A Bit More Cuirassier Progress. . .

Between the usual mid-semester stuff and the final few weeks of The Grand Duchess' pregnancy, things have slowed considerably on all fronts here at Stollen HQ, but I've still managed to fit in an hour of painting here and there. Here are a couple of photos, illustrating where we stand with the first squadron of Austrian/Stollenian cuirassiers after last night.

You'll note that all red on the facings, turnbacks, and saddlecloths is done. The carbine stocks, barrels, and firelocks/trigger guards are also finished and the sword blades too. Next up, I'll do the yellow/gold saddlecloth lace and probably also do the one visible brass/gilt shoulder thingies on the cuirasses too. Progress has also been slowed a bit since the figures keep popping off the plastic milk jug lids I am using as temporary painting bases, and I have to keep regluing them. Grumble, grumble, grumble. . .

Comments

Bluebear Jeff said…

Remember to give the Grand Duchess frequent back rubs . . . they help.

-- Jeff

7:09 AM

Stryker said…

Those plastic milk carton lids look a bit thin and flexible. I use the smaller but deeper ones from coke bottles etc however this may be a reflection on the healthy aspect of our respective life-styles!

Ian

7:44 AM

Capt Bill said…

You are inspiring me to finish my three RSM cuirassier regts....

6:20 PM

old-tidders said…

Those cuirassiers are coming along nicely

I enjoyed the joke in the previous post (the old ones are the best!)

-- Allan

5:46 AM

Martin said…

So Stokes...when you've painted umpteen of the same figures and it looks like there are a boatload more to be done, do you find yourself twitchng and laughing in an uncontrollable manner, saying things like, "Cuirassier and Cuirassier?!" Har, har, har.

Have you got the hospital overnight crash bag for the Grand Duchess packed and ready to go?

3:44 PM

WSTKS-FM Worldwide said…

(Diabolical, criminally insane laughter)-- Actually, the Grand Duchess is packing just such a bag this evening after supper. I was sent to the market with a list of peculiar snack foods to purchase for inclusion in this bag earlier this afternoon, so Sonja will have goodies, of one sort or another, at the hospital once we are there.

Best Regards,

Stokes

4:28 PM

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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