Old New Year's 2012
Posted on: 1/11/2012
As I am late with only the 2nd ever Blog for Lead Army I ought to be creative about it. I could try to hide behind the Russian Church's use still of the Julian Calendar....13 days behind the Western, Gregorian calendar. It might be more truthful to say that the flu/cold/whatever I caught conferring with the Lead Army team in NYC in Dec has taken this long to heal. In any case, my apologies for a late start on January.
Actually, the 13 days difference has been an historical item for a very long time. As the calendars continue to slowly drift further apart due to an imperfect leap year computation in the Julian calendar this will be around for quite some time to come. In the Napoleonic era the two were closer together but somehow Russia's Western allies, like the Austrians, often just didn't 'get it'. The 1805 campaign was one of the worst with armies wandering about the countrysides with completely different meeting dates in mind and thinking that the date was certain!! And, frankly, having been too sick to appreciate Dec 31st I have been cheered that Jan 12th is coming up so I have not totally missed New Year's Eve. I don't know what the neighbors will think, but I will at least celebrate finally when Russian "Old New Year's" is here.
One thing which my NYC trip emphasized for me. The figures are simply much more attractive in real life than in a photo. And Sergei is very particular to try to get the photos as good as they possibly can be of Lead Army's offerings. Even so they really can't do justice to seeing these works of art up close and personally. Now that we are filling in the gaps at the Gettysburg venue there will be at least 2 locations where the Lead Army imports may be viewed live and in person.
For years I have joked to customers about some of the problems with dealing with former Socialist artists. Among those jokes was to point out that many shield patterns show up differently on the same figure. For example, 2422, Crossbow man with Pavise. Simple, very traditional, very historic item. EXCEPT that when I was in NYC and looked at the stock of them there were 11 different crests on the shields!!! Why? Because it really IS true that real artists do get bored painting the same thing more than once or twice. So, to relieve the boredom the artist assigned to that shipment was a little inventive in his intpretation of his assignment. One might say 'typical artist' or similar, but it is still a truth.
So, how can this benefit our customers?? Well, certainly where these pavises are concerned if you have a standard type crest which you want on your crossbowman, write to us. It may be possible to have one of these in fairly quick order, or at least to get it into a production que for the future.
At the moment I recall seeing the same archer with crests/badges for: Single headed eagle, double headed eagle, red lion rampant, Yellow Lion rampant and others. While we are going to attempt to standardize the figures with the photos in the website, this is, after all, art. And artistic license and interpretatation are what give life to these figures unlike any from an assembly line decal/transfer based production.
I guess if there were to be a moral to this blog it is that you must be careful what you joke about as it may come true and home to haunt you as well! May your winter be mild and may Lead Army help to amuse you throughout 2012 Charlie Tarbox Jan 2012
Actually, the 13 days difference has been an historical item for a very long time. As the calendars continue to slowly drift further apart due to an imperfect leap year computation in the Julian calendar this will be around for quite some time to come. In the Napoleonic era the two were closer together but somehow Russia's Western allies, like the Austrians, often just didn't 'get it'. The 1805 campaign was one of the worst with armies wandering about the countrysides with completely different meeting dates in mind and thinking that the date was certain!! And, frankly, having been too sick to appreciate Dec 31st I have been cheered that Jan 12th is coming up so I have not totally missed New Year's Eve. I don't know what the neighbors will think, but I will at least celebrate finally when Russian "Old New Year's" is here.
One thing which my NYC trip emphasized for me. The figures are simply much more attractive in real life than in a photo. And Sergei is very particular to try to get the photos as good as they possibly can be of Lead Army's offerings. Even so they really can't do justice to seeing these works of art up close and personally. Now that we are filling in the gaps at the Gettysburg venue there will be at least 2 locations where the Lead Army imports may be viewed live and in person.
For years I have joked to customers about some of the problems with dealing with former Socialist artists. Among those jokes was to point out that many shield patterns show up differently on the same figure. For example, 2422, Crossbow man with Pavise. Simple, very traditional, very historic item. EXCEPT that when I was in NYC and looked at the stock of them there were 11 different crests on the shields!!! Why? Because it really IS true that real artists do get bored painting the same thing more than once or twice. So, to relieve the boredom the artist assigned to that shipment was a little inventive in his intpretation of his assignment. One might say 'typical artist' or similar, but it is still a truth.
So, how can this benefit our customers?? Well, certainly where these pavises are concerned if you have a standard type crest which you want on your crossbowman, write to us. It may be possible to have one of these in fairly quick order, or at least to get it into a production que for the future.
At the moment I recall seeing the same archer with crests/badges for: Single headed eagle, double headed eagle, red lion rampant, Yellow Lion rampant and others. While we are going to attempt to standardize the figures with the photos in the website, this is, after all, art. And artistic license and interpretatation are what give life to these figures unlike any from an assembly line decal/transfer based production.
I guess if there were to be a moral to this blog it is that you must be careful what you joke about as it may come true and home to haunt you as well! May your winter be mild and may Lead Army help to amuse you throughout 2012 Charlie Tarbox Jan 2012
