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Fooling with Fotor. . .

 

A cropped close-up of a previous shot shared here several days back.  Not perfect painting by any stretch, but good wargaming quality figures with some added tiny details.


A sunny, hot Sunday here in The Grand Duchy.  The Grand Duchess and Young Master have headed off somewhere in the car, so yours truly is left with a good chunk of unstructured quiet time in which to paint and write (hobby-related stuff).  

Before that, I've messed a bit more with the new Fotor photo editing and graphic design subscription to experiment a both with cropping and close-ups.  The application seems to do very nicely adjusting the raw images as you go along.  

And, of course, highlighting not only your painting successes, but also the minute flubs and gaffs with the brush that you never notice at the time, but spot in an instant when looking at later photos.  Ah, well.  Being a slave to perfectionism means nothing ever gets done.  

En masse, the figures will look fine once glossed, based, and arrayed in formation on the tabletop.  

Speaking of which, a morale related though occurred to me as I drifted off to sleep late Saturday night.  Since the Schaumburg-Lippe Infantry are from a minor power, I'm thinking 'D Class' for morale purposes if we take average line troops of the major powers as 'C Class.'  

Sound about right?  What do you think?  I promise that no tables of figures and terrain will be tipped over in angry difference of opinion during this discussion.

But now it's almost Noon here.  Ttime to dress, make the bed, pour another mug of coffee, and settle in for some brushwork at the painting table before later writing.  Happy Sunday wherever you are in the world, everyone.

-- Stokes

 

P.S.

I cannot decide if the title of today's post sounds like it ought to have been the title of a Just William story by Richmal Crompton, or some weekly write-in musical request show on the old BBC Light Program from decades ago.

Comments

Duke of Baylen said…
I'm not sure why troops of smaller kingdoms should be any less effective than troops from larger. They may have had more care [equipment included] and attention [drill included] than in a massed army. As for morale it may still be affected more by being in an army or under a commander used to winning [or losing] than who are their patrons. Would you for instance in a British Army of "C" class infantry rate Gurkhas as "D"?

I'm sure there's some thought behind your proposed rating but please share it while i make this plea for your foot soldiers!

all the best
Stephen
2:06 PM
tradgardmastare said…
Haven’t taken a trip to the Duchy for a wee while and am impressed with what I see, excellent work.
2:06 AM
marinergrim said…
Do like the work you've put in on those figures.
Was there really much difference between the quality of the troops from any of the powers? Everyone holds up the Reichsarmee as being particularly poor but was that down to the men or the officers commanding them in massed formations?
1:46 AM
David Morfitt said…
From what I've read I gather the troops from Schaumburg-Lippe were generally of pretty high quality - and then there's the example of the regiment of Hesse-Darmstadt, a truly high quality unit from the Reichsarmee (not very common, I admit!) plus the Wurzburg regiments, again high quality units. So I think one would have to say that some units from the Minor Powers were probably of higher quality than the average unit from a Major Power! It's certainly not at all simple, annoyingly... :-)

All the best,

David.
11:18 AM
WSTKS-FM Worldwide said…
Thank you for the insight, David! I assumed that since most troops from smaller entities were poor across the board, but you make an excellent point. As Whitehouse and Foley put it, and I may be paraphrasing very badly, "All of our toy soldiers are very heroic!" I should read more widely. ;-)

Best Regards,

Stokes
1:07 PM
David Morfitt said…
I'm sorry to complicate matters! ;-) Christopher Duffy in his "Prussia's Glory: Rossbach and Leuthen 1757" has much to say on the early Reichsarmee, and I've just bought Helion Books "Zweybrucken In Command: The Reichsarmee in the Canpaign of 1758" which is interesting in showing that even against dangerous opponents like Prince Henry the Reichsarmee could survive with decent leadership. Duffy's "By Force of Arms" recounts how the later Reichsarmee did very well at Freiberg in 1762.

It is difficult keeping up with all the possible reading matter on the period! I wish I read German fluently as there is much in that language on the period, of course...

All the best,

David.

1:56 PM
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