Skip to main content

Summer's End. . .

Sometimes, you've gotta give in and get your Fritz on!  A mug of North German tea and rock sugar, purchased during our last sojourn to Bremen, Germany during the summer of 2009.  The mug was included in a package of unused figures sold to me by the proprietor of Fife & Drum Miniatures, Jim Purky (Der Alte Fritz himself), in 2008.

You know?  Sometimes the best laid plans don't happen.  And I've been fine with that these last few weeks and months.  Today is Labor Day, the traditional end of summer season here in the United States.  The unpleasantly hot weather has broken.  The central air-conditioner is off, and the windows open.  The sun is out, and the birds and cicadas are singing and churruping away.  

I haven't accomplished very much that I had planned for this three-day weekend.  Not much at all.  Other than a picnic dinner at a local park with the Young Master and Grand Duchess yesterday evening, followed by frozen yoghurt on the way home.  And did I mention we rode out bikes to and from with the Burley child's trailer on the back?  It has been one of the nicest weekends in a long time.  Quiet, still, and not much going on.  I wish that happened more often for us.  The soldiers and painting can wait another day or two.

Comments

marinergrim said…
Sometimes all we need is the peace and tranquility of family and friends. a summers day with nothing to worry about. And frozen yoghurt.
My Dear Heinz Ulrich,
Did any of the citizens of Stollen recognize you and the royal family? Sounds like a wonderful way to bring the summer to a conclusion.
Gerardus Magnus
Archbishop Emeritus
Paul -- Yes, frozen yoghurt makes everything brighter.

Gerardus Magnus -- Taking the hint from Britain's Prince William and Lady Catherine, we were very careful to blend in and leave the fancy duds at home. We opted for very casual summer dress in khaki shorts and short-sleeved polo pull-overs with sandals for the Young Master and Grand Duchess and brown leather deck shoes for yours truly.

Best Regards,

Stokes

Popular posts from this blog

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...