Greek to you!

Hello again. Sorry, for not putting up a post in so long but a lot has been happening. Currently I am writing a paper about the battle of Thermopylae, one of the most important battles of the western world. Here is small excerpt of it telling about the equipment used by the Greeks against the Persians  

     The backbone of the Greek army was the heavy infantrymen called a “hoplite”. The hoplite was typically armored with a bronze or leather (lamalar) cuirass that covered both the back and the front. The hoplite also wore a Corinthian helmet that covered the whole head and had small eye holes formed into it.  Lastly, the hoplite had a large round shield called a “hoplon” where their names were derived from.  The hoplon was about three to four feet in diameter, wood, with a bronze layer covering the outside. The most important thing about the hoplon was the Argive grip on the inside. Traditional shields had one handgrip directly in the center but the Argive grip moved the handgrip to the right edge of the shield with a leather strap on the left side that the hoplite could slide his arm through.  This was an extremely important military advance as it allowed greater maneuverability with the shield and a lot more force could be applied to block a blow. In addition, the shield could be thicker to provide more cover with the extra weight resting further up the arm. All of this provided the hoplite with massive protection and a hit to the eye was about the only deadly wound Xerxes archers could inflict

  For armament, the Hoplite carried a seven-foot long spear called a dory. This spear was typically made of ash wood with a bronze or iron tip that was some four inches wide and six to eight inches long. This spear was the hoplites main weapon and he would use it much like an extra-long sword for slashing and stabbing. If his spear broke, he would draw his Korbo a short sword some 24 inches long made of bronze. This sword was designed to deliver a powerful stab to the chest of an opponent killing or at least immobilizing him.

   The Persian light infantry on the other hand wore no armor and carried only wicker shields of woven reeds. For weapons, they carried short swords and javelins (small wooden spears without metal tips). Overall the Persian outnumbered the Greeks but the Greeks out equipped the Persians.

Bear

Wonders of Rabbits

  Recently I have started raising rabbits both as pets and as a source of meat. Currently I have 5 rabbits of four different types California giant, Harlequin rex, Chilean giant Black satin mix, and American Cotton tail. All of them are very tame. My favorite one is the Chilean giant black satin mix male Basta. I Feed them on wild grasses, Leftover lettuces, cabbage, carrot peels,  and turnip greens. Most of them are tame enough to be put on a leash to go for walks around the yard.

Basta

                                               The Harlequin Rex

                                                    The California giant

The American Cotton tail

and Cloud

 

Post By Bear

Flag

Here is a picture of a flag that my granddaddy gave to me. It is one of my most treasured artifacts as in 1986 it flew over the White house when Ronald Reagan was President. Later it flew over my grandparent’s porch for another 4 or 5 years.

                                                  Here it is

                                          Folded and ready to hoist

 Post by Bear

Music

 Music

I am not a great fan of music but I do like some songs especially older ones from the 60s and 70s . Here is a quick list of my favorite 10 songs in no particular order.

1. CALIFORNIA DREAMING, THE MAMAS AND PAPAS

2. MR TAMBOURINE MAN, THE BYRDS

3. SLOOP JOHN B, THE BEACH BOYS

4. BLEECKER STREET, SIMON AND GARFUNKEL

5. THE SOUND OF SILENCE, SIMON AND GARFUNKEL

6. LEAVING LOUISIANA IN THE BROAD DAY LIGHT, THE OAK RIDGE BOYS

7. GENTLE ON MY MIND, GLEN CAMPBELL

8. DO YOU WANT TO DANCE? , THE MAMAS AND PAPAS

9. SALVE CAPUT CRUENTATUM, FROM THE CD CHANTS SACRED JOURNEYS

10. BE THOU MY VISION, FROM THE CD CHANTS SACRED JOURNEYS

The Lord of The Rings CDs done by the Tolkien Ensemble from Denmark are all good too. My favorites are  The Road Goes Ever on, & The Song of Earendil.

Sounds retro huh? Except for the last 2 songs and the Lord of The Rings all of them are older (recording wise). You should really check out these songs they're all pretty cool.

More Art

                                ONCE AGAIN, MORE ART by Artist
Here is another post all on art! I am sure you are very excited. However, I promise I will do a post concerning something other than art next time... well, can't actually say I can promise that. But anyway, here are the pictures from this week. Enjoy!

Water color of the two famous airborne division patches. 

Colored pencil B-17 bomber crewman.

U.S sailor 1943.

SUPERMAN! After watching the 1978 movie I thought I would try drawing Superman. I drew this in crayons. The cape was the most fun to shade. And the S on his shirt was very tricky to draw.

Rangers from LOTR.

Happy Birthday to Myself

On February 13, 2014 I celebrated my thirteenth birthday! We went out to Stubby’s Barbecue, ( which I have only been to once yet is still a favorite of mine) and celebrated with my Grandparents, who met us up there. I ordered last time: barbecue ribs, baked beans and a REALLY big baked potato with butter and sour cream, and a little bag of Doritos.

My birthday picture with Bear on the left and Ajax sitting next to him.

Another great picture of me!

 Happy Birthday to me! Happy Birthday to me! As you can see plaid is pretty much our standard winter wear. Everybody together now, Happy Birthday to me ! Happy Birthday to me! What , you think I’m vain or something? Does it remind you of Peter Pan saying “Oh, the cleverness of me!”?

  

By Artist  

A DAY OUT

   Yesterday my mom took me on a special outing with just the two of us. We stopped at the army surplus store. As I have undoubtedly said before this is my favorite store to shop at. When we went in the first thing we saw were 10 steel M-1 helmets with canvas liners from the Vietnam War. They all had NATO forest camouflage covers on them and one even had a sergeants chevrons. Hangings on one rack were several sets of army tactical vests. Mom got me this set of SP0100-00C-5007 Tactical Load Bearing Gear. This set has 4 M-16 ammo pouches, two small pouches for whatever, and several clips to attach flash lights, canteens, first aid kits, and whatever else one might need.

Here is a patch from the U.S.N SEAL team 4. It is in my patch collection my first navy one.

This ribbon is for service in the Korean Conflict. The owner of the shop said that the gold frame around it was for gallantry in action.

This pin as the picture shows is from the Special Forces, the shop owner said it was worn by The Green Berets and the Army Rangers

This is a Purple Heart dress pin. It was supposed to be worn on suits to show the decorations that had been won.

      On the same day we also stopped at Dick’s Sporting Goods here we got several interesting items

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This is the airsoft gun I got for Christmas. It has full automatic fire and can shoot almost 150 BBs a minute.

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And of course if you have a gun you need ammo. This container of 10,000 was on sale for 7.49!

And last but not least arrows. Yes I Know they are purple but that was the only color they had.

The crowning touch to our day out though was a trip to the PURPLE COW I got a BBQ, Bacon, and Cheddar cheese Burger!

Post By Bear

World War Two Weapons

As I have said before I enjoy woodworking and making small toys and carved items. Also as I have said I like collecting military items and was wondering how I could combine both of these interests. My solution?  Make accurate (or as much as possible) replicas of the weapons. So far I have made only three weapons, the colt M1911, a Thompson (or “Tommy” gun) M1A1, and an M-1 Garand self-loading rifle.

The M-1: This gun was the mast common weapon for the U.S soldier during World War 2. It had semi-automatic fire and shot a 30.Cal bullet that was carried in clips of 8. This gun was so successful that it was used in the Korean War and Later in a modified form as the M-14 in the Vietnam War.

 

Here is the colt M-1911 it was the stander issue side arm for the American soldier in world war 2 it fired a .45 bullet. First issued in World War 1 this weapon is still in use today with the U.S.M.C

 

 

And last but not least the ever famous “Tommy” gun. This is an iconic American weapon used by gangsters as well as Soldiers. I gave this one to my brother for his birthday. (please note this one is not quit finished as I had to hurry to get it made)

post by bear

Books I've been reading this week

I thought for this post I should show some of the books that I am currently reading for school. They are all really good, and I would encourage anyone to read them. They range from civilian style such as Journey to Topaz and Anne Frank to more political and millitary subjects like the book Hitler and Parallel Journey. The only one I have not read is The Upstairs Room, because I got it yesterday as an early birthday gift, so I have not had time to sit down and enjoy it.  It looks like it will be a good one though. On my next post I shall do a book review on it.

Probably one of my favorite books on World War II, this is a true story of two children from different families. Born just a few miles away from each other in Germany,they took drastically different paths. Alfons was a loyal and proud Hitler Youth leader. Helen  was sent to a concentration camp. After the war they went on many talk shows and helped people to understand more about Hitler and the Second World War.

Of course one of the most influential books to be written during the war, the diary of Anne Frank is the story of a girl who lives in hiding until her family is discovered.

This book exposes Hitler and his regime and how a poor, failing  artist rose to power and shook the world to its core. Find out  how and why he hated Jews so much that he put into motion one of the most unimaginable crimes ever invented.

This book is about the internment camps for Japanese -Americans during WWII. 

Not a WWII book but still a favorite this book shows the badges and patches of American Armed  Forces. Great for hstorical drawing and reference.

post by Artist

School books

One of my favorite things to do in the winter is to read. I read all sorts of books ranging from histories of Greece and Rome, fantasy such as Artemis Fowl, Lord of the Rings, and Eragon. Also I enjoy  novels like Tom sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, and the Henty books. With each book I learn something new and fascinating.

Here is a list of books I am currently reading for school.

 

TAKING BACK ASTRONOMY By Jason Lisle, This book is from a Christian stand point and tells how scientific discoveries in space actually support creationism and show the flaws in many of the evolutionist theories.

 

WORLD WAR 1 By Brigadier General S.L.A Marshall, This is a fascinating account of the First World War vividly describing all the major battles and events from the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand in1914 to the final peace treaty of 1919 and everything in-between.

 

UNDAUNTED COURAGE By Stephen E. Ambrose This book tells the story of the famous Lewis and Clark expedition to explore the northwestern territories recently acquired by the U.S in the Louisiana Purchase.

 

AMERICA AND VIETNAM By Albert Marrin In this book you will find plenty of information about the war that proved to be the most controversial war in American history and the war that divided us most.

 

THE HINDENBURG By Michael M. Mooney The Hindenburg was one of the greatest air disasters of all times and this book gives a behind the scenes account of the last voyage of this flying monstrosity.

 

THE BOMB IN THE BASEMENT By Michael Karpin This book tells the story of the development of Israel’s first nuclear weapons and the politics behind it.

 

BEYOND THE MOON By Paolo Maffei, This book takes you on a fascinating tour of the solar system with in-depth information on all of the planets as well as the sun and stars.

  Well here they are and they are just my school books. As a just for fun read I am going through Homers original Iliad. Our family  has bought up several copies of Hamlet and we plan to read thought it this month each taking parts. I am hoping I can be Hamlet or the Ghost of his father. 

post by Bear

 

Destroying the V weapons

 last night  we watched a movie about the photo interpreters (or PI as they were commonly called) and the roll the played in World War Two. The PIs were a top secret group of Royal Air Force officers who spent their day studying pictures taken by Spitfire spy planes behind German lines. They were trained to look for anything that might be part of the German war effort such as hidden factories, airfields, warships, supply dumps, fortifications, and any thin that seemed unusual  or out of place. They were equipped with for the time High Tec machines such as the stereoscope which allowed them to see in 3D, and the Wild(pronounced vilt) Machine which allowed them to accurately measure height, width or length critical information when cartographers  built models of the targets for pilots to study.

     One day in the spring of 1942 a Spitfire pilot flying a photo reconnaissance mission over the town of Peenemunde on the cost of the Baltic Sea saw something quit odd. On the ground were three large circles of concrete surrounded by out buildings. What were they for? No one knew for certain but it was believed by some that it was nothing more than a sewage facility so the photo was numbered, filed and soon forgotten.

     Later that summer the British secretly recorded a conversation between two German generals that they had captured in North Africa in 1941. In the conversation one general mentioned that something must be wrong with the German Rocket program because he had not heard any of the explosions of the rockets when the crash into their targets.

      At once the British ordered more aerial reconnaissance photos to see if The Germans really were building rockets to fire at England. The PIs studied these new Photos and many of the old ones to find any evidence of the rocket program. One of these photos was the one the spitfire took over Peenemunde several months before. Close examination revealed that on the center of each circle was a small tube. These tubes turned out to be V-2 Rockets.  Also in the picture they dicoverd a small airplane shaped object siting on a ramp this turned out to be the V-1 buzz bomb also Known as the Doodle Bug. The Allies immediately launched operation Crossbow to destroy the V-1/ V-2 launch sites. Thanks to Allied air power the sites were destroyed  though some rockets were launched and possibly shortened the war by as much as 2 years.

The V-1 Buzz Bomb or Doodle Bug

 

 

The V-2 High altitude rocket .

Watch the NOVA video 3Dspies of World War Two

 

Post by Bear. Both photos by Wikipedia

 

War Art

                War Art or Wars as recorded by me By artist

As you have probably guessed,  art and WWII are my favorite subjects  for personal studies. I draw quite a lot of pictures of soldiers and equipment for my own reference. One technique I like to use is the “quick and line” style. This style was used by war correspondents and artists during WWII while in the field. I like this style first because it looks realistic, and second it perfectly captures the feel and look of a hurriedly drawn sketch, perhaps because the correspondent is under fire! I use this technique mostly when I am outside. It’s good to quickly record nature for my journal and any battle that we happen to be reenacting. Actually, most of these pictures are inspired by our battles. So here are some pictures I have drawn, some more detailed than others ,but still the same.

This is the beginning of a study I did of Paratroopers and their equipment.

Here is the same picture as the above one, but fully detailed and colored.

This one is the original that inspired me to do the two above. The face looks a lot like my Grandfather when he was in the Air Force,except he was  not a paratrooper.

This picture illustrates some of the equipment that a paratrooper (or as shown here a trooper of the 82 Airborne)would carry before being dropped into Normandy 1944. The cricket and Thompson were the most fun to draw and shade.