Württemberg Horse Grenadiers: Painting a Test Figure. . .

The test figure is shaping up nicely although some of the details do not match the Knoetel plate that serves as one of my main references.

Spent a pleasant hour or so yesterday evening after the Young Master's bedtime working on a single test figure from those 30 RSM95 French cuirassiers in bearskins. These are destined to become, more or less, one squadron of Württemberg horse grenadiers, or more properly 'Leib-Grenadiere zu Pferd.' A second squadron, based on a different German heavy cavalry regiment in French service, will be painted in either dark blue or white coats. The two squadrons will form a fictitious composite regiment that will serve in either The Army of Stollen, or The Army of Zichenau as and when scenarios require.

On a related note, the Grand Duchess and I had a discussion about the proper German terminology for these troops late last night, and yours truly was actually right. For once. It seems all of those years of struggling through my German-language editions of various Funcken titles has paid off. I "won" a discussion with a professor of German! Horse grenadiers in German is Grenadiere zu Pferd, thank you very much! Those of you who are married, or in long-term relationships will instantly recognize the significance of all this. Winning an argument does not happen too often here in The Grand Duchy of Stollen.

Anyway, while some of the details and colors differ a bit from my references, I like the bright, toy soldier appearance of the almost finished test figure. The red is actually a darker Cherry Red highlighted with Scarlet, while the black facings and cuirass have been highlighted with a gray called Zinc. All craft acrylics (in two-ounce bottles) in this case although the horses have an oil glaze over various acrylic tans and yellows if memory serves me correctly. These were done a year ago, and I neglected to record the precise details at that point.

I'll finish remaining smaller details on the test figure this evening, and then get started on the rest of the first squadron tomorrow evening. The goal is to finish all 30 of these by the end of July and continue with the fourth mini-project for this summer: a new church and a half-timbered warehouse. So far, we're right on schedule. More or less. At least things are moving forward on the hobby front, eh?

Finally, The Grand Duchy of Stollen has picked up a few more followers in recent weeks, so "Welcome!" and I hope you might find a few items of interest as you peruse the almost 12 years of posts that make up this particular blog. Once in a while, there is even an actual game believe it, or not. In any case, enjoy. It's always fun to have a few more interested parties along for the ride.

-- Stokes

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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