The Cold Has Returned to the Grand Duchy of Stollen!!!

This late Christmas gift finally arrived in the mail yesterday afternoon, but it was well worth the wait. Wow!

Yesterday's mail brought the above title to my hot little hands, and I can't say enough about it after a delightful evening spent in bed with a cup of coffee and the book in question. Suffice to say that the writing and quality of Wargaming in History: The Seven Years War raises the bar considerably for all wargaming literature. Neither does it seem an overstatement to suggest that the book is just as engaging and charming as those two classics, held in such high regard by many of us, namely Charge! (1067) and The War Game (1971) . On a personal note, I think Charles Grant even surpasses those two works here. If you have not yet purchased Wargaming in History: The Seven Years War, do so at once. It is an amazing read and a feast for the eyes. Enough said.

On another note, I've just learned of a new blog, which might be of some interest to many of you visitors to the Grand Duchy of Stollen. Have a look at the Alte Zeit Figures blog, which details the sculpting, casting, and (hopefully?) sale of exquisitely proportioned and detailed 30mm miniatures in the style of the old Stadden range. The Seven Years War is one of the projects currently underway, and if the Prussian dragoon sculpting right now is anything to go by, I might have to see if I can eventually get some of these figures if and when they become available commercially.

Ok, I've got a baby to wake up and feed breakfast. Enjoy your day wherever in the world you find yourself!

Comments

Bluebear Jeff said…

So, did you like the book?

-- Jeff

4:42 PM

Die alte Aechzener said…

Curses! You fiend! I could resist, when I saw Alte Fritz lauding this to the skies, and I just about managed to steel myself to ignore the second glowing review, but ... alas for my poor flat pocketbook, I couldn't resist a 3rd blandishment.

Now to expect arrival for a couple of weeks, agog with anticipation ....

6:36 PM

tidders2 said…

Yep ! great book. Had it in time for Xmas and kept looking at it again and again ..

That new figure range looks promising, have to keep any eye on developments

-- Allan

7:02 AM

Paul said…

You would make a great salesman Stokes,
ordered my copy today along with the war game
companion.

Paul

8:22 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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