Here's where things stand at the moment. . .

So, Stokes. How are things going with that supply and pontoon train? Reasonably well, albeit at a leisurely painting pace. The Grand Duchess and Young Master are away for 2+ weeks at the in-laws, and I am enjoying the utter peace, quiet, and time to myself. Thoroughly.

You can see from these two photographs that the first four wagons and a vivandiere cart are about finished, and it's time to turn my attention the various beasts of burden and riders/drivers/drovers and the vivandiere herself. Most of the horses have been given an undercoat of Humbrol enamel yellow, orange, or one of two browns.

The air down here in Zum Stollenkeller was redolent with the aroma of solvent-based Humbrol this morning. Cannot begin to fathom how many millions of brain cells I must have killed during last evening's two-hour session at the painting table. However, I was able to make the coffee this morning and managed to shower and dress a short while later without too many difficulties, so things seem all right as far as I can tell. Calculus and trigonometry might be a problem though, but then they always were. And there is the question of that 6' white rabbit that keeps appearing through that wall to my left, checking its pocket watch, and asking, "Aren't you finished yet? How about a dram of single malt and a cigar? Come on!" But I digress.

Anyway, the animals for the first four wagons and the vivandiere cart will next get the usual oil wash, white markings, etc. and then have their harness, straps, and collars picked out with various acrylic browns. Last, but not least, the assorted humans will be issued with their flesh and clothing. Finally, everything will be glossed, and the bases terrained. Probably another four or five evenings of work on the current batch of vehicles et al. Then, it's onto the next five wagons and carts.

In the meantime, be sure to tune in later during the week, to see the first batch of vehicles and teams all finished and ready to go.

-- Stokes

P.S.
By the way, my five painting sessions so far have averaged about two hours at a time more or less. Seems to be a good block of time before I need a break since some of this is repetitive and tedious. But we're getting there slowly but surely.

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 ...

The 18th century? What's the Fascination?

Hessian musketeers by All the King's Men Toy Soldiers of Snellville, Georgia, U.S.A. Just a quick post post today, but I thought the above question might be interesting food for thought. Obviously, there is an array of possible periods, theaters, and conflicts that might catch our eyes. But what is it about the era 1700-1799 -- either real, or imagined? Is it the commanders and politics? The fairly straightforward tactics? The myriad of uniforms and flags? The variety and scope of the conflicts? The patchwork of various and sundry petty states, (at least in Central Europe)? I'm very interested to learn your thoughts. Don't be a lurker! Please leave a comment -- or even two or three. Have a nice day everyone!

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...

The Grand Duchy of Stollen

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