A Vernacular Architectural Saturday Afternoon Digression. . .

Sounds like a Syd Barret-era Pink Floyd composition, doesn't it? Or possibly something from The Move.

The above book arrived via DHL a couple of hours ago (our mail lady brought it to the door for a signature), and I am just tickled pink by the depth of the subject matter and overall fine quality of the reprint. I actually forgot all about my order of the book a few weeks back, so its arrival was a lovely surprise.

Anyway, 510 pages of copious text (in German), photographs, mechanical drawings, and tables. Very pleased with the purchase! A source I have been aware of, and meant to purchase a copy "one day" for several years, but it was not until Charles Grant's recent how-to piece in the 2023 Wargamers' Annual and the related discussion over on the Fife and Drum Miniatures forum that I took the leap.

A bit pricey, but look around online for alternative sellers to Amazon, which is what I did, and you might be able to pick up a copy of this coffee table-sized tome at considerable savings. Always a good thing, because more is left in the war chest for toy soldiers, paints, and scenic items! My own copy cost roughly half of those on Amazon in price with a bit more to cover shipping from Germany.

It's worth noting that the text is NOT old-fashioned Fraktur script, which makes use much easier for modern eyes. But even if you don't want to attempt close reading and/or translation with a German-English dictionary, there is lots of information to be gleaned from the pictures and illustrations for scratch-building models of rural structures to set an admittedly Germanic scene atop our respective tables.

Here's a bit more information abut the book for anyone who might be interested in whether, or not to track down a copy:

Das Bauernhaus im Deutschen Reiche und in seinen Grenzgebieten (1905/1906). Mit historisch-geographischer Einleitung (Farmhouses in the German Reich and Its Frontier Areas. With Historical-Geographical Preface. . . My very rough translation). The author/editor was Dietrich Schäfer

The book was apparently reissued in 2000 and contains, besides copious text, numerous illustrations and architectural drawings of rural structures found around Imperial Germany just before the First World War. Also included are many tables with information on the various styles of farmhouses and outbuildings as they existed at that time. The book was originally funded and published by a national association of architects and engineers, based in Dresden, early in the 20th century.

Again, my own translation is very rough -- off the top of my head in fact -- so native speakers of German are invited to chime in if I've made mistakes anywhere. I would usually ask The Grand Duchess Sonja to assist, but it's fun to stretch my own linguistic wings from time to time. Who knew that all those years of studying Norwegian (both written varieties), Swedish, Danish, Old Norse, and a semester of Dutch would be so helpful when it comes to approaching the occasional German text?

Ok, time now for a bit more jaeger painting! I've held forth more than long enough for everyone. Blah, blah, blah. . .

Kind Saturday Afternoon Regards Everyone,

-- 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

Archduke Piccolo said…

Talk about thorough! Most war gamers like to research their subjects, but this is going the extra nine yards! I'll be watching this space...
Cheers,
Ion

3:24 PM

Chris Kemp said…

That sounds like an excellent find, Archduke. I hit my personal limit with a limited print run of a glossy coffee table book showing the Bond movie sets, for £850.

I so badly wanted the detailed plans for a secret supervillain lair disguised as an extinct volcano! :-(

Regards, Chris.

7:15 PM

tidders said…

I have the book as well; I sometimes sit and leaf through it to get some ideas for buildings. I've too many buildings but maybe one can be added sometime ... :)

9:20 AM

Paul Mahoney said…

Ooh that would be handy for my Imaginations set in the Erzgebirge in Saxony.

3:18 PM

The Grand Duchy of Stollen

Search This Blog