Updated Campaign Area Map. . .

The Stollenian Ministry of Cartography has managed fairly well at long last.

Following quite a few failed attempts by Claude to make the fixes I requested -- It has been a very frustrating couple of days to say the least. -- I finally used my preferred online photograph editing application to make those edits manually and sharpen up the image overall. So, I've finally got the map looking very close to what I've been after since the very first hand-sketched and colored map way back in September 2006. And here we are. Complete with a faint hex overlay and a scale of miles in the upper right corner.

Each hex is roughly equal to a day's march, assuming poor, ill-defined roads across the region and that armies of the era typically marched at the rate of their transport and pontoon train(s), which is to say a walk with occasional forced marches notwithstanding. Anyway, I'm relatively pleased with the outcome. There is one last very minor point that I might try to fix later (ok, two), but for now, we'll leave it and move onto other more pressing things.

Speaking of which.

It's time for another driving lesson with the Young Master behind the wheel (it's Saturday afternoon as I write this post) and then a couple of late afternoon errands before potting a bunch of new annuals outside along the front walk early this evening following supper. After dark, it's finally time to cement my Anhalt-Zerbst figures to their permanent bases. Watch for a couple of photographs of the finished regiment tomorrow!

-- Stokes

Comments

Richard said…

The map is looking very good. I gave up using AI for creating accurate images for my history lessons. It always managed to get the place names and borders wrong regardless of having been given the details.

1:39 AM

WSTKS-FM Worldwide said…

I'm just about there, Richard. Even with very clear, repeated instructions, three different AI's simply could not get my map of an IMAGINARY place right without screwing up other details. It was maddening. I can well imagine your own frustration with actual places, names, and events. For some things AI can be very useful, but but for many (most?) others we (and our students) still must do the work ourselves.

Kind Sunday Regards,

Stokes

10:32 AM

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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