A Pleasant Humbrol Discovery. . .

Up very early this morning, after a 4:30am feeding and then suffering from the inability to fall asleep again, I was poking around quietly down here in Zum Stollenkeller. And what do you think I found? Yes, a 21-year old tin of Humbrol Authentic Colour British Rifle Green (in a brown tin) -- purchased at MiniFigs HQ on Graham Road in Southampton during January 1989 when the young, long-haired rocker Stokes spent Christmas and New Year's with his mother and new step-dad in Southampton -- that is still fluid.

British Rifle Green is a pretty close match for the Von Kleist Freikorps artillery uniforms that I'll paint next. The other, newer tins of Humbrol in my collection are either too dark, or too light, or too olive in tone. Oh sure, the old British Rifle Green required some shaking and stirring up, but this is "the little tin that could", and amazingly enough it's still serviceable after all these years. In the two decades I've used this tin, it has provided uniforms for a battalion of 15mm British rifles, a regiment of Napoleonic French chasseurs, another of French dragoons, and the occasional French infantry drummer as well as the Stollenian Jaeger zu Fuss more recently, during the fall of 2006. What a nice discovery since it's just the color I need for the 13 Garrison SYW Prussian artillery crew currently on the painting desk.

I began painting those same figures yesterday evening after supper. Nothing fancy or worth showing quite yet, just the usual Games Workshop Goblin Green on the figure bases. But, the Grand Duchess and Young Master Paul are visiting some distant relatives in Western Illinois today, so I'll have some time to apply the fleshtone and the British Rifle Green. And if it dries to a shiny finish due to age or poor mixing, so what? They'll eventually get the usual high gloss Future/Klear treatment anyway!

On other fronts, thanks to everyone for your kind remarks about the recently finished regiment of Austrian cuirassiers, who are currently serving as part of the tiny Stollenian army. Thank you too for your New Year's wishes, and the same to you and your families. May 2010 bring happiness, health, and prosperity to all of you!

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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...

Warboss Green Bases. . .

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...

The Grand Duchy of Stollen

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