It is now up and running with a little content on it. Please have a quick look around and give me some feedback on it. I'm interested not only in what you think of the basic design and set up but also in how it displays in various browsers. So if you could drop me a quick email with your thoughts, observations and browser details I would be most grateful.
A link to the site is on the side bar to the left.
Followers
Why?
The Duchy of Strackenz exists, in this version at least, to enable me to put together a model army based upon the descriptions of his ideal force found in 'Reveries' written by M. de Saxe in 1732.
I hope that the readers, regular or occasional, will contribute with suggestions and comments on all aspects of this quest.
There are three main areas that I wish to cover. These are:
The uniforms - these are very subjective and any help you can give would be appreciated.
The Sculpting - as I intend to sculpt and cast the figures any help, hints, tips or ideas will help.
The Organisation - again taken from the composition of a Legion in 'Reveries' probably the best description but still open to some interpretation.
When working out something, I will post any relevant quotes from my version of 'Reveries' to enable those who do not have a copy to become involved. However, there seem to be various translations of this work so if you have one that gives a different quote please comment upon it.
Whilst the ultimate decision on everything here will be mine any debate about details etc will help make that decision so please get involved. To help matters along I will run various Polls on different topics so you can give a quick response.
I hope that the readers, regular or occasional, will contribute with suggestions and comments on all aspects of this quest.
There are three main areas that I wish to cover. These are:
The uniforms - these are very subjective and any help you can give would be appreciated.
The Sculpting - as I intend to sculpt and cast the figures any help, hints, tips or ideas will help.
The Organisation - again taken from the composition of a Legion in 'Reveries' probably the best description but still open to some interpretation.
When working out something, I will post any relevant quotes from my version of 'Reveries' to enable those who do not have a copy to become involved. However, there seem to be various translations of this work so if you have one that gives a different quote please comment upon it.
Whilst the ultimate decision on everything here will be mine any debate about details etc will help make that decision so please get involved. To help matters along I will run various Polls on different topics so you can give a quick response.
10 comments:
I use Firefox 3 for Linux . . . and I had to Zoom In three times in order to read your text . . . and even then it was pretty small.
Your "Online Shop" appears to be empty, by the way.
-- Jeff
Jeff
thanks fo checking for me. My laptop is running the same combo as you have, I will check the text size on that when I get home on Monday.
The shop has one item in it, dig down through shop, legion, infantry. Or did you mean that the page is completely empty?
Thanks again
Steve
I'm using Vista and Internet Explorer. I generally run it with it set to 125% magnification because I find too many sites using text that's too small for me. Your site looks fine to me. I did find stuff in the online shop, but it loaded a bit slow (a few seconds - that could be a problem - if it loads slow now, will it be even slower when there are more items?) (also, I don't have 100,000,000 Pounds, ha ha). The About Us page appears to be empty, maybe there's nothing there yet?
Best wishes!
F-B
Thanks for looking and commenting. The set up that you are using is the one I had when I did most of the work. Most of the text is really just place holding at the moment, the About Us page is one I've not got to yet.
The online shop does take a few seconds to load, it is actually hosted on a different site so the delay is in the three way set up. Testing it myself (with six or seven products) I found that once it is loaded everything works very quickly. I went for this option as UK Data Protection laws are a complete pain, running the store through a Third party who store all of the customer information means I don't need to register as a Data Controller (again!). Shame you don't have the money available, I may have let the little guy go if you had ;-)
Cheers
Steve
A very exciting initiative, very encouraging: cheers!
While rather slow-loading, the site is perfectly readable for me (Firefox 2 for Mac Os-X).
Do you already think about the legionary minority types (light infantry, cavalry) and the artillery, neither of them are illustrated or depicted with any detail?
Interesting -promising?- that after "those unusual figures that nobody produces" you write "*So far* we have only one range": in what direction(s?) do you intend to extend, one day, the LSC coverage? A pet idea of mine (200% personal, and possibly a freak one for anybody else!) is Lace Wars female adventurers / 'heroes' (heroines scream and have to be rescued) and soldiers. The Eureka 'Sandra' range has some success whenever someone can get his hand on a few troops (New South Wales, Vorlund... ), but is on 'stand by' for years. VSF types begin to appear, but would require drastic conversions for the 18th C.
Now, since you are refering to Imagi-Nations and 'alternate' settings, I feel that some exemples of 'outstanding' ladies' fashion share some characteristics with de Saxe's uniforms, specially at the level of the legwear (regarding the 2nd, did not Maurice wrote that 'garters cause martyrdom'?) and could belong to the same 'culture' / civilization...
Best wishes,
Jean-Louis
JL
Good to hear from you, as always. The site being slow to load is an occasional problem. Caused by using a free hosting service.
The whole venture could be seen as 'vanity publishing' but for miniatures. Unless a very large number of people want to buy the figures, I would rather invest my money into the sculpting and casting side. Any money raised from the sale of figures would go straight back into getting the next release done. The hosting company are giving me massive storage, high traffic allowance and a host of extras. To get the same in a paid account would be quite expensive, compared to any income that I might make from this.
As to future releases, well that all depends on what takes my fancy out of a multitude of things that I've thought about having over the years! Or even suggestions from others (Richard did come up with one while we were chatting that I quite liked the sound of!).
Cheers
Steve
Steve,
no problem with the site!
As for possible future additional models... What about -as natural auxiliaries to the Legion- the Uhlans volontaires de Saxe as they were to appear according to the text of 1743, i.e. with a mail shirt? With some 'improvements' as the minis would be 'unhistorical' anyway.
The reconstitution by 'Art Militaire' above mixes pleasant details from this description with the 'classic' restitution. They were given a 'Tatar cap' ((left)) but they would look far better (and more consistent with the Legion) with the 'Reveries' helmet. The saddlery / schabraque would also be that of the Legion. As for the mail shirt, they were Lithuanians (and Poles) so would be similar to the Pancerni (called 'Petyhoria' in Lithuania), though without the mail coif. The short-sleeved mail shirt would be worn above the red waist / jacket but below the green 'simarre' (colors just for easy reference!) -'for the show' this later could have the 'open false sleeves' of later reconstitutions, also worn by other Uhlans. The mailshirt should be rather short so that the lobated 'pteruges' of the underjacket would be visible below...
Best regards,
Jean-Louis
Sorry:
'traditional' reconstitution of a Uhlan by the time of Fontenoy.
Jeff
Now the servers are back up I've had a look at it with Firefox/Linux combination. On my system it looks the same as IE/Windows. The problem may be that the page is set to display at a fixed width, rather than adjusting to available screen size. Quite hardd to pin down the problem from a distance, sorry.
Hi great reading yoour blog
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