Saturday 19 March 2011

The weekend begins...


Huzzah for Saturday! Up with coffee enjoying the start of another weekend...
I have been gaining hobby inspiration from Channel 4's " Battle for Middle Earth"-http://www.channel4.com/programmes/1066/4od#2928919 which was a drama they did a year or so back on the events of 1066. Reception for it was mixed but I,for one, really enjoyed it and am finding inspiration from it to paint my Impetus Saxons. The BBC's "Outcasts" has ended and I am sorry to see it will not have another series. Again it played to mixed reviews but I was hooked and wish they had carried on. Perhaps it will attain cult status like "Blake's Seven " and other diverse programmes- who knows...
And now a hobby round up-
1) Camera still not working - last time leaving it to rest solved the prob,we will see this time.
2) My regular opponent Phil has got into 1938VBCW and is collecting some chaps for the Liverpool Free State.I will field either Welsh Nationalists or English Array organised LDVs to oppose them. Those spiffing fellows at Sollway Crafts and Miniatures have an excellent set of rules under development which will serve splendidly.
3) I have been researching the Duchy of Tradgardland in the earlier 18th Century - 1720s to 1730 and I will share some choice nuggets from the Tradgardland Chronicles with you soon. There are some interesting details of Flags and Uniforms amongst the other details of period life.
4)I am trying to organise my 1/72 plastic Airfix/Roco stuff for a game over the Easter hols.
5)Beginning to plan my Holstien Gottrop Ducal Army for Impetus Baroque at the club here in Dunfermline to oppose the Danes of around 1700.
Loads of hobby stuff on the going as ever ... we shall see what get finished over the weekend. Enjoy your R&R when you get it!

6 comments:

  1. Looks like you have a busy - and interesting - few weeks ahead of you.

    I also liked the 'Battle for Middle Earth' programmes when they came out. OK, there might have been a few things not quite right with it, but on the whole I thought it treated the whole series of that 1066 Summer's events in a wya that made it much easier for you to understand it from the Saxon point of view (I write this as someone whose recent paternal DNA test indicated that my family origianlly comes from the area of Saxony that is on the North Sea coast ... and yet I have a Norman French surname!).

    ROCO are still my favourite model vehicles; quick-build tanks for the 1960s and 1970s! As 15mm-scale figures are gradually getting bigger, they will soon fit in with my small collection. It is either that or get hold of a large number of original 20mm-scale Airfix figures (which is still my favourite scale!).

    Enjoy yourself,

    All the best,

    Bob

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  2. Bob
    If it is not too nosey can I ask about such dna testing? My forebears were from Germany I would be interested to find out more. Can one get such tests done with easy availability?
    Alan

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  3. Alan,

    I had mine done by Ancestry.co.uk via a link from their website. It cost about £100, but it has been a very useful tool for my family's genealogy. You swab you mouth with a long cotton bud, and send it off to the USA by post. About 3 to 4 weeks later that email you the results.

    There are two tests; one for the paternal and one for the maternal 'lines'. The paternal is far more geographically specific whereas the maternal is for more general.

    In my case I only had the paternal 'line' done, and it indicated the presence of three 'markers' that showed that my family shares a common ancentry with people from northern Netherlands through to southern Denmark. In fact I share these markers with over 10% of the population of Gronigen.

    The largest concentration of these 'markers' in the UK are East Anglia, so it is indicative that I am by origin a Saxon.

    I hope that this has been of use to you.

    All the best,

    Bob

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  4. Multi-directional, hey?
    Yet, Tradgarland by the early 18th C. is close enough to the Tradgarland we know and love, and Holstien Gottrop ca. 1700 is not too far, both chronologically and geographically: some reassuring self-consistency.

    But *who* now 'plays' the Duchess of Saschen-Vindow? What about Alisonia? And that Jesuit from Tradgarland sent to Tibet (maybe to find an entrance to Agartha in the valley of Shangri-La?)??

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  5. A very full schedule. Do you intend to raise addition Ducal troops for the Marlburian era?

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  6. Gentlemen
    thanks for your comments.I will start will the Holstien Gottrop chaps and then (time,money,energy etc permitting ) will proceed with the Ducal army circa 1700. I am wondering about the Wargames Factoy hard plastics as a cheaper more instant way in Tradgardland 1700.

    There may be an exciting development on the horizon, of which I can say nought at present, which will need to factored into the schemes aforementioned...
    Alan

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