Skip to main content

Christmas Calm. . .

Another vintage image of Santa Claus/Father Christmas this Christmas Morning here in The Grand Duchy. . .


There is something wonderful about that first mug of coffee on Christmas Day.  Checking email from absent friends and family, chuckling quietly over their messages, and listening to seasonal jazz renditions of old Christmas favorites playing softly in the background.  Merry Christmas!

-- Stokes 

Comments

Steve J. said…
Merry Xmas to you too!
11:24 AM
Gallia said…
Merry Christmas and Blessings for you and your family,
Have a wonderful day,
Bill
12:23 PM
Peter Douglas said…
Enjoy the peace while it lasts, and have a Merry Christmas!
1:28 PM
Bluewillow said…
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year


Cheers
Matt
French Wargame Holidays
2:03 PM
Aly Morrison said…
Merry Christmas Stokes.

All the best Aly
2:14 PM
Dan Foley said…
Merry Christmas!
5:26 PM
Der Alte Fritz said…
I hope that your stocking was filled with Minden Miniatures.
8:33 PM
WSTKS-FM Worldwide said…
Thank you, men! And Jim, actually there were some soldiers under the tree along with the promise of some more when the Hessians are back in stock. An interesting book of Knoetel watercolors too on German uniforms from the 18th century.

Best Regards,

Stokes
8:47 AM
Post a Comment

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 ...
6 comments
Read more

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...
3 comments
Read more

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...
4 comments
Read more