Have You Any Book Recommendations for the New Year?

On the second mug of coffee after breakfast (and a glass of eggnog each) with the Young Master this morning. Still in robe and pajamas listening to German Christmas music online and mulling over my hobby past, present, and future.

As many of you will agree, reading, research, and the related inspiration are a large part of the wargaming life. Somehow, the word 'hobby' seems too small and insignificant for such an absorbing, all-encompassing pursuit. Right?

While they are a key part of things for many of us, wargaming in its broadest sense includes so much more than just the toy soldiers and miniature scenery. So, I suggest a not-so-subtle change in nomenclature. Wargaming 'life' it is!

Yet again, I digress! Returning to the point at hand, and because I have some Amazon birthday and Christmas money burning holes in my metaphoric pockets, at any rate, I seek suggestions for recent books specific to my own Frederickian, Napoleonic, and mid-19th century interests.

Besides Henry Hyde's recent trove of advice on running campaigns (and what a joyously useful tome it is), are there any recent titles specific to the 18th century -- history, rules, etc. -- that you might recommend? Any recent uniform guides. painting, scenery, or diorama handbooks? Model railway titles are fair game too.

Forgive the bad pun in there somewhere. Please don't cane me, Sir! I was led astray.

At any rate, and before I dig myself in further, please leave your books suggestions in the comment boxes below.

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On the figure painting front, I am getting very close to calling the 60+ Wied Infantry done and ready for flags plus glossing and permanent basing. You reach a point where you realize that you could go on and on and on with fixing minute brush errors, touch-ups, and so forth. But sooner or later, it is time to get 'em done. You know. Before decrepitude takes an even firmer grip.

While we want nicely painted figures, we are also after that mass effect of large units, so a dark brown mustache that strays slightly beneath a 30mm nose, or a tiny speck of another color in an out of the way place on one or two figures is not the end of the world. I am not a competition painter after all. So, let's begin the final stages say I and get 'em to the table!

All of that is just my usual long-winded way of saying, stay tuned for further photographic updates. Now, should I next begin overpainting the flags? Or prepare the permanent green bases to approximate those of the Wm. Britain's German and British toy soldiers given to me by my maternal grandparents for Christmas 1976?

And yes. I still have them along with some metal gun and tank models by Solido. Some Christmas gifts, you keep forever.

-- 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...

Continued Regional Map Revisions. . .

F ooled around a bit more with the revised map just before and after dinner this evening, using the Fotor app to reinsert missing text . I also removed a few other things using the 'Magic Eraser' function, which works surprisingly well. Now, we're getting somewhere. I just have to figure out how to ensure that the text is all a uniform font style and maybe figure out a way to add a few bunches of trees to suggest forested areas, Ninja AI is not always entirely cooperative to the tune of "I'm sorry Dave. I can't do that." -- Stokes

tradgardmastare said…

“ From Reich to Revolution “ by Peter H Wilson is a book that helped me to try and understand how the Holy Roman Empire worked.
“The wild goose and the eagle” by Christopher Duffy . A reprint by Helion of a terrific book I used to border from the university library in my student days.
Hope this helps!

2:01 AM

Duke of Baylen said…

It will be interesting to see what's recommended. My current reading is for an earlier period but I suggest a good starting point is to browse the Helion catalogue for new and forthcoming titles. In what I've purchased the text is fascinating and the colour plates inspirational. If I had a stately home's library and the budget, I'd just buy everything - instead I'm concentrating on 17th century Sweden, Poland and Spain. You may also find this leads to a favourite author and you will seek out his/her books. Also with the loss of Christopher Duffy - Helion is publishing some of his work which scarcely needs my recommendation.
All the best for 2023, in which I will look forward to news on this blog.
Stephen
p.s. I'm not sure if I can agree about when to stop on touching up painting mishaps. The last five figures I completed needed three goes at completing them. Why is it that it's only at the varnishing stage you see the mistakes however carefully you look before hand?

2:09 AM

Neil Patterson said…

Saxon Army?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Saxon-Austrian-Succession-Seven-Years/dp/1907417265/ref=sr_1_4?crid=1CR0NFNXGOLFE&keywords=Saxon+army&qid=1672394085&s=books&sprefix=saxon+army%2Cstripbooks%2C142&sr=1-4

Hanovarians?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/HANOVERIAN-ARMY-SEVEN-YEARS-WAR/dp/1907417664/ref=sr_1_7?qid=1672394157&refinements=p_27%3AStephen+Summerfield&s=books&sr=1-7&text=Stephen+Summerfield

Neil

3:57 AM

The Grand Duchy of Stollen

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