Thursday, May 06, 2010
As a tourist attraction, a guy in Arkansas is building a medieval fortress the old-fashioned way—with historical techniques, hand tools and lots of human labor. The plan is expected to take 20 years, just like a real fortress.
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Saturday, November 07, 2009
And a closeup of the medals
A request for help from the readers:
Hello
I have a picture of our Great Grandfather in Uniform and I have been trying to find out what battle it was from. I don’t know if you can help or not. He was from Essen Germany born 1845. I am thinking a time frame from 1862 to 1873. One battle I was looking at was Hradec Kralove but can’t get a good look at the uniform. Your help would be most appreciated.
Does anyone have any information that can be gleaned from the uniform in the photo above? It’ll obviously be impossible to tell which battle, but perhaps we can narrow it down to a war.
Please leave any insights in the comments. The comments won’t appear immediately, since I have comment moderation turned on to stop the spammers. Thanks!
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Tuesday, January 06, 2009
A professor at Northwestern Michigan College has discovered what appears to be a site of Stonehenge-like standing stones 40 feet under Lake Michigan. One seems to have been decorated with the carving of a mastodon
More on the Lake Michigan Standing Stones.
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Saturday, August 23, 2008
On Saturday (August 23, 2008), we took a trip to Jackson, Michigan, to attend their 24th annual Civil War Muster. Held on the grounds of Cascade Park, it’s the largest and longest-running Civil War event in the Midwest.
This year, the muster featured a recreation of the Battle of Wilson’s Creek, the original of which took place in Missouri on August 10, 1861. In addition to the battle re-creation, there also were infantry, artillery and cavalry drill demonstrations and a large encampment area where participants were more than willing (sometimes too willing) to tell you about life in the Civil War.
Later that night, the Muster featured period dance instruction, a military ball and a night fire artillery demonstration.
In addition to the camps and battle, there were a dozen or so large tents selling everything you would need to get started in Civil War re-enacting: muskets, uniforms, hats, boots, accessories and so on. Some of the tents also carried framed art (Mort Kunstler was everywhere), books, and Civil War DVDs. And there was, of course, food and drink. The boys each got a root beer in a pseudo-period blue glass jug with a cork-and-wire spring top.
You can see photos of the camp and battle here.
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Thursday, March 06, 2008
The Hemmings Auto Blogs have a post on a wonderful Wierd World War II vehicle: the Minenraumer, which apparently is kept in a Russian museum.
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Friday, December 14, 2007
With a strange sort of serendipity, just as I’m using superglue to attach the shields to a bunch of roman legionnaire miniatures, I see this article about how actual Romans used a superglue to attach bits to their helmets ... and it’s lasted for thousands of years:
Dec. 14, 2007—Roman warriors repaired their battle accessories with a superglue that is still sticking around after 2,000 years, according to new findings on display at the Rheinischen Landes Museum in Bonn, Germany.
Running until Feb. 16, 2008, the exhibition “Behind the Silver Mask” presents evidence that the ancient adhesive was used to mount silver laurel leaves on legionnaires’ battle helmets.
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Miniature Wargaming is part of the "adventure games" hobby, which includes r ole p laying and board games. Wargamers recreate battles on the tabletop with toy soldiers, like a more complicated game of chess. Models range in height from 6mm to 28mm tall, with 15mm and 25mm being the most popular. There also is a growing interest in toy soldiers and military models, such as the 1/32 and 1/35 scale plastic soldiers from Conte, and Marx.
The most popular miniature wargames are fantasy and science fiction based, such as Warhammer, Warhammer 40K, Warmachine and The Lord of the Rings. World War II games such as Flames of War and Axis and Allies are new favorites. Other favorite historical periods include Napoleonics, the American Civil War, and ancients, such as Romans or Greeks. Other gamers enjoy miniature naval wargames, recreating battles like Trafalgar, Jutland and the Coral Sea.
Hobbyists research historical periods and paint their tiny soldiers in accurate uniforms. Others develop "historically realistic" rules sets or build scale battlefield terrain using model railroad techniques.
For pictures, visit the gallery.
Some of the bigger hobby companies are Games Workshop, which produces Warhammer, Wargames Foundry and Old Glory Miniatures. Wizards of the Coast produces several lines of pre-painted miniatures games, such as the Star Wars and Dungeons and Dragons miniatures games, and a historical game with pre-painted miniatures: The new Axis and Allies game. Wizkids produces a fantasy collectable miniatures game, such as the Mage Knight and Heroclick fantasy games, the science fiction games MechWarrior and Rocketmen, as well as the quasi-historical Pirates of the Spanish Main.
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