The Missing Gulyás. . .

The until recently missing figure, known henceforth as Goulash the Shirker.

Sounds like a lost episode of Wallace and Gromit, eh? Sean the Sheep might want to keep his head down though.

Just returned from another extended ski weekend sans the Grand Duchess and Young Master, it's Spring Break Week, and time to get myself back to the painting table to maintain some forward momentum. There's a skate ski reference in their somewhere given my work on V1 and V2 Alternate technique the last few days. But I digress!

I've decided to name this particular figure Gulyás the Shirker because, well, he is something of a sad sack who manages to avoid his duties, delay following orders, and go suddenly absent without leave. Sort of a Balkan Beetle Bailey who gives his sergeant fits and, as a result, is more or less on permanent KP duty. Or at least anywhere the action is not.

The moniker seems rather fitting for a misplaced figure that has managed to escape my painterly attention thus far in the ongoing efforts to paint this final company of mid-18th century Croats. Once back from the optometrist later this morning, base-coating with white gesso and painting proper will commence. I'll come up with some special coloring or markings to help him stand out on the table once he joins his fellows.

To conclude on a cross-country skiing note, I have finally achieved that holy grail of the sport and can balance on one leg while moving swiftly forward on flats and down hills. Balance and weight shift from one ski to the other and back again. Still much to learn and perfect next season, of course, but things should begin coming together rather more quickly than has been the case for the previous quarter century. Hurrah!

-- Stokes

Not sure which one of the instructors took this particular photograph, but I like its unaware, unposed nature.

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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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