Spasm

Blimey, didn't expect the pictures to come out like that! Quite a bit larger than actual size of the hip flasks - I must get a smaller brush

A few flasks I've been playing with

Colin, just another masterpiece. One sixth is Action Man sized I believe, must make for an imposing piece on the sideboard. The open mouth brings a lot of life into it and the detail on the sword is outstanding. Gold stars all round I think.

Got a few of these to do. Will be lacquered and polished and even comes in its own box. Its also very tactile for some reason.

In 1915, the biggest plane yet seen in Britain took flight, a twin-engine monster with a 100-foot wingspan. The Admin Staff called this "an 'orrible old piece of a suitcase" when it arrived. Now look at it.

Yep, Olive Green wouldn't be a good look for Imperial helmet's bases but it can be used for some of the camo paint.

RAL 6003 is Olive Green (RAL being the German equivalent to a BS number ie a standard) RAL 6009 is Grey/Olive have a look here for some examples of base colours http://www.repuestossam.com/en/kubelwagen/paints.htm Giving anything a solid coating of the above colours looks rubbish IMO unless you have a brand new or close to new surface. Any age at all will need some depth/patina, easily available products from model shops or mixing up your own washes.

Battle of Pilckem Ridge. North of Ypres 2 August 1917 Really difficult to get the photo colours right as it's pouring with rain here

Gents A bit of help please. A GMIC member is interested in buying the above bar, folder and certs. I think I remember how much I paid but cannot honestly say whether I got it cheap or whether I had my trousers pulled down. (I always seemed to pay for the wrong thing a couple of years ago - remember the EK1 that really binned me). Can anyone let me know the value of the above bar, folder and paperwork. PM me or on here if you like so that I can give the member an honest value. Thanks in advance

All unassuming men. Always very pleasant with nothing to prove. They will all be missed.

Interestingly their role has been replaced by helicopters - (reconnaissance, transportation and attack) - but the thoughts at the end of the article still stand.

Page four

Page three

Well, that seemed to work, here's page two

First page (hopefully I've resized so that they can still be read ) There were a lot of RAF pilots recruited due to the massive losses at Arnhem.

Gents I've been doing a bit of research for a plaque that I'm painting for work at the Army Air Corps. Discussing their history with some of the uniforms there (and ex uniforms) we thought it would be a good shout to do something to commemorate the original Glider Pilot Regiment (1942 - 1957) who trained as just about the most complete soldier there ever was (or probably ever will be). During my research I managed to find an old magazine dated 24th March 1945 which may be of interest to you. Obviously written after their operations in Norway, Sicily, Normandy (D-Day) and Arnhem. But before Varsity (the Rhine landings actually took place on the same date as this magazine). I've done some scans of the article from 'Illustrated' magazine. Knowing that pictures on here can be difficult to read, I've split the pages up into pieces so that they are easier read (hopefully in the correct order). Here's the start of the artwork for their plaque with the WW2 AAC cap badge and the title of the magazine.

Just been to a militaria show/sale today 1st Feb (pinch punch no return). Original WW1 stuff seems to be on the up. I can't get anything relic at the prices they were just a few months ago. Maybe it's the time of year or blokes fed up with a lack of anything for sale in town centres these days. I don't remember a hike this time last year though. All sorts of relics were in the £30 - £50 range last year. Now they are in the £70 - £100 range and for proper poo ones too. WW1 medal trios, especially KIA with plaque look to be up quite a bit in the several hundreds of pounds. Four bar Crimean are into the nine hundreds while Waterloo and Peninsilar GSMs are back down just over 2Gs. Lots more WW1 British helmets about getting up towards, and passed the five hundred mark. WW2 Brits are starting at £50 with private purchased (leather straps etc) way up over the £150 mark.

Jamyam Thanks for that, I'll have a chat with Pathfinder's son and let him know. Cheers

Would these be for keeping a dress lanyard in the correct place, particularly if wearing two with the first already connected to the button?

Jock, I never took it that way and sorry if my reply read as though I did. But I do think you raised some good questions. No doubt, I've become interested in making these helmets as good as I possibly can, or until I get bored. Or possibly the price of relics and my time costs doing the artwork will outprice genuine helmets available. I'll always be clear when undertaking commissions or selling these helmets. They are all marked with where they've come from, albeit a very easily removed signature type mark. Even welding (although welding to these relics would be very difficult) would be fairly easy to get rid of. Nearly all are pretty easily seen to be restored if you look inside as I use glass fibre and filler to strengthen and fill holes. I can't be arsed with the work to make the inside as good as the outside. So unless someone is going to ask me to paint a good quality helmet or spend a really horrible few days to sand/grind the inside then they'll always be pretty easy to see. I agree with more devious work they could become more. My early stuff is far too naff to fool anyone and all of my later stuff has themed artwork applied. I would recognise any of the helmets I have produced and as I keep very good records (for the tax man) I would dob in anyone I saw trying to pull any wool over anyone. But you never know, maybe my paintwork will be worth far more than any helmet in the future. Look at the prices our homeboy Banksy bollox is pulling. And even that Gogh bloke who knew where he wanted to be by saying "I try things I can't do so that I can get better at them" never got any further than his painting by numbers splodges.

Some good questions that I honestly don't really have an answer to and would be happy to discuss to get clear in my own mind. I think forgers are artists in a way, particularly forgers of paintings. The techniques take a lot of learning which requires a lot of interest or, I suppose, incentive in some way. Perhaps that incentive could be greed. I'm in no way leading the market (so to speak) in restoring relics and/or ageing replicas. There are some very very expensive replica helmets out there (Fallschirmjager helmets for over £500 for instance). Application of a good technique in painting and ageing would make them look and feel like the real deal. Add and age some good quality decals and application of the correct type of paint could get these helmets onto the shelves of some collectors no doubt. With the prices that we're seeing for high end SS and Paratrooper helmets I've no doubt there's helmets coming off of production lines somewhere. I'm never going to get into the high end reproductions, nor am I going to present a restored helmet for anything other than what it is. All of the decals on mine are hand painted so wouldn't fool anyone with any knowledge at all. Mots of my restored helmets have plenty of filler but admittedly not easily seen. All of my helmets are also signed. By the way, all artwork is copyrighted with the artist unless that copyright is signed away. However, one of my helmets (without themed artwork all over it) in another person's hands? The removal of the signature and replacement of the painted decal would be pretty simple. And, as we all know, a lot of militaria sales are made without an in depth knowledge of the subject, are done off the cuff and forged helmets do pull people's trousers down regularly. Particularly young and/or inexperienced collectors. I attended a show a few months ago and saw a young guy try to sell his helmet to a dealer. The dealer saw that it was a copy straight off and told the young guy that he'd buy it as a replica. The youngster wasn't happy as he'd paid many times what the dealer was offering. I did give it the once over and it was clearly a copy, quite a bad one in fact. I felt pretty bad for him having been there myself on several items, as you all know. I don't collect much stuff now due to this. I do like doing these helmets but with relics now getting expensive, they are pretty difficult to display (unless you have a war room) and me probably moving into some other form of artwork there's not going to be that many (without themed artwork) to catch anyone. I really hope so.

Tried a new technique that came out pretty well. Originally was a LOT worse condition than the one below. It came as the rubbish one in a batch of relics that I bought together. I had to rebuild all of the raw edges (which took absolutely ages - days in fact) so it was my trial and error helmet. It also has a batch and maker's stamp now (all correct as I've checked them in the batch numbers book). I'll add a liner and chinstrap at some point, age them and probably keep on the shelf as a display next to an example relic. It looks pretty good in the hand as the camo coat looks like it's worn and peeled off of the grey base paint (which is what I did), through which is peeping rusty steel. I still need to think through how to make it even better but I'm getting there.

This is quite nice

Well, still got to check out the barbed wire, add a paw and signature but sort of about there I think. A bit more impressionistic which I may want to get back into in a few weeks....

I'll have to go have a look now. By the way, just a thought.....why is it that we see, in our mind's eye, WW1 pictures as black and white, while we see Napoleonic pictures in colour. Is it because there's no photos even though there's plenty of photos of the troops from the Crimea. And another thing, why is it that we (or is it just me) are happy to see, in pictures, Allies facing from left to right and Germans facing from right to left? I'm doing some research to complete a WW1 sniper picture. Looking up photos of rifles for reference they seem to be not quite correct if they are facing from left to right and I feel that the painting would 'feel' better if the sniper was aiming/firing towards the left side of the picture. Is it due to what we're used to as the direction of the war? Do you Gents in Germany feel the same?