New Newline Designs - Thorakitai

In June I received some lovely samples of some brand new Newline Designs 20mm Hellenistic Thorakitai. Filling in a much needed troop type in this scale, not only for Newline's comprehensive 20mm Ancients range but for 1/72 in general, those looking for Thorakitai to work along side their plastics will find these useful. Along with the African Veterans which can easily be used as imitation legionaries or more armoured Thorakitai with greaves these brand new Thorakitai represent the line art shown in Duncan Head's classic Armies of the Macedonian and Punic Wars - showing a thuroes bearing spearman with a mail shirt that lacks the reinforced shoulder yoke. 

When I received these in June they were a much needed tonic, with the way the last year and this year had been going. I immediately cleaned and prepped them. I used bristles to make the spears and the swords - I was aiming for a Kopis like sword. As ever they painted up remarkably easily, undercoated in black then dry brushed in an appropriate metallic, it didn't take too much effort to block in skin, tunic, straps and helmet. I've tried to show some versatility in the two poses offered spearmen, Javelin and sword armed warriors here. 

I was hoping this would prompt a break in the dry spell of painting but so far it has not been the case. The ongoing issues mentioned elsewhere have been very draining and I'd rather get back into painting when i have the time, energy and patients to enjoy it again. Even getting a chance to sort this blog out has been difficult. These are on my Newline shopping list again once I have the opportunity to stock up on these I will be doing so.

So here we have a impromptu diorama of possibly Ptolemaic soldiers moving through an oasis, or along the Nile. Of course are useful for any despotic Hellenistic Dynast. 

Are you not EntertAIned!?

I'm going through my blog post drafts, working on getting them published, this is a little one I started a while back when, longtime friend within the hobby, Dougie was having fun with AI backgrounds. He sent me some of my Iberians emerging from an ancient forest, intrigued I asked him if it could make an arena setting for the Newline Designs 20mm Gladiator conversions, and I was pleased with the result. I was meant to post these months ago (June I think) but as I have mentioned in a previous post general life has been too much all year and has been impacting hobby pursuits. I try to keep working on little bits here and there, floating between what I fancy, building miniatures, paper soldiers, research and rules writing. Sometimes just whatever I can manage, a look through a wargames book or magazine to keep or build interest. As of late it has impacted further and I've had almost no capacity for the hobby, my new hobby being, fending off "help" from various local services that lack awareness or training in the UK's Statutory Framework. This is why I have not really updated this blog for a while, all writing energy has been going into complaints and data rectification requests.

Back to hobby talk! AI seems to be regarded between a novelty and the devil incarnate, based on the things I've seen on social media. A fad will have a few moments of intense action, such as the AI images of imagined action figures or the bringing to life of wargames miniatures into an unsettling scene, reminiscent of the film Young Sherlock Holmes when inanimate sculptures come to life to attack people. Then there are reactionary responses that seek to ban their use in groups, and when its so overused, this is understandable, but for the fact that the gimmick soon wears off anyway, it seems heavy handed. There are the legitimate concerns of artists losing out and that creative work is being lost to AI, and it seems that technology continues its meteoric rise in replacing human labour in general. While this is clearly happening, commissioning an artist is out of reach for most people, personally I wouldn't buy cursed AI images over professional artists' prints, but one day we may not can tell the difference, however if you have a project in mind that needs some graphics resorting to AI generated images is an option.   

Ultimately, these LLM are currently out there and like all human inventions its how you choose to use them that counts, users need to be very discerning and be wary. In a wider context how societies will regulate their use will be vital. So far however I'm finding it a useful tool, especially for bouncing ideas off, brain storming, and looking for feedback and suggestions. With a bit of work it might be useful for solo gamers, probably not so much as an opponent directly but for suggesting general strategies you could enact on the table top, probably in a RPG style format, it has potential but will require thoughtful use. I'm interested in how others view them, and if they use any AIs and what for?