A DIVERSION: "I WRITE LIKE"

For the observant, you may have noticed the appearance of a new gadget down the left side of this blog proclaiming that "I write like Daniel Defoe."   This is a bit of fun that I stumbled across on another blog (unfortunately, I forget which).  It's a website, I Write Like, where you slam some text into a box and it's run through a bot that matches your writing style to a famous author.  Of course, there certainly isn't a result that tells you that your writing is atrocious, or that matches you to some awful amateur poser ("You Write Like Blogger Ed M"). 

For this exercise, I input the text of a piece I wrote for the Foreign Correspondent, which is also on this blog .  It seems clear to me that the linkage to an author from an earlier period derived from the quaint style I used in that piece, with the bot picking up phrasing like "dear reader."  Given my background and current employment, I am very well versed in the limitations of language algorithms.  In other words, I should know better than to be pleased at such a comparison, but as a guilty pleasure, I'll take it. For those who read and spend their time banging on keyboards (I'm lookin' at you, fellow bloggers), this is right up your quirky alley. 

Just out of curiosity, I tried inputting another block of text, one that had less affected language.  This time around, it matched my writing to the late David Foster Wallace, which I found of infinite jest.

I wish that they had Samuel Johnson among their authors--if so, I would keep submitting until I was matched to the Great Cham. Who wouldn't?  

Back to gaming in the next post (I think).

Excelsor!

STEVE BARBER AUSTRIAN-HUNGARIAN 19TH CENTURY LINE GRENZERS

Following up on the completion of the Austrian command stands last week, I have gone on to finish a unit of Austrian Grenzers for my Choc Box Wars Austrians.  This will complete my Austrians (the remaining balance of which will be coming from a painting service later this summer).  The figures (above) are from the excellent Steve Barber Revolutions in Europe Line.  Being a relatively new offering, I had a hard time finding samples of how others had painted these--outside of the wonderful illustration of the figures on the Steve Barber site. So, I offer this study for anyone who might be interested in painting these figures themselves.  As usual, you may clix pix for BIG PIX. 

Like my earlier observation about my Thirty Year's War horse, this was another exercise in shades of brown and gray.  The base color for the coat is Italian Dark Brown (Testors Model Master); the base color for the pack is Testors Model Master Dark Tan, and the base color for the bag is Humbrol Brown Yellow (all flat enamels, of course).  Each also has at least one or more drybrush coats of lighter brown/tan over those.  For the bag, pack, and the rolled greatcoat, I also did a dark wash followed by highlighting.  The greatcoat base color is Testors Model Master Gunship Gray, drybrushed with Testors Model Master Light Gray.  The trousers are Testors Bright Blue (again with some drybrush of lighter blue and a touch of light gray).

The complete 2-stand unit. One trick I use when mounting figures with a uniform pose (that aren't marching in close order) is staggering them just a bit to break up the lines and impart a bit of variety.  As far as the main unit effect, probably the thing that jumps out at you the most on the table is the yellow hat piping, the process of painting which caused me to be very aware of the difference between painting for the camera and painting for the table. Given how temperamental yellow enamel is to work with, it took took multiple passes to get the hat piping to come out decently for the lens--and there's still a bit of jaggedness to the lines that shows up on camera, whereas to the naked eye these aren't noticeable.  Were I painting more figures, I probably would not have taken these extra pains.

Speaking of extras, I usually include a few spare figures among my projects that I mount individually.  These come in handy as pickets, game markers, or just for looking nice on a bookshelf. 

1848-66ish AUSTRIAN COMMAND STANDS COMPLETE

Having come down with a rather icky rash (probably from moving brush in the yard last week), I was hunkered down over the recent holiday weekend. I remained inside and kept cool and dry.  The upside to this limitation was that I was able to distract myself by getting stuck in on the sudden surfeit of Austrian command figures I had on hand (mentioned in the previous WIP post). I entered into the project thinking, for some stupid reason, that this would be a low-effort project because these were "low density" command figures. The fact that I was painting 9 mounted figures in 6 different uniforms escaped me--had I entered into an equivalent  project of painting 1.5 mounted units, I certainly would have been braced for the effort.  As I got stuck in, however, it became clear to me that the job was more significant than I had anticipated (duh!). Anyway, above you see the completed group: an Austrian HQ stand (2 figures), 3 Austrian Individually mounted commanders (Chiefs of Staff for my Choc Box Wars rules), 1 Prussian individually mounted commander (also a Chief of Staff), and 3 more Austrian commanders, mounted generically on rectangular stands. I use the octagonal stands for my Chocolate Box Wars command stands.  I don't need this many chiefs of staff, but I figured that sometime down the road I might need more command figures for a Seven Week's War game using some other rules and in that case I'd have them ready. In the below studies, you may, as usual, CLIX PIX FOR BIG PIX.

For my Austrian general, I once again turned to my "go to" conversion figure (above left) from among the Perry Carlist War Isabelino Foreign Commanders .  I think I'll just make it a point to have one of these fellows on hand so that I can do other mods.  (Above Right) the modification of the Perry figure in progress...

 ...the two conversions of this figure side-by-side. Above left, the earlier conversion of this figure for the Danes. In the comparison, you can see that for the Austrian general I shaved down the ornaments, the major being the epaulettes, to give the clean lines of the Austrian uniform and added a more generous and lower-sitting feather plume to reflect the more prominent ornamentation on the latter.  Below is a study of the completed command stand...

...I am pretty happy with how the conversion came out. The plumage on the headgear departs from the other modification (I was concerned that after the effort involved that it would not be distinct from the other) and to me it nicely evokes a late Victorian/Edwardian style. I was originally intending to do up the conversion in white kittel, but given the length of the coat, I just couldn't bring myself to stray that far and instead went with the gray overcoat. By way of compensation, I took a bit of liberty with the girdle and sword straps. The Perry figure is paired with one of the OOP Helion Austrian 1866 command figures, also in overcoat. The Perry and Helion/Northstar figures go very well together. Which brings me to the next set, the individually mounted Helion/Northstar Austrian command figures...

...the above two examples (from Tobacco Cards) inspired the look I was trying to evoke..

...serendipity gave me one officer in the white kittel. He will fit in nicely with my Austrian infantry, who will also be in white (when those are done, that is). As I mentioned earlier, the package had the wrong horses, so all of these Helion/Northstar figures are mounted on Front Rank horses, which was a happy accident that worked out really well. The Helion/Northstar figures really live up to the "sculpt" label, and these command figures are a particularly fine set in that regard. I also, however, had those Eureka 1866 Austrian command figures on hand...

...which, you can see, are substantially smaller than the Northstar and Perry figures (above, the smaller Eureka figure to the right, which otherwise is an almost exact counterpart to the Northstar/Helion)...

...on their own, the Eureka are certainly fine figures and possess nice character, but I would put them into the "wargame figure" category (very good ones) as opposed to the "sculpt" category of the Helion/Northstar...

...this certainly didn't stop me from happily painting up the bunch! The above image conveys the effect of the Eurekas "on the table"--wargame figures doing what the best of wargame figures do: look good collectively. I'm sure that I'll find (or create!) some use for the spares. Right now, they are standing guard on one of my bookshelves and looking dandy while doing so. This left me with one more figure in the box that I hadn't yet done...

...a lone Prussian command figure, also Helion/Northstar (also out of production).  Above, this is a very clean figure that I would say also fits into the "sculpt" category.  I found that the simplicity of the uniform and the clean lines of this figure make the details all the more important. This fellow  goes along with the one other individually mounted Prussian command figure...

...that I had done earlier(above). In the above, you can see the Helion/Northstar horse. It's not bad, but the marriage of the Front Rank horses with the Austrian command figures is so much more impressive that it makes this combination look a bit pale in comparison.

And so, that concludes my latest foray into conversions, command figures, and the continental armies of the 19th Century. More anon...