose of real life the last few days with the start of classes next Monday, various preparatory meetings, and finishing up a few other things this week.  But, I managed to sort out 60 or so Minden Austrian infantry from the pile and get 'em stuck to temporary painting bases.  Must carefully drill out the hands of several NCOs for flagpoles and pole arms this weekend before the usual basecoat.   I'm thinking of mixing the usual white gesso with the usual light gray to kill two birds with one stone so to speak.  Applying both base- and undercoat in one fell swoop as my grandmother used to say. In the meantime, the recently finished squadron of Saxon cuirassiers has been placed carefully in one of the clear acrylic boxes on my shelves until I have the suitable flag to affix.   -- Sto...

  The next unit to go under the brush.  I give you the Anhalt-Zerbst Regiment! A propos of nothing, I found an AI that, among other things, easily removes backgrounds from photographs, leaving just the subject in the foreground to paste into or against another background.  Pixelcut.ai it is for anyone who might like to mess around with it to see what it can help you produce. Otherwise, just wrapping up summertime activities before various meetings and things kick in Monday morning at 9am with classes beginning the following Monday the 25th.  While I well and truly enjoy working with (most) undergrads, my colleagues, developing/revising courses, and the scholarship of teaching and learning in general, I really could do without the departmental and program meetings which always go on far too long and come at less than convenient times whether in-person, or online.  Sigh. I know, I know.  Lots of people in the world right now with far worse problems, so I sho...

  A fter a week away from the painting table as real life and the approaching fall term encroach, I returned to the chair this afternoon and finished the various buttons on the trumpeter's coat.  The squadron is now ready for the usual 2.5 coats of acrylic gloss varnish, which I'll start tomorrow (Monday) evening.   In general, I am very pleased with the way the figures and their mounts turned out.  Some of the details are wrong, of course, but overall they don't look half bad.  I'll see about the squadron standard in due course.   Looking ahead, I think a regiment of infantry is in order before I return to cavalry and a monster regiment (36+) of Minden Austrian hussars.  I've found a unit that wore basically red uniforms with  red saddle cloths and valises, so that should help move things along a a fairly rapid pace (he said).  Watch this space! -- Stokes

    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...

    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...

  A wee   bit behind my time with the self-imposed July 31st deadline, but I managed to complete a myriad of the small details remaining during a 2.5-hour session in the painting chair Friday evening (August 1st).  I won't bore you with a long list of these.  Suffice to say that most are too small for anyone but me to notice at more than arm's length.   If these were the old crude Peter Laing 15mm castings, then ok.  Splash on the general uniform colors in lighter tones to show up on the table before moving on to the next batch of figures.   However, many tiny nuances have been masterfully sculpted onto the Eureka castings, so it seems a shame to ignore them altogether.  I know, I know.  But one should at least make an attempt to suggest some of the finer points of uniforms and equipment if and when possible when working with miniatures in sizes 18mm or larger.  But that's just me.  In any case, I was able to address these...