Spasm

Lastly the impressed manufacturer of the plastic folder - Fr. Wilh. Ruhfus. Dortmund D.R.G.M. D.R.P.a. and the back of the medal bar showing the Koblenz medal mounter.

The other certificates that are in a sort of concertina slip case behind the honour cross certificate. There's also a map of Koblenz when it was spelled with a 'C' which puts it around 1909 and shows mostly military buildings. Rudolf was an installer of plumbing (fitted toilets or laying pipes?)

The folder opened. The honour cross cert is behind a clear plastic sheet and the honour cross is attached to a black velvet background.

Here's the cardboard cover and the plastic folder. The helmet and 1914-1918 are raised.

Thanks Gents, I'm rubbish at finding stuff

Gents Bought these a few weeks ago and have utterly failed to find anything on the movements of Regt 161. Obviously spent time on the Somme but a few more details would be nice. Bar awarded to Rudolf Contzen of Koblenz, mostly made up of post war additions I believe. The honour cross is mounted within a hardcovered folder along with some award certs (no EK2 award doc though). No idea why the honour cross wasn't mounted on the bar other than he probably had the bar made up before he received the honour cross in 1935 (the other award certs are dated 1929).

Have a look here - markets and museum suggestions http://gmic.co.uk/index.php/topic/51204-museums-and-shops-to-visit-on-my-london-trip Have a nice time Spaz

Oh no, foiled again Get my coat Watson

Frank Condolences from us all

Tell the wife that Megan is better looking

"I have it planned with my assistant that I will hold it up with the handle towards him and he can draw it and charge. I fear though, that he would have run for his life and I will have to do battle on my own" And you just left holding the scabbard!

Thats my mum!

This is where you can buy one (if you are a government) http://www.proxdynamics.com/products/pd_100_prs/

Yep, the Brown Bess. Couldn't hit the inside of a barn but with several thousand, aiming low, there was gonna be some damage. I once saw a potty Professor giving a lecture at Nottingham University on explosives in the 70s. He set light to massive tubes of hydrogen, liquid oxygen and those sort of mundane things. He also showed what a Brown Bess could do when firing a candle at a barn door (he didn't actually use a flintlock but a percussion cap smooth bore), blimey, it was just like an R1 shooting a wall. I tried to find anything similar on google and found a video with him on it! Here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orO3PxLPiKU

Try this one, best of the West, East, North, South and Middle

Ah, that seems to make sense given the other....erm...mishaps and court of enquiries where it states "he was not on duty at the time" and "the injury will not affect his duties as a soldier". Although, to be fair, the last one actually ended in his death. Still, he seems to have been a bit of a rough one.

Thanks, gonna have to give this a try

Can someone help? I've at last found some of my Grandfather's service records but am puzzled by an entry. It states "Para 2,c Section XIX Queens Regulations 1895" against an entry of reverting to Private from Drummer. (Obviously in trouble for something again - seems to have reverted to Private quite a lot from what I can see). Can anyone tell me what paragraph 2,c of Section 19 of Queens Regulations say? I can't find them on t'tinternet. Thanks Spaz

Impressed or what! The facial tones are just amazing and I really like the clothing details and shading - well done to all that complete these. I can imagine that research on the colouring of tabs, medal ribbons etc is pretty time consuming. Would be interesting to see one through all the stages of completion. Do you work on many many layers within photoshop or just a few?

Peter, depending on the "rustiness" depends on what you need to do. QSA is correct if very light rust and then use the wax preservative as per Brian (I'd suggest Renaissance wax polish though as used by the British Museum - pretty expensive but proven on German daggers etc by collectors) Easily available on e-bay (you only need a small one). very rusty items can be de-rusted by electrolysis - a bucket of water with 4/5 tablespoons of washing soda or bi-carb (either will do) an old iron bar and a 12v battery charger. Positive on old iron bar, negative on sword (ah, maybe a long thin bucket) and a couple of hours of charging, rust will form 'orrible scum on water - clean the black stuff off of sword with a rag and hey presto - luvly spaz

He's got very very hairy legs

Bernhard and Chris - thanks guys, I'll go look them up, would be nice to get some info on the smoking competition geezers.

Had another look through the album and removed all the photos to look at the backs. All of them had numbers only (I assume the photographer's referencing) other than this one. The picture is a pretty bland landscape of earth with little or no detail with this on the reverse. Can anyone help with a translation?

Derek, thanks for the advice. I'll give it a go and show the results - maybe the Gents can help me translate once we have access.