Dyes for the Compendium

Finally got an evening on holiday when we’re not being sociable with friends, so had chance to sit down and fill out some more work on the Dux Compendium - specifically I’ve been dragging together my notes on dyes and starting to write them up, so I can get my friend Lissa to produce some examples to photograph clearly.

Clearly, the not-so-Dark Ages.

US National WW1 Memorial and Museum, Kansas City

Paid the above a visit yesterday with Lardie Dave C and his lovely fiancée K.

Excellent place with very friendly and knowledgeable volunteers and some very evocative displays. Covers the whole of WW1, not just the USA’s involvement, with uniforms, loads of artillery pieces, a DH2 hanging from the ceiling....

Recommended if you’re anywhere within several hours drive, and Dave is a gracious host (and RJ’s BBQ was awesome).

French tank with Dave for scale

A day of board games

Spent the day yesterday at the Boards and Brews games cafe in Manchester, NH. Fun time playing Champions of Midgard and Lords of Waterdeep -  both excellent games with very similar mechanics.

(Dashing this off at the airport after getting up far too early for a flight to Kansas City. Catch you on the flip side )

“Omaha Beach on D-Day”

Picked up in the bookshop in downtown Peterborough (New Hampshire), I figured it would be a good addition to the library of books we put on display with the Bloody Omaha game.

It’s a sort of biography of war photographer Robert Capa, who was amongst the first wave to land on Omaha (being pretty much kicked off the LC by the boatswain who a) thought he was chickening out and b) wanted the hell out of there!). He was pulled off the beach an hour and a half later with several rolls of what would have been priceless pictures....

You will note I said ‘would have’. Or so the story goes...

He made it back to the UK, and an enterprising assistant in his agency, aware of the urgency of the situation, decided to accelerate the process of developing the images by boosting the temperature of the developer bath...

...and melted the emulsion on all bar a handful of the negatives.

How axxurate this is has recently come up for discussion...

Anyway - excellent little book and perfect for the game at a show.

Things not to do while jet lagged...

1. Set up Anne’s new iPad.
2. Finish installing fonts for the Dux Compendium on my iPad 

The former was made markedly harder by Apple’s iCloud sync getting very confused, followed by me getting very confused and doing things on the wrong iPad (despite several ‘are you REALLY sure?’ prompts...)

The latter, well let’s just say that iFonts may be free, but you get what you pay for. Mission accomplished in the end but gave up on computers after that, so you get this post a day late. :)

“They Shall Not Grow Old”

Rather delighted to notice that Peter Jackson’s World War I documentary was on the flight over to the states today.

I’m definitely counting watching it as part of my hobby streak: fascinating and moving stuff. 

GW Contrast video up

After more faffing and convincing YouTube the Trouble At T'Mill account is really me, so I can upload LONG videos....

Disclaimers of yesterday apply.