Bumping the Sikhs

Over on Facebook fellow blogger PK has shared some photos from the History Live! event at Kelmarsh Hall, Notts (hopefully he'll blog about it once he's recovered).  History Live! is English Heritage's flagship event where history from the Romans to the C20th is celebrated through displays and re-enactments.  It sounds like great fun.

The photos that caught my attention were those of a group from the National Army Museum's 'War and the Sikhs' project.  This has involved training up members of the Sikh community as living history re-enactors (as the 15th Ludhiana Sikh Regiment, who will be travelling around the country doing educational events commemorating the Sikh contribution to World War I - more details on the NAM website.

The following photos come from The National Army Museum.

The big feller was obviously 'excused boots'!

Other re-enactors are available...

For some reason, Sikh troops have always caught my imagination.  I'm not too sure why - despite being brought up in an area with a large second-generation Punjabi population, I don't know any Sikhs.  Perhaps I read a book or saw a film at an early age which impressed the image of a bearded, turbaned warrior on my little mind.  Perhaps it's because (like highlanders) they're that little bit 'different'.

Anyway, I'm going to bump my Perry Sikhs back onto the painting list.  (I put them on one side when the Analogue Painting challenge started last December, and haven't revisited them since).  It doesn't mean that they'll get done, but it's nice to remember that they're there!

Thinks That Make You Go Grr! - On Proper Attribution

A nodding acquaintance of mine - Gemma Correll - is an illustrator, specialising in gently amusing comments on life.  Given the number of times I see her work, I imagine she is quite successful - she certainly has a following.  Nevertheless, it's a precarious living (my nephew and several associates are just starting out).

Post by Gemma Correll.

This morning one of less funny her pieces was shared on Facebook by George Takei (which given that he has over 7 million followers is a big thing).  Sadly, the website he found the image on - let's name and shame funnyasduck.net - have edited the picture to remove Gemma's signiture and url, replacing it with their own (even using the same font and style!).  This is appalling: it is theft of intellectual property.

I know some of my readers who try to make a living out of painting have also had this problem.  Now I'm as guilty as any casualty blogger over this - I try to have a picture for every post I make, and I don't always give the source - but for a business to this is out of order.

Welcome

OK, after the little rant, a new follower welcome to Ian Drury.


Edit- 23 Jul 2014

Funny As Duck So this is why we got a bunch of e-mails, to clear it up If you look around the other comics on our site you will see we don't remove artists signatures and credit everybody we can.   If somebody else removes the signature before we see/get sent the comic there isn't anyway for us to tell unless we know the artists work, in this case we didn't. The watermark was an auto thing that we stopped using a long time ago. We have swapped over the image on our site to the original.

Welcome And Watson

A warm new follower welcome to Conrad Kinch of the Joy and Forgetfulness blog and elsewhere.

Following on from my rather lazy post yesterday, here's another picture of a shark - rather more highbrow this time.

It's Watson and the Shark painted in 1778 by John Singleton Clark (and copied lots of times since).

Watson is the lad in the water.  From a family wealthy merchants, he went to sea at the age of 14.  He was swimming in Havana Harbour when he was attacked by the shark.  Although he was rescued, Watson had his right leg amputated below the knee.

This didn't hold him back too much.  He was a commissary to the British Army during the French and Indian War and Commissary General during the Revolution.  In 1772 he was a member of the founding committee of Lloyds of London, later serving as Chairman.  He was elected an Alderman of the City of London and was MP for the City from 1784 to 1793.  He was Lord Mayor for 1796/7 and Deputy Governor of the Bank of England.

Add to the Menagerie

Over at the Great Hall, Loki has used Warbases Wednesday to announce a giveaway - with the twist that it's a piece of market research by Warbases', who want to expand their excellent range of animals.  All you have to do is to enter into a conversation about what you'd like to see added and you'll be entered into a draw to receive the five figures that will be put into production.

So far, Warbases' animals have had a distinctly 'Saga-ish' range.  I wonder where else they might go.  Animals are popular in VBCW - I've seen more than one AAR featuring an Empress of Blandings-like pig

Another prospect might be based on the (surprisingly fact-based) scenario in the 1951 book and film (staring David Niven) Appointment With Venus.  It in the Ministry of Ag persuades the War Office to mount a commando raid to prevent the Germans shipping a prize bull (Venus) back to the Fatherland

Alderney Cattle - beloved of Jane Ausen

The pure breed went extinct after the German ate the surviving bloodline

in 1944

Venus?

But perhaps it would be savvy (you'll see what I've done in a minute...) to slipstream on the Piratitis that's linked to the release of On the Seven Seas.  So what animals do pirates have?

But, wait!   What about...

Shed Shelf Monday

No Paint Table Saturday for me, as I haven't picked up a brush in weeks.  Instead, here's a bit of a round-up post.

Shiny, shiny!

As regular readers will know, I have developed something of a lead-crush for Oathsworn Miniatures.  Back in May therefore it didn't take long for me to decide to sign up for their latest Kickstarter, the first in a projected series of Gods from various mythologies.  As you'd expect,  they've started with the Asgard.

Well this morning a jiffy bag arrived containing Great Odin himself, mounted on his eight-legged horse Sleipnir.

A nice friendly box

with lots of pieces in it

but they look as if they'll fit together

Next up in Project Pantheon will be Freyja astride the battle-swine Hildisvini, which is already sculpted, but they're releasing some more dwarfs first.

Shed Shelf Monday, what's that about?

Last week I picked up some cheap shelves in the charity shop for the Shed of Delights, and I even managed to put them up.  Not super-organised like some, but it's something of an improvement.

Before...

Now

But they soon fill up...

Pulp-tastic!

Just a pointer to those who might be interested that there's a new(ish) Facebook group for those into Pulp - Pulp Miniatures Gaming.  Quite a bit of stuff to inspire and enjoy there.

Normal for Norwich...

Just to reassure those of you who thought that Norwich aldermen were wakening the Great Old Ones from their slumbers...

A Triton facing off against the Kraken...

...a serpent above the Finance Offices...

...and the Maw of Hell on City Hall.

Finally!  Proof that everything's normal.  A Nellie
leaving church.

The Mayoral Feasting continues

The Norwich Lanes Fayre

This weekend Norwich celebrated a new Lord Mayor and Sheriff

.  
We skipped the Lord Mayor's Parade (with fireworks!) on Saturday because I'm too miserable a git to enjoy watching pasty white youths from stage school pretending they are part of the Brazilian carnival scene or Jamaican street culture.  But on Sunday we went along to the 'Lanes Fayre' (despite the spelling).

And - pathetic break dancing and performance poets (!!!) aside - it was a great afternoon out.  I may go again.

We started in the coffee shop, as illustrators Gemma Correll and 

Anthony Zinonos were selling their wares

Sadly I missed these guys....

Visitors come to Norwich from all over...

I should have blogged about... (#2)

As most have you will realise by now, these days my blog tends to be reactive - something strikes my fancy and it sets me off down a path of further research or (more likely) a stream of consciousness.

So, if I'd been around to blog last week what would you have been reading?

When Franz and Sophie Met Gavrilo

I had intended to mark the centenary of the Sarajevo assassination by doing profiles of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, Duchess Sophie and Gavrilo Princip.   Well, frankly, you'll have read all that elsewhere if you'd wanted to.

In an aside, the BBC kept referring to the assassination as 'the shot heard around the world'.  Well it might have been, but it jarred with me: the phrase was coined by Ralph Waldo Emerson to describe the first shot of the American War of Independence at Concord, MA.  It's that kind of pedantry which you missed...  Oh what fun we would have had!

Flying Saucers to Mars...

NASA tested its saucer-shaped 'landing system', the Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD).  They did this by attaching it to a stadium-sized balloon and dropping it 180,000 above Hawaii.  The idea is to use this system to deliver robotic missions to Mars in advance of human exploration.

But Are Chas and Nailbrush Included?

Plasticine hero Morph returned from the dead, albeit on a YouTube channel, following a Kickstarter campaign.

Damn, Big Ship!

HM Queen Elizabeth wasted a single malt launching HMS Queen Elizabeth, a very fine looking aircraft carrier.  Unfortunately there aren't any planes to go on it and without a decent destroyer screen it's nothing but a very large target.  It seems HMS Prince of Wales will be mothballed before she (yes, she) is launched.

Told You So!

It was announced that Nurse Edith Cavell will be commemorated on a new £5.00 coin to be issued next year.

You Scratch Mine, I'll...

Famous tennis dress sold for £15,500.  Who would buy something like that?  I have my own theory.

This Week's Obits of Interest

No apologies for coming a bit closer to home this week, as David Blunkett has written a very nice obit of my Uncle Wilfred.  Blunkett hasn't included the story of why he only has nine and a half fingers (the perils of teaching workwork to blind kids!).

Wilfred King (d. Jun 2014)

Teacher

Guardian 3 July 2014

Dom Philip Jebb (d. 8 Jun 2014)

Monk and Headmaster

Independent, 2 Jul 2014

Other obits of interest

...And Back Again

Well, we're home, and heartily glad to be so.

It wasn't an Unexpected Journey, but it went on for much longer than expected.  We were supposed to have a two-night stay with the Mother-in-Law, but it turned into a seven-night one.

The main problem was that I'd tried to travel light - so didn't have anything like enough clothes, had no books and had left my laptop behind.  One of the more annoying things was my lack of laptop.  The Wife and Mother-in-Law have i-pads, but I can't bear not having a keyboard.  So the usual apologies for not blogging, keeping up with my blog-roll, etc.  What little blogging time I had was spent updating the Bloggers for Charity auction (go over, you know you want to bid!).

The alleged reason for going was to help clear her garage (something I've been promising to do for a loooong time).  That's fair enough, because a large proportion of the crap there dates from when we moved house twelve years ago.  There were a lot of old friends in those boxes of books...

Anyway, normal service will resume, etc...