War and Peace Revival

[Trapper Ind]

ahh so it was you with the dji phantom 2 was it?

[Rob Reznik]

Thats a great video!

Need another project next year Rob, you tried to make it harder this year by hiding the tools but we still managed. Hope your wrist has recovered after all that pumping you did! ;)

Great week, met alot of forum members, and the mighty Uaz dragged everything that wasnt green out of kitcheners at some stage from our camp. Was desribed as a little terrier dog pulling at its lead with all legs spinning!

Your Uaz worked very well especially considering they are only standard tyres - imagine portal axles, diff lock and some aggressive tyres

[zoltan]

ahh so it was you with the dji phantom 2 was it?

Maybe....

I was surprised no-one else had anything flying around

[Trapper Ind]

i will be buying the new version, with 1080p cam and zoom lens

[iannima]

A handful more photographs have reached me. I shall first complete the series of the vehicle display...

Genosse Feldwebel Ludwig thumbsup speeding ahead to secure a swift passage to the troops...


This is our friend Norbert's lovely Uaz 469:


always nice to see the fabulous [love] amphibious Gaz46 belonging to our Lancaster contingent thumbsup


Two more of Klaus [love]

[iannima]

I feel compelled to add a story about our "combat" photoshoot... but it is a sad one...
Having safely made it back to the camp after out vehicle display in what calls itself "the Arena" and is but a pale reflection of what the same-named place was at Beltring, Genosse Rob suggested that, given that we were all geared up, it was opportune to try and do a further photoshoot on foot
So we set off looking for a spot without an impossibly clattered background and a vaguely plausible setting.
Now at the Hop Farm, we would have had a choice of various wooded corners we could have gone to. At Westenhanger, we wandered without success for a while... until we saw a tiny strip of land beyond a collapsed (low) wire fence, with knee high weeds and some trees in the background. We climbed a stile and tried our best, trusting in the ability of our photographer Mark to keep out of sight all the unsuitable clutter that was actually so close...






We had barely started taking position and done at most a couple of shots when a marshall hailed us:
"guys, you cannot go there. It's a conservation area!"
I looked around... and all I could see were horrible knee high weeds...
"Conserving what exactly?"
"RED ANTS"
... was the answer...

I said nothing... but something within me snapped ..
...this one used to be the show where we COULD do things... Now it is the one where things either CANNOT be done or ARE NOT WORTH doing any way... it might be because of the weather which is only ever extreme, or because of the hapless organisation... but the bottom line is always the same: what could once be easily done is now beyond reach...

It is very sad but I have already decided that it is really not worth it to drag 2 tonnes of Gaz plus trailer for 550 Km with my overladen Land Rover to arrive in a place where I have to be uncomfortable for a week long in the stifling heat or a thunderstorm, and then be unable to do much at all with all the equipment that I have risked life and limb to bring down...
Next year I might come with the Land Rover on its own for a couple of days of shopping, staying in a local Hotel to avoid the horrors of the so called "sanitary facilities" (somehow Health & Safety ceases to apply there )...
I told Genosse Rob of my decision and was expecting that he would try to persuade me to give it another go... but instead he agreed instantly that it really did not make sense for me...

It was a sad day to reach that decision but there's no way of avoiding it...
I used to leave this show looking forward to arriving back to it in a year's time... no longer...

[zoltan]

At least they were red ants. Imagine being forced out by capitalist ants?

[funkypete]

Shame you left early, could of got loads of action shots with mud and all maner of our vehicles in the back ground. Im sure you cameraman could of got a good selection of pictures for us!

[wyvernfyre]

Matteo
I think you need to give W&P feed back about your concerns. If you do not tell them what you want, it is difficult for them to know. Email Georgina at [email protected] tell her what happen and ask them to provide space for photo shoots. I think a lot of groups would like to make use of it.
I have commented on the entrance to Kitchener's which needs two entry points.
One for two wheel drive vehicle which need to have limited used (no four wheel drives or tanks) , and a main four wheel drive entrance. I also have my pet hate, the number of children or young teenagers using motor bikes and quads and there were a number of near misses.
Rex has another three lease on the ground, without positive feed back he will not know what we want.

[gaz66chris]

im sure the east german stasi would have allowed it!...or would they??

[iannima]

Matteo I think you need to give W&P feed back about your concerns. If you do not tell them what you want, it is difficult for them to know.

Hello Derek, I greatly admire your willingness to provide constructive criticisms ... but I am afraid I am not that generously inclined ... not any longer
The show might be only in its second year in the new place, but the people organising it have been at this game for the best part of twenty five years... and could arguably be described as the most experienced organisers of such a show in the entire world... or at least they ought to be by now
Soooo ... do they really need telling that:
1) reenactors want places where to take period-looking photographs;
2) that a big gaudy coloured fun fair in the background of every arena photograph is not a good idea;
3) that recreating a scale version of the M25 (the one way system) might not count as everybody's idea of a fun drive around?

...I could go on... but I'd better stop...

[Geronimo]

Matteo,

Just get your ass over there!
If not for the organisers, the bad weather, the disappointing arena, the idiotic fancy fair, the lack of reenactors photo-shoot options, the M-25 system, the communistic ants, or whatever, then do it for a nice bottle of Barolo Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita (DOCG) which I will bring you, in person, to your tent.

Yours truly.

[iannima]

It HAD to happen at some stage...
http://us6.campaign-archive1.com/?u=094 ... 50535be408

[wyvernfyre]

Are you coming to the last show?

[iannima]

Are you coming to the last show?

Derek, if you are asking me, the answer is no. I had decided 10 days ago. Unexpected work commitment. I could have made excuses to get out of it but saw no point in doing so, given how uncomfortable I was last year at Westenhanger...

[wyvernfyre]

Are you coming to the last show?

Derek, if you are asking me, the answer is no. I had decided 10 days ago. Unexpected work commitment. I could have made excuses to get out of it but saw no point in doing so, given how uncomfortable I was last year at Westenhanger...

yes it was addressed to you.
I understand work has to come first sometimes. you and your vehicle will be missed.

[Trapper Ind]

Trappers pitch marked out last night. Feel free to tag onto the back of it asap.. already a few pitches marked in kitcheners.

[zoltan]

Looks like I'll be buzzing up there tomorrow then in the Uaz.

[funkypete]

Im good to park all the Russian crap together, breakdown in force then

Suffolk mafia consists of 1 or 2 Gaz66's depending on Chris getting there My Uaz, our dining shelter and 2 9x9 tents.

[aardvark64]

Rhubarb!

My work is screwing me around at the moment - I was supposed to be at Chelmsford, then at Ashford (!) and now probably darkest Herts. I've also been asked to give a training course in Bristol on the Thursday that I was planning to be at W&P, so I've no idea how that's going to pan out.

Best wishes, Colin