Plugging Away at the RSM Grenadiers

Hello all! Have been combatting a head cold and Phil Olley's "painting wall" -- discussed in one of his project management articles a few months back in our favorite new wargaming magazine, the magnificent Battlegames -- since I've been back. Hence the lack of recent posts here. But, I've managed to make myself sit down and do a little bit of work most evenings, so things are not at a complete stand still in The Grand Duchy of Stollen just yet!

So, here for your viewing pleasure are three shots showing my progress on the first 1/3 and a bit more of Stollen's household troops, the Leib (The Grand Duchess Sonja's Own) Grenadier Regiment. Still some basic colors to block in as well as facings, turnbacks, musket stocks, etc.

The white gaiters took forever because I've been applying my whites in thin washes to avoid clumping. This means that it takes 2-3 applications to acheive a genuine white rather than some shade of grey over my black undercoat.

Not the most exciting work, is it? Still, I think the first company of the regiment is becoming a rather charming bunch of fellows. . . in a manly way of course! ;-).

By the way, the paint colors I've used so far have been a mix of various acrylics: Games Workshop for the green (Goblin Green), light blue (Ice Blue), and red (Blood Red), plus an old bottle of Ral Partha for the white. I've had the RP bottle for about 10 years. It just lasts and lasts! Flesh tone is Windor-Newton Alkyd (oil based, but it dries to the touch in 24 hours). Enjoy!

Comments

Bluebear Jeff said…

They're coming along nicely, I think.

-- Jeff

12:51 AM

marinergrim said…

Good morning Stokes,

Excellent stuff as usual. Like you I've changed to applying white in washes rather a thick coat (GW Skull White is notoriously grainy).

I do like the red you've used. which manufacturer is that from?

1:46 AM

WSTKS-FM Worldwide said…

Good morning men,

Thank you, Jeff! Saty tuned for continued progress (I hope).

Paul, GW "Scab Red" in two coats, so it's really bright.

Best Regards,

Stokes

5:52 AM

Snickering Corpses said…

They are indeed looking quite nice, and making me itch for my order to get here, Stokes.

hmm...I wonder who makes 25mm goats.

10:19 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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