PAPERSOLDIERS & ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE chatGPT

I wasn’t able to resist either the charm (or perhaps the future slavery?) of AI in drawing my papersoldiers. The reality is that they have indeed reached a level of definition I could never have hoped to achieve. I think a few examples can give a better idea—more than words—of what I’m talking about.

By observing these figures, one can notice, for example, how the grip has improved significantly, as well as the facial features and the folds of the clothing.

Naturally, AI has to be guided, so I changed the color of the trousers and a few other details, but the result belongs—unfortunately—to it.

A good example of what I’m saying can be seen in the following template; in this case, I needed to reproduce a Sergeant of Gustavus Adolphus’s Yellow Brigade. I took a reference example and transformed it. As you can see, the helmet could not be reproduced correctly, so I had to make it myself by hand and apply it to the AI model. The burnishing of the armor was also not accurate, nor was the color of the uniform. In this case, human intervention made it possible to enhance and improve the AI result. At the moment, I am preparing the figures and will proceed to take photographs of this colorful 17th-century unit.

But here down, finally, is the result of applying AI: the original figure from 2014 was rather basic, then somewhat improved in 2024. But the 2026 figure—directly derived from the 2014 one—shows how AI has enhanced the quality of the drawings, reaching its highest expressive level. I am also preparing paper soldiers of this officer.

And so I found myself drawn into a historical period I had never wanted to tackle: WWII, and specifically (here bottom) the German troops during the bloody Battle of Stalingrad. In this case, AI was of total support and, once properly guided, produced an excellent result.

Likewise for a soldier of a Prussian regiment during the Seven Years’ War. As can be seen, AI has to be “trained,” but the difference between 2015 and 2026 appears enormous.

MIDDLE EAST VILLAGE ATTACKED BY CRUSADERS

I got a bit lost and, wandering through my imagination, I started—almost by chance—to create a village in the Middle East during the time of the Crusades. I had already built the walls, the siege towers, and some buildings (in upcoming posts), but I was really missing the part related to the actual village or small town. I will add tents and more later, but for now I’ve made this, which is about 1 square meter in size.

This project is part of the project on the Third Battle of Ramla, but I admit that I was inspired by the Der Alte Fritz Journal website, particularly by the model of the city of Khartoum.

Armenian Archers firing from the roofs

Defending the minaret

Attack on the minaret

A lonely Crusader attempting to attack in between the narrow streets

main road

visual on the village/town

The 2 minarets and the main square

ROMAN LEGION - PUNIC WARS: PROJECT AND NUMBERS

 I have always wondered how many paper soldiers (of a good level, so from 2015 to today) I have produced. The projects that I started and did not complete (all of them) are the following:

- Battle of Leuthen

- Battle of Turin

- Third Battle of Ramla

- Battle of Santa Lucia

- Roman Legion

- Battle of Dogali

- Battle of Lodz

- Battle of Custoza

- Battle of Lutzen

- Battle of Madonna dell'Olmo

- Battle of Pusan

- Battle of Austerlitz

- Battle of Schellenberg

- Battle of Halmstad

So it is quite a number of Battles and a lot of papersoldiers. I will try to sum them up. I already started with the Battle of Ramla, and here I would like to count the Roman Legion.

It was on 4 categories of men

Velites 

Hastati (20 centuries, i.e. 10 maniples 1200 men in total)

Princeps (20 centuries, i.e. 10 maniples 1200 men in total)

Triari (10 centuries, i.e. 600 men in total)

Every century of Hastati and Princeps had the first 2 rows launching pilum (spears) so every century is done by 40 men with gladium (sword) and 20 with pilum. 

Total 

200 Hastati (red feathers) with gladium + 100 Hastati (red feathers) with pilum

200 Hastati (black feathers) with gladium + 100 Hastati (black feathers) with pilum

200 Princeps (red feathers) with gladium + 100 Princeps (red feathers) with pilum

200 Princeps (black feathers) with gladium + 100 Princeps (black feathers) with pilum

300 Triari with horizontal spears

300 Triari with vertical spears

FRANCE 1706 - REGIMENT NORMANDIE. FIRST BATTALION ON A SINGLE PLATE

 After a long wait, I have finally received 30 metal plates (provided by REVIS acciai and cut by CTL) that allow me to deploy one battalion on a single base, with a great saving of time; I started with the first battalion of the Normandie Regiment. At the Battle of Turin in 1706 it took part with 1,310 men, that is about 436 men per battalion (a total of 3 battalions); in fact, from these figures one must subtract the regimental staff, which consisted of 1 commander, a deputy, and so on for about 10 men (I would add another 10 NCOs); in any case, for the first battalion I kept the number fixed at 436 men, of whom:

86 in the first line 103 in the second line, 93 in the third line, 93 in the fourth line for a total of 375 men (including lieutenants and second lieutenants among them); 15 men in the flag group (3 flags); 12 drummers, 11 NCOs and 11 captains behind the lines, and the staff, consisting of 1 battalion commander, 3 officers and 6 NCOs.

This is the visual effect of the first battalion of the Regiment Normandie.

Metal plates

Metal plates with (paper) grass

The First Battalion deployed for marching forwards

I would like to rimind that this soldiers are totally amovable even though they are well anchred with a magnet to the metal plate (see the 3 soldiers moved in the foreground)

A MIDDLE EAST TOWN IN THE XI-XIII CENTURY

Although my original intention was to depict the Third Battle of Ramla at a 1:1 scale, I eventually got carried away. Some time ago, I began reconstructing—entirely out of paper—a Fatimid city, or at least a coastal one. The walls had already been completed earlier, and from there I moved on to the inner buildings. Now I have reached the stage of constructing the minaret. This is the first one.

I started with two toilet paper rolls stacked on top of each other and a medicine box. I made a small cut at the base of the roll so it would fit more securely into the structure (picture 1).

Picture 1

I then glued the two elements together and reinforced them (picture 2).

Picture 2

I then prepared a base for the octagonal terrace and glued (picture 3).

Picture 3

Here is the final result. The dome was made by twisting blue sheets of paper; however, the overall look and proportions did not fully convince me (picture 4)

Picture 4

I then proceeded to cut it in half, creating a joint in order to make the minaret higher.

Picture 5

I added and glued the joint (picture 6)

Picture 6

I then added the cut section back, wrapped everything in a nice blue color, and added a second balcony, giving the minaret a more realistic appearance (picture 7)

Picture 7

This is the final result. Nonetheless I did not like the colours of the side building and so I had to change it as well (what a job!) (Picture 8)

Picure 8

This is the (new) renoved final result: better colours (picture 9)

Picture 9

Please note the detail on the top (picture 10)

Picture 10

THE FIRST PAPERSOLDIER CUT BY MY SON MAXIMILIAN

 BRAVO MAX!

It’s always a special feeling when your child walks the same path as you. The result doesn’t matter; what counts is the effort and the willingness to spend an afternoon with his dad playing with little soldiers. Sometimes dreams really do come true. Mine – a lifelong one – came true today. 

Thank you, Maximilian!

This is the first paper soldier he’s cut out with real skill. He chose a Swedish Yellow Brigade arquebusier from the Battle of Lützen. We had fun setting it up and taking photographs. A rainy, cold day outside—what could be better? Nothing!

(Not just any name: he was named after an ancestor who, interestingly, was once against these Swedes of the Yellow Brigade.)

100.000 VISITS ON THIS BLOG!

 I never thought I would have achieved these numbers: on 28th December 2025 I reached the incredible - for me at least - number of 100.000 visits on my blog!

Thank to all the lovers of wargames, papersoldiers, history, uniforms etc. It took me almost ten years but in the last period it increased very fastly.

I hope someone of you got some idea, others some curiosity to be satisfied, others just some pleasure in reading.

I use this moment also to apologize for my English. When I started there was no AI, now I could use it, but I do prefer going on this way. A lot of mistakes are dued to my lacks of knowledge of this English but a good number also to the necessity to write very fast when I have 5 minutes of time and this does not help at all.

I preferred to use English to Italian to allow anyone to understand better and to have a widespread publicum.

Thanks again e Grazie!

MK