AI in all of its wonder

[steve_pickstock]

Recently and very sadly a friend of mine died. Both he and his brother were members of my company of dragoons, so I thought I'd make a model of Kendal for his brother Paul.

It began with this picture

This is us - from l-to-r - Kendal, Paul and myself in Notenboom Straat, Groenlo, outside of de Kroon in 2017, I think.

On hearing of Kendal's passing I posted this to my Facebook profile as a memorial.

I used Chatgpt and it took a couple of goes and some editing in Powerpoint to get it right but I think it's a good picture and does everyone justice.

But then it occurred to me that perhaps Paul - the surviving brother, might like figures of the both together, so I took this edited version of the picture

and fed it it into Meshy, to get this.

Some issues with the results - the hemlines of the coats are all over the place, and Paul's musket is split into two parts and dislocated laterally, but it's nothing that can't be fixed.
When I asked Paul if this would be acceptable, he asked if I'd add myself to the group, not as in the picture - I don't think anyone would want to see that! - but as my Mini-Me figure, so as soon as I get a chance that is what I will be working on.

[steve_pickstock]

I just sat down and took all of the supports off the figures - those bits of resin that the computer adds to the figure to make sure that it doesn't collapse under the weight of resin. This has allowed me to have a good look at what need to be done to them.

Paul's coat looks good, the hems are pretty level all the way round, no work needed there, but the rear of Kendal's will need some miliput or greenstuff. Paul's dislocated musket will either need me to cut one part away from the figure (very carefully as the resin can be brittle) and then glue it to his right hand, or I can cut both parts away and replace them with one from the Warlord Games 17thC infantry sprue. Both figures will need swords adding from the sprue and I will need to make straps, probably from Tamiya fine masking tape.

Still not as much work as I though it might be.

[MABO]

What an emotional gift for your friends brother. I am sorry for your loss.

[Santi Pérez]

I share your feelings, Steve. But I also congratulate you on such an excellent idea. I think it will be a fantastic gift for your friend. Can't wait to see it printed.

Santi.

[steve_pickstock]

Thank you Mabo and Santi.
Yesterday my wife and I drove to Leeds in Yorkshire, in dreadful conditions to go and see Kendal off with his family.
I took the figures and showed them to his brother and several other of our friends to see what they thought of them. The figures went down really well.
All of these people are re-enactors so their opinions were useful.
Obviously the musket was an issue but I was worried about the hemline at the back of Kendal's coat being all over the place. Now these people have all worn kit (what other people call costume) and they're used to looking at kit. What that means is that they know what looks right, and it was pointed out that it doesn't actually look that bad.
What I think I will do, is finish a 'proper' version - using miliput to correct the line of the hem; and a 'real' version for my own collection to reflect the way that coats get caught up in other equipment and don't always look parade ready. (I mean I always look like a bag of rags tied loose around the middle as my dad used to say, so that would be right then).