My new passport and identity card. Robert commented the drawn passport photo: "You're looking ugly. You look as mad as Alfred E. Neumann from the MAD magazine." Perhaps that's right. ;-) I'm not a good forger.

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!

Some background:

The Yakovlev Yak-38 (Russian: Яковлева Як-38; NATO reporting name: "Forger") was Soviet Naval Aviation's first and only operational VTOL strike fighter aircraft, in addition to being its first operational carrier-based fixed-wing aircraft. It was developed specifically for and served almost exclusively on the Kiev-class aircraft carriers.

The small group of Indian Forgers soldiered on until 2003 (three were lost in accidents, one of them a trainer), when they were replaced by MiG-29K shipboard fighters. Rumor had it that China had shown interest in the remaining Yak-38 MPK fleet for its own carrier.

General characteristics:

Crew: One

Length (fuselage only): 15.44 m (50 ft 7 in)

Length (overall): 16.05 m (52 ft 7 in)

Wingspan: 7.78 m (25 ft 5 1/2 in)

Height: 4.25 m (14 ft 5 in)

Wing area: 19.5 m² (210 ft²)

Empty weight: 7,385 kg (16,281 lb)

Max. takeoff weight: 11,300 kg (28,700 lb)

Powerplant:

1x Tumansky R-28 V-300 turbojet, 66.7 kN (15,000 lbf)

2× Rybinsk RD-38 turbojets, 31.9 kN (7,870 lbf) each

Performance:

Maximum speed: 1.280 km/h (795 mph)

Range: 1,300 km (807 miles)

Service ceiling: 11,000 m (36,089 ft)

Rate of climb: 4,500 m/min (14,760 ft/min)

Thrust/weight: 1+

Armament:

No internal gun, but optional one or two UPK-23-250 pods fixed under the external pylons of wings.

4 hardpoints with a total capacity of 4,400 lb (2.000 kg) and provisions to carry combinations of various types of rockets (up to 240 mm), 2 anti-ship or air-to-surface Kh-23 (AS-7 Kerry) missiles, R-60, R-60M (AA-8 Aphid), R-73 (AA-11 Archer) or R-77 (AA-12 Adder) air-to-air missiles; two FAB-500 or four FAB-250 general purpose bombs under pylons, two incendiary ZB-500 napalm tanks, or external drop tanks on the inner apir of pylons.

The kit and its assembly

This model was inspired by a whif profile posted on whatifmodelers.com (not certain about the artist, though) some time ago: a Yak-38M in Indian Navy colors. I liked the idea of a foreign user, and India with its own carrier made a perfect candidate.

This project had been lingering for some time, until I came across a Yak-38M Tsukuda Hobby kit (Revell of USA re-boxing in a fantasy livery) and learned that OKB Yakovlev actually had many plans which would improve the type's potential - the "MP" variant had actually been on the drawing board, but never made it to the hardware stage. Unfortunately I was not able to find a sketch of the actual nose design for this project, I suppose that the real radome would have been bigger/fatter than my scratch conversion.

Anyway, from that base this whif kit was built. The Tsukuda Hobby kit is... wrong. In many ways, and fit is also rather poor. As an apology fot the designers, the kit has its origin in an era when the Yak-38 was only known from blurry pictures. Don't expect a "correct" model - 'clumsy' would be a good description. But the general appearance is O.K., and for a conversion the kit is just good enough. Anyway, if you want a good Yak-38, go for the Amodel kit!

There are many pitfalls to avoid on the Tsukuda kit. The cockpit is non-existent, the fin does not fit onto the fuselage shape, the front wheel is a joke, everything is rather solid and toy-like. I tried to remedy some of the se flaws with a new seat, a dashboard and a pilot figure, a completely new front wheel (from a MiG-21), and other minor conversions like lowered flaps, forward-canted lift engines, opened auxiliary blow-in-doors on the air intakes and new/finer antennae.

Another obvious major modification is the nose with its radome, donated from a Hasegawa F-4E. The resulting nose-up attitude and the overall shorter, less pointed profile changes the look of the Yak-38 completely. It reminds now much of a FRS.1 Sea Harrier, there's even some Buccaneer style to see? That new arrangement necessitated a new location for pitot and antennae, which were partly scratched.

In order to demonstrate the type's air-to-air capability I added a missile ordnance: a pair of R 77 "Adder" AAMs with their respective launch rails under the outer pylons. These come from an ICM aftermarket weapon set.

Painting and markings:

I used the aforementioned inspiring profile as benchmark. It shows an all-grey Yak-38M with some white areas like the flaps, rudders and the horizontal stabilizers. Unlike the late, grey Soviet/Russian Yak-38s the profile showed no darker lower tone on the undersides, but I nevertheless adopted that paint scheme, just with a lighter tone on the lower fuselage and under the wings, since I found the uniform grey to be too uninteresting.

I settled for Humbrol 165, Medium Sea Grey, as basic color for the upper surfaces. This appears as a good compromise between the profile and the real world's IN Sea Harriers, some of which actually carried this lighter tone for some time with a light grey underside (instead of the standard, RN-style [Extra] Dark Sea Grey and White). For the lower, lighter grey areas I used FS 36375, Ghost Grey (Humbrol 127).

These basic tones, esp. the upper surfaces, were later, after a black ink wash, considerably lightened through dry-brushing, in order to emphasize the panel lines and give the machine a worn and sun-bleached look.

The rudders were initially painted in a very light grey (Humbrol 196), leaving "room" for lighter shading with the dry-brushing technique in pure white. The radome was painted in Revell 47, a neutral grey, so that the radar nose cone became more obvious. This actually changed the whole look of the aircraft!

The cockpit was painted in Russian Cockpit Green, the landing gear and their respective wells in a mix of Aluminum and Khaki Drab (Humbrol 56 & 26, inspired by some IAF MiG-21bis' landing gears) - that's certainly not 'realistic', but I wanted to avoid ever more grey tones on the kit, and that brownish tone just fits well into the overall look)

National markings, codes and emblems come from a Model Alliance decal sheet for BAE Sea Harriers in RN and IN service. Some stencils were taken from the vast Yak-38M decal sheet from Begemot which I had in store for a different project - but it came in handy here, as the original Tsukuda Hobby/Revell sheet is ridiculous, only the white di-electric panels on the fin could be used.

All in all, I am amazed how much different the Indian markings make the Yak-38 look? Much like the profile that inspired this whif model, it seems like a natural livery for the type.

Punch and Judy is a traditional, popular puppet show featuring the characters of Mr. Punch and his wife, Judy. The performance consists of a sequence of short scenes, each depicting an interaction between two characters, most typically the anarchic Punch and one other character.

The show is performed by a single puppeteer inside the booth, known since Victorian times as a "Professor" and assisted sometimes by a "Bottler", who corrals the audience outside the booth, introduces the performance and collects the money ("the bottle"). The Bottler might also play accompanying music or sound effects on a drum or guitar and engage in back chat with the puppets. In Victorian times the drum and pan pipes were the instruments of choice. Today, the audience is also encouraged to participate, calling out to the characters on the stage to warn them of danger, or clue them into what is going on behind their backs. Also nowadays most Professors work solo since the need for a bottler became less important when busking with the show gave way to paid engagements at private parties or public events.

The Punch and Judy show has roots in the 16th-century Italian commedia dell'arte. The figure of Punch derives from the Neapolitan stock character of Pulcinella, which was anglicised to Punchinello. He is a manifestation of the Lord of Misrule and Trickster figures of deep-rooted mythologies. Punch's wife was originally called "Joan."

The figure who later became Mr. Punch made his first recorded appearance in England in May 9, 1662, which is traditionally reckoned as Punch's UK birthday. The diarist Samuel Pepys observed a marionette show featuring an early version of the Punch character in Covent Garden in London. It was performed by an Italian puppet showman, Pietro Gimonde, a.k.a. "Signor Bologna." Pepys described the event in his diary as "an Italian puppet play, that is within the rails there, which is very pretty."

In the British Punch and Judy show, Punch wears a brightly colored jester's motley and sugarloaf hat with a tassel. He is a hunchback whose hooked nose almost meets his curved, jutting chin. He carries a stick as large as himself, which he freely uses upon most of the other characters in the show. He speaks in a distinctive squawking voice, produced by a contrivance known as a swazzle or swatchel which the professor holds in his mouth, transmitting his gleeful cackle. So important is Punch's signature sound that it is a matter of some controversy within Punch and Judy circles as to whether a "non-swazzled" show can be considered a true Punch and Judy Show.

Many regional variants of Pulcinella were developed as the character spread across Europe, first as a stringed marionette, then as a glove puppet. In Germany, Punch is called Kasperle or Kaspar, while Judy is "Grete". In the Netherlands, he is Jan Klaassen (and Judy is Katrijn); in Denmark Mester Jackel; in Russia Petrushka; in Romania Vasilache; and in France he has been called Polichinelle since the mid 17th century. A specific version appeared in Lyons in the early 19th century under the name "Guignol"; it soon became a conservatory of Lyons popular language.

In the early 18th century, the marionette theatre starring Punch was at its height, with showman Martin Powell attracting sizable crowds at both Covent Garden and Bath, Somerset. In 1721, a puppet theater that would run for decades opened in Dublin. The cross-dressing actress Charlotte Charke ran the successful but short-lived Punch's Theatre in the Old Tennis Court at St. James's, Westminster, presenting adaptations of Shakespeare as well as plays by herself, her father Colley Cibber, and her friend Henry Fielding. Fielding eventually ran his own puppet theater under the pseudonym Madame de la Nash to avoid the censorship concomitant with the Theater Licensing Act of 1737.

Punch was extremely popular in Paris, and, by the end of the 18th century, he was also playing in Britain's American colonies, where even George Washington bought tickets for a show. However, marionette productions presented in empty halls, the back rooms of taverns, or within large tents at England's yearly agricultural events at Bartholomew Fair and Mayfair were expensive and cumbersome to mount and transport. In the latter half of the 18th century, marionette companies began to give way to glove-puppet shows, performed from within a narrow, lightweight booth by one puppeteer, usually with an assistant, or "bottler," to gather a crowd and collect money. These shows might travel through country towns or move from corner to corner along busy London streets, giving many performances in a single day. The character of Punch adapted to the new format, going from a stringed comedian who might say outrageous things to a more aggressive glove-puppet who could do outrageous—and often violent—things to the other characters. About this time, Punch's wife name changed from "Joan" to "Judy."

The mobile puppet booth of the late 18th- and early 19th-century Punch and Judy glove-puppet show was originally covered in checked bed ticking or whatever inexpensive cloth might come to hand. Later Victorian booths, particularly those used for Christmas parties and other indoor performances, were gaudier affairs. In the 20th century, however, red-and-white-striped puppet booths became iconic features on the beaches of many English seaside and summer holiday resorts. Such striped cloth is the most common covering today, wherever the show might be performed.

A more substantial change came over time to the show's target audience. Originally intended for adults, the show evolved into primarily a children's entertainment in the late Victorian era. Ancient members of the show's cast, like the Devil and Punch's mistress "Pretty Polly," ceased to be included when they came to be seen as inappropriate for young audiences. The term "pleased as Punch" is derived from Punch and Judy; specifically, Mr. Punch's characteristic sense of gleeful self-satisfaction.

The story changes, but some phrases remain the same for decades or even centuries: for example, Punch, after dispatching his foes each in turn, still squeaks his famous catchphrase: "That's the way to do it!!" Modern British performances of Punch and Judy are no longer exclusively the traditional seaside children's entertainments they had become. They can now be seen at carnivals, festivals, birthday parties, and other celebratory occasions.

Characters

The characters in a Punch and Judy show are not fixed as in a Shakespeare play, for instance. They are similar to the cast of a soap opera or a folk tale like Robin Hood. While the principal characters must appear, the lesser characters are included at the discretion of the performer. New characters may be added as the tradition evolves, and older characters dropped.

Along with Punch and Judy, the cast of characters usually includes their baby, a hungry crocodile, a clown, an officious policeman, and a prop string of sausages.[1] The devil and the generic hangman Jack Ketch may still make their appearances but, if so, Punch will always get the better of them. The cast of a typical Punch and Judy show today will include:

Mr. Punch

Judy

The Baby

The Constable

Joey the Clown

The Crocodile

The Ghost

The Doctor

Characters once regular but now occasional include:

Toby the Dog

Hector the Horse

Pretty Polly

The Hangman (a.k.a. Jack Ketch)

The Devil

Characters only seen in a historical re-enactment performance include:

The Beadle

Mr. Scaramouche (Toby's owner)

The Servant (or "The Minstrel")

The Blind Man

Other characters included Boxers, Chinese Plate Spinners, topical figures, a trick puppet with an extending neck (the "Courtier") and a monkey. A live Dog Toby which sat on the playboard and performed 'with' the puppets was once a regular featured novelty routine.

Story

There is no one definitive "story" of Punch and Judy. As expressed by Peter Fraser in Punch & Judy (1970), "the drama developed as a succession of incidents which the audience could join or leave at any time, and much of the show was impromptu." This was elaborated by George Speaight in his Punch & Judy: A History (1970), who explained that the plotline "is like a story compiled in a parlour game of Consequences ... the show should, indeed, not be regarded as a story at all but a succession of encounters." The most recent academic work, Punch & Judy: History, Tradition and Meaning by Robert Leach (1985), makes it clear that "the story is a conceptual entity, not a set text: the means of telling it, therefore, are always variable."

Much emphasis is often placed on the first printed script of Punch and Judy (1828). Based on a show by traveling performer Giovanni Piccini, it was illustrated by George Cruikshank and written by John Payne Collier. Collier, however, in the words of Speaight, is someone of whom "the full list of his forgeries has not yet been reckoned, and the myths he propagated are still being repeated. (His) 'Punch and Judy' is to be warmly welcomed as the first history of puppets in England, but it is also sadly to be examined as the first experiment of a literary criminal."

The tale of Punch and Judy, as previously with Punchinello and Joan, varies from puppeteer to puppeteer and has changed over time. Nonetheless, the skeletal outline is often recognizable. It typically involves Punch behaving outrageously, struggling with his wife Judy and the Baby, and then triumphing in a series of encounters with the forces of law and order (and often the supernatural), interspersed with jokes and songs.

As performed currently in the UK a typical show will start with the arrival of Mr. Punch followed by the introduction of Judy. They may well kiss and dance before Judy requests Mr. Punch to look after the baby. Punch will fail to carry this task out appropriately. It is rare for Punch to hit his baby these days, but he may well sit on it in a failed attempt to "babysit", or drop it, or even let it go through a sausage machine. In any event Judy will return, will be outraged, will fetch a stick and the knockabout will commence. A policeman will arrive in response to the mayhem and will himself be felled by Punch's slapstick. All this is carried out at breakneck farcical speed with much involvement from a gleefully shouting audience. From here on anything goes. Joey the Clown might appear and suggest it's dinner time. This will lead to the production of a string of sausages, which Mr. Punch must look after, although the audience will know this really signals the arrival of a crocodile whom Mr. Punch might not see until the audience shouts out and lets him know. Punch's subsequent comic struggle with the crocodile might then leave him in need of a Doctor who will arrive and attempt to treat Punch by walloping him with a stick until Punch turns the tables on him. Punch may next pause to count his "victims" by laying puppets on the stage only for Joey the Clown to move them about behind his back in order to frustrate him. A ghost might then appear and give Mr. Punch a fright before it too is chased off with a slapstick. In less squeamish times a hangman would arrive to punish Mr. Punch, only to himself be tricked into sticking his head in the noose. "Do you do the hanging?" is a question often asked of performers. Some will include it where circumstances warrant (such as for an adult audience) but most do not. Some will choose to include it whatever the circumstances and will face down any critics. Finally the show will often end with the Devil arriving for Mr. Punch (and possibly to threaten his audience as well). Punch — in his final gleefully triumphant moment — will win his fight with the Devil and bring the show to a rousing conclusion and earn a round of applause.

While Punch and Judy, as with the tale of Robin Hood, might follow no one fixed storyline, there are nevertheless episodes common to many recorded versions. It is these set piece encounters or "routines" which are used by performers to construct their own Punch and Judy shows. A visit to a Punch and Judy Festival at Punch's "birthplace" in London's Covent Garden will reveal a whole variety of changes that are wrung by puppeteers from this basic material and although scripts have been published at different times since the early 19th century none can be claimed as being the definitive traditional script of Punch and Judy. Each printed script reflects the era in which it was performed and the circumstances under which it was printed.

The various episodes of the show are performed in the spirit of outrageous comedy—often provoking shocked laughter—and are dominated by the anarchic clowning of Mr. Punch. While the Victorian version of the show drew on the morality of its day, the Punch & Judy College of Professors considers that the 20th- and 21st-century versions of the tale have evolved into something more akin to a primitive version of The Simpsons, in which a bizarre family is used as vehicle for grotesque visual comedy and a sideways look at contemporary society.

“

In my opinion the street Punch is one of those extravagant reliefs from the realities of life which would lose its hold upon the people if it were made moral and instructive. I regard it as quite harmless in its influence, and as an outrageous joke which no one in existence would think of regarding as an incentive to any kind of action or as a model for any kind of conduct. It is possible, I think, that one secret source of pleasure very generally derived from this performance… is the satisfaction the spectator feels in the circumstances that likenesses of men and women can be so knocked about without any pain or suffering ...

”

—Charles Dickens, The Letters of Charles Dickens Vol V, 1847 - 1849

While censorious political correctness threatened Punch and Judy performances in the UK and other English speaking countries for a time,[2] the show is having one of its cyclical recurrences[3] and can now be seen not only in England, Wales, and Ireland, but also in Canada, the United States (including Puerto Rico), Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. In 2001, the characters were honoured in the UK with a set of commemorative postage stamps, issued by the Post Office.

Published scripts

In 1828, the critic John Payne Collier published a Punch and Judy script under the title The Tragical Comedy or Comical Tragedy of Punch and Judy.[5] The script was illustrated by the well-known caricaturist George Cruikshank. Collier said his script was based on the version performed by the "professor" Giovanni Piccini in the early 19th century, and Piccini himself had begun performing in the streets of London in the late 18th century. The Collier/Cruickshank Punch has been republished in facsimile several times. Collier's later career as a literary forger has cast some doubt on the authenticity of the script, which is rather literary in style and may well have been tidied up from the rough-and-tumble street-theatre original. Punch is primarily an oral tradition, adapted by a succession of exponents from live performances rather than authentic scripts, and in constant evolution. A transcript of a typical Punch and Judy show in London of the 1840s can be found in Henry Mayhew's London Labour and the London Poor.

Allusions in other media

The Tragical Comedy or Comical Tragedy of Mr. Punch: in 1994 DC Vertigo published a graphic novel adaptation by Neil Gaiman with painted and photo art by Dave McKean with the original story and recounting a personal encounter with a puppeteer.

Punch, the former British humour magazine, was named after Mr. Punch.

In the Marx Brothers' 1931 comedy Monkey Business, Harpo joins a live Punch & Judy show (performed by an uncredited Al Flosso, a famous American Punchman) while trying to avoid capture by the crew members of the ship he has stowed away on.

Riddley Walker, a 1980 novel by Russell Hoban, utilizes Punch and Judy characters as quasi-political symbols.

The Old Curiosity Shop, an 1841 novel by Charles Dickens, features the Punch and Judy performing partners Mr. Codlin and Short Trotters.

Red Harvest, a 1929 novel by Dashiell Hammett, of the so-called "hard-boiled" genre, wherein the investigator protagonist, seeking information, uses the esoteric phrase "Hang the Punch and Judy on me." This is in reference to a freshly committed shooting murder, and seems akin to him wanting the "lowdown" or "skinny".

Punch and Judy inspired an opera of the same name by Harrison Birtwistle in 1967.

A Child Again, a short-story collection by Robert Coover, includes a story entitled Punch.

The Tragical Comedy or Comical Tragedy of Mr. Punch, a 1995 graphic novel by writer Neil Gaiman and artist Dave McKean, explores a boy's memories triggered by a Punch and Judy show.

Jasper Fforde's fantasy novel The Fourth Bear utilizes Punch and Judy, and other traditional fictitious characters.

Czech filmmaker Jan Švankmajer produced a short film, Punch and Judy (1966), on a violent theme.

Shinichiro Watanabe's Cowboy Bebop has two characters named Punch and Judy, who host the unsuccessful bounty hunter-oriented TV show "Big Shot" on a recurring basis throughout the series.

The band Marillion had a #29 hit in the UK in 1984 with a song entitled "Punch and Judy".

The band Lightning Seeds' album Jollification features a song called "Punch and Judy", that deals with issues of domestic violence.

The band Coldplay used Punch and Judy in their video "Life in Technicolor II".

Elliott Smith wrote the song "Punch and Judy", comparing the violent relationship of a friend and the puppet characters.

In the Walt Disney film The Little Mermaid, the heroine Ariel accidentally pulls a puppet off the hand of a performer uttering the words "Oh, Judy!", only to find that it is not real.

In the film Time Bandits, a Punch and Judy show is seen when the characters are transported back in time.

The Punch cigar brand was named after Mr. Punch, and features him on the label.

Ronni Ancona made a sketch about the making of Punch, the Movie starring actor Robert De Niro.

In the film Charade, Cary Grant meets Audrey Hepburn at a Punch & Judy performance.

The puppet characters appear in the Jeeves and Wooster episode, "Kidnapped!"

In the cartoon series The Batman, Punch and Judy are the names of the Joker's henchmen.

The 1963 Ingmar Bergman film The Silence (or Tystnaden) features a boy, Johan, who plays with Punch and Judy dolls.

The University of Melbourne student union's women's-oriented magazine is called Judy's Punch.

The 1987 horror film Dolls by director Stuart Gordon features a young girl named Judy, who is gifted with a Punch doll that comes to life and protects her.

In The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers, the clown-magician Horrabin is introduced performing a morbid version of the Punch story.

In the Explorers on the Moon comic featuring the eponymous character Tintin, Captain Haddock alludes to the Thompson Twins as being perfect for a Punch and Judy show near the Sea of Nectar (on the moon).

In the 1996 Disney film "The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996 film)." During the song "Topsy Turvy," Hugo and Quasimodo appear in a Punch and Judy style booth, and Hugo hits Quasimodo over the head with a puppet resembling Judge Frollo.

In the 2011 Super Bowl Episode of Glee, one of the football plays is called a "Punch and Judy".

The DC Comics villains Punch and Jewellee, wearing greasepaint and harlequin clothing styled after Punch and Judy puppets, appeared regularly in the pages of Suicide Squad.

In the computer-set cartoon, ReBoot, in the episode, "The Crimson Binome", s puppet show is performed called "Punchcard and Qwandy", a reference to "Punch and Judy".

In the film The Santa Clause, when Tim Allen is changing and removing his trousers, Mr. Punch and Judy puppets laugh and comment.

In the Comic series Girl Genius, the main character's foster parents are named Punch and Judy.

In the 1983 Doctor Who serial Snakedance, a Punch & Judy performance is seen that ends with Punch being eaten by a snake puppet representing the Mara, the antagonist of the serial.

In Mrs. Miniver, by Jan Struther, the chapter "On Hampstead Heath" includes a Punch and Judy show attended by Mrs. Miniver and her family.

In Midnight Riot by Ben Aaronovitch the main antagonist is the ghost of Mr. Punch and murders in a style that mirrors the Punch and Judy story.[6]

Game designer John Tynes created a role-playing game called Puppetland based on the Punch and Judy shows and stories.

IN

WIKIPEDIA

Making a copy of one of the paintings in the National Gallery of Art.

sculpture by Ulrich Schmied

My husband, Jake, will be 83 years old in December, and he can rememebr a time when our country was one people who worked together for it's good, and the good of each other. The current events in Washington really upset him, as he watches all he once knew and loved and believed in being destroyed. He wrote the following about 4 years or so ago, as his sarcastic solution to the problems we were facing then, and he asked me to post it "all over the internet", because he believes these solutions would apply today also. Anyway...here's Jake:

The “Cash 4 Clunkers” program appears to have been quite a success – at least as far as stimulating new car sales is concerned. However, most of the trade-ins were sound, high quality, late model pickups and SUV’s that fell just below the gas mileage limit (mainly because they were large and heavy, and were geared accordingly). And the new cars that were bought included many hybrids that run on batteries, hype, and hope. Will the buyers actually pay for them? Also the so-called clunker trade-ins were being totally destroyed--deliberately reduced to trash. Is this right? And many local car dealers have yet to receive one red cent of the $4500 promised for each of these piles of metallic junk. In fact, the entire Cash-4-Clunkers stimulus program was cancelled, prior to many dealers being paid anything.

Of course, any money for this, or any other federal program, must come from an empty treasury. So what else is new? If you were to sweep and vacuum all the empty vaults at Fort Knox, you might come up with enough gold dust to make one small wedding ring. But, why bother? Wedding rings are obsolete anyway. However, promised payment from government sponsored programs seem to work just fine. With that in mind—why not initiate a tax refund program? Handled correctly, it could sponsor the greatest consumerism explosion in the history of the world.

It would work like this: Every taxpayer in the U.S. would be eligible for a $10,000 refund. Everyone over the age of 10 would be considered a taxpayer and therefore eligible. Since those under 10 do not normally spend their own money—they would be excluded. We pay income tax, sales tax, property tax, gasoline tax, alcohol tax, tobacco tax, poll tax, pole tax, import tax, value-added tax, syntax, sin tax, excise tax, luxury tax, and numerous other taxes—too taxing to remember. Even illegal immigrants pay taxes. Based on latest census info, there are 258,694,227 people over the age of 10 in the U.S. who would qualify for a $10,000 refund.

The tax refund program would start in October, but it might take some time to process the applications. However, since everyone is eligible and promised $10,000 by our benevolent government—they start spending immediately. People give assignments and vouchers on their expected checks. Credit cards boom. Real Estate sales go through the roof. Developers, contractors, and builders go wild. Retail sales zoom. The economic growth is off the charts. Banks loan to the max. However, there is a downside.

The Tax Refund To Americans Program (or T-R-A-P)—as with every federal program—requires considerable paperwork. In fact, the T-R-A-P application is 877 pages, and weighs 18 pounds 12 ounces. The U.S. Postal Service screams. Tree Huggers, Inc. goes crazy when they realize the number of national forests required to produce that amount of paper—not even considering the massive amount of lumber being used in the housing/construction boom. Al Gore comes to Capitol Hill screaming that Nobel also invented T.N.T. The T-R-A-P snaps shut. Not one dime has been paid to the American taxpayers—yet the economy is booming. The tax refund program ends just before Christmas and our wonderful government takes over every bank in America in January. Hitler could not have done it any better.

The two other major problems—health care and the national debt—could be solved just as easily. Since our current national government seems to be operating in the Communist-Fascist-Socialist New World Order format – why have they not seen such a simple solution right at hand? It is Social Security. Properly utilized, Social Security answers almost all of our health care and money woes. It is so simple, even young people are aware of many of the aspects. In fact, many young Americans are quite well-informed.

Most younger Americans know what Tweetie-Bird had for breakfast and where Goldi-locks itches. They also know that Michael Jackson’s circulatory system contained 52% drugs and bleach and only 48% real blood. And every young person knows that 40 is old, 50 is really old, 60 is ancient, and 65 is ridiculous. And most folks in America – both young and old – realize that our current Social Security system is the most massive Ponzi scheme of all time. Young folks will never receive a penny of what they contribute. So why wait? Why not cut off all payouts from Social Security now? Money comes in, but nothing goes out. Everyone over 65 is eliminated. All of their assets go to big government; and we can then pay off the national debt, loan money to China and Brazil, and underwrite the Euro. SS Agents, of course, will supervise. Social Security will become the answer instead of the problem.

The total assets of the elderly in America is a mind-boggling amount, surpassing the combined wealth of 158 poorer countries around the world. Members of Congress (under 65, of course) can divide-up condos, mansions, estates, etc.-- but only one each. Since many older folks have funds stashed in off-shore banks, SS troops will be sent to seize these accounts -- along with the banks and Caribbean Islands where they are located. Everyone knows that these islands should belong to America anyway.

Many jobs are created. Hawaiian document forgers are overwhelmed with orders for birth certificates showing more recent birth dates. And, of course, a large number of jobs become available to build and operate the Senior Serenity System -- a system which eliminates a senior’s aches, pains, worries, and confusion forever. Each facility consists of a very large caldron, capable of holding 1000 seniors, a forge furnace, and a conveyer through a tunnel. SS agents with pitchforks keep the conveyer running smoothly. Abundant corn oil, unused for ethanol, is used for the boiling-in-oil process. On the 2nd day, the temperature reaches 2,200 degrees -- then it is allowed to cool. On the 4th day, funeral parlor workers come to skim off burial bottles, before any flavors are added. Cinnamon, lemon-lime, and chili all seem to work; but the original “Granny” flavor is by far the most popular – whether for Fido and Rover in “Bow-Wow Chow” or George and Larry in “Wham-Bam Spam”. The list of new jobs and other positive ramifications goes on and on.

Alaska Caldron No. 3 could be built at the end of the Bridge to Nowhere. Videos of SS agents with pitchforks, keeping order on a conveyer, are sold to evangelists, and are shown on large screens at revivals. Since griping, grouching, frowning, and bitching are no longer permitted – SS agents enforce our happiness. Yippee!

As the elderly disappear, the general health of the population improves dramatically. In fact, Alzheimer’s rarely shows up at all, and Erectile Dysfunction becomes fairly uncommon. Nursing homes can now take in the homeless. There is no more Medicare or Medicaid. Hospitals now compete, using discounted rates. Doctors will have to work for reasonable wages. For instance, a regular MD will receive 2 times the minimum wage. Surgeons get 3 times minimum wage, and the Surgeon General gets a whopping 4 times the minimum wage. How could it be any more fair. Also, it is discovered that swine flu is a by-product of excessive congressional pork spread all across the country – which will be corrected just as soon as pigs fly. Welcome to the new America!

Jake Von Canon

Please feel free to send to everyone you know, ever knew, or never knew.

Yor's "Spy killer sweater" outfit photo set.

196; Moneta Falsa [The Forger] by Edgar Wallace. Carlo Jacono

Rotterdam. July 2010

Start of a new series Backtraits, square portraits of backs. Sub-set of Shots of Backs are Boring.

Yor Forger - Spy X Family @p3talcos

Making a copy of one of the paintings in the National Gallery of Art.

Yor Forger - Spy X Family

The Yakovlev Yak-38 (Russian: Як-38, NATO reporting name: Forger) was Soviet Naval Aviation's first and only operational VTOL strike fighter aircraft.

Design and development

The first drawings showed a supersonic aircraft strongly resembling by the Hawker P.1154 in study in the United Kingdom but with two R27-300 engines. Supersonic performances would have implied many difficulties of development, and it was decided to initially develop a relatively simple aircraft limited to Mach 0.95. Although the Yak-38 and Yak-38M were developed from the land-based Yakovlev Yak-36, the aircraft had almost nothing in common.

The Prototype VM-01 was finished on April 14, 1970. Though outwardly similar to the British Harrier Jump Jet, it followed a completely different configuration. Apart from having a vectorable engine in the rear used for flight, two smaller, less powerful engines were housed in the front portion of the aircraft and used purely for take-off and landing. (The Harrier uses only one engine, vectoring its thrust through four nozzles.) The aircraft used a similar layout to the German experimental VTOL strike fighter, the VFW VAK 191B, which began development in 1961, and the contemporary Dassault Mirage IIIV.

A diagram showing the lift forces on a Yak-38 in VTOL modeThe Yak 36 was sent for tests in May and June 1970. Mikhail Deksbakh carried out the first flight of the VM-02 in conventional mode on January 15, 1971. The VM-03 made its first flight in short takeoff mode on May 25, 1971. Sea trials aboard the aircraft carrier ("aviation cruiser") Kiev were observed in 1975. 231 Yak-38 aircraft were produced, including 38 two-seat trainers (Yak-38U). These were based on the four Kiev class aircraft carriers.

The Yak-38 used a hands-free landing system. The aircraft could negotiate a telemetry/telecommand link with a computer system in the aircraft carrier which would allow it to be guided onto the deck with no interaction from the pilot.

Markings

The initial colour scheme worn by the AV-MF Yak-38 consisted of dark green anti-corrosion paint on the undersides of the aircraft, with dark blue upper surfaces. This was later replaced by a light grey over dark grey scheme, frequently associated with the Yak-38M. An unusual green-over-silver "tiger" camouflage scheme, reportedly seen on an aircraft onboard Leningrad in 1986, was probably applied for one cruise only. Special camouflage schemes may also have been applied to aircraft involved in the Romb-1 trials in Afghanistan in 1980.

Operational history

The majority of Yak-36M initial production deliveries were to the 279 OKShAP (Otdelnyi Korabelnyi Shturmovoi Aviatsionnyi Polk, Independent Shipboard Attack Air Regiment) initially based at Saki, the AV-MF’s training centre in Crimea. Pilots for this unit were drawn from the Yakovlev OKB and the LII at Zhukovskii, as well as from the AV-MF. Established as early as December 1973, the 279 OKShAP of the Black Sea Fleet made use of a dummy Kiev class aircraft carrier deck, and also operated a pair of MiG-21UMs (and, briefly, Ka-25s) for training. The first AV-MF squadron embarked on Kiev in July 1976. On the conclusion of acceptance tests for the Yak-36M initial series in August 1976 (Kiev was underway in the Atlantic at this point), the aircraft was formally accepted by the AV-MF in October, under the new designation Yak-38.

On its arrival in Murmansk, the 279 OKShAP was transferred to the Northern Fleet, with subsequent flying operations mainly being conducted from Severomorsk-3. The 299 IIAP (Issledovatlesko-Instruktorskiy Aviatsionnyi Polk, Research and Instructor Air Regiment) had been formed as a training unit at Saki in September 1976 to replace the previous unit within the Black Sea Fleet.

The February 1978 entry into service of Minsk, the second Kiev class ship, was accompanied by a further series of Yak-38 shipboard trials, beginning in April 1978, and with the emphasis now placed on developing procedure for STOL operations. The passage of Minsk out of the Black Sea in February 1979 was duly followed by a major exercise involving the first two ships of the Project 1143 class in the Mediterranean. On this occasion, five aircraft from each vessel conducted formation exercises in proximity to NATO observers.

The Yak-38’s limited useful payload was always its Achilles’ heel, but the high ambient temperatures that had been encountered in the Black Sea during the summer 1976 trials frequently prevented the aircraft from carrying any external stores at all, despite a reduced fuel load. Similar problems were then encountered when Minsk sailed off the coast of West Africa and then in the Indian Ocean; in these instances the lift jets proved unwilling to start under hot and humid conditions. (An oxygen-boosting intake system[clarification needed] helped alleviate the problem, and was installed from September 1979 during routine overhauls.) In July 1979, Minsk arrived in the Sea of Japan, where the vessel was home-ported at Strelok Bay, the Yak-38 component of its air wing thereafter being provided by the 311 OKShAP subordinate to the Pacific Fleet. The 311 OKShAP was the second AV-MF Yak-38 unit, and had been established in March 1976.

During its first few years of ship-borne operations the Yak-38 was not cleared to make rolling take-offs and run-on landings, leading some Western observers[who?] to believe that the fundamentals of its propulsion design restricted the type to VTOL operations.[citation needed] In fact, shipboard short take-off trials had begun by December 1979, while experiments with run-on landings followed onboard Minsk between September 1980 and February 1981. V/STOL operations were made easier by the addition of a refined automatic flight-control system, linked to a thumb switch on the pilot’s stick. Rolling take-offs were conducted with the lift engines deflected aft, the main engine nozzles being rotated automatically from 60° to 25° during the take-off run, before being slowly returned to the horizontal as the lift engines were shut down.

The Kiev class ships normally embarked a total of 12 single-seat Yak-38s, supplemented by two or three two-seat Yak-38Us, as part of an independent aviation regiment that also included two squadrons of (mainly anti-submarine warfare) helicopters. Of the seven landing pads available on the deck of each of the Project 1143s, all but one could accommodate the Yak-38.

During April and May 1980 four Yak-38s and four AV-MF pilots were deployed to Afghanistan as part of a 50-day trial codenamed Romb-1, although the ‘hot and high’ conditions prevented any meaningful combat missions from being undertaken – in total, 12 combat sorties were made, but only two 100 kg (220 lb) bombs could be carried. In the event, any involvement would have been further limited by the ‘near-operational’ nature of the Romb-1 deployment (which also involved the first and third prototype Su-25s). The aircraft involved were not intended to be subject to combat, but rather tested under conditions that simulated the battlefield to a high degree. Despite their official non-operational nature, aircraft involved in the Romb trials could be requested to undertake combat sorties by local divisional commanders, on an ad hoc basis. The Yak-38s and prototype Su-25s operated out of a specially prepared air base near Shindand. Even with a much-reduced fuel and weapons load, the Yak-38 proved incapable of operating during the hot daylight hours (after around 0500 hrs).

In September 1982, Novorossiysk - the third Kiev class vessel - was commissioned. By now the V/STOL technique had been well practised, and the resulting increase in the Yak-38’s overall performance and capability was exploited during the passage of Novorossiysk from Severomorsk to join the Pacific Fleet. In a maritime context, the Yak-38 was not limited to the decks of the Kiev class. In September 1983, AV-MF pilots operated from the civilian ‘Ro-Ro’ vessel Agostinio Neto, and NII-VVS pilots conducted further tests from another ‘Ro-Ro’, Nikolai Cherkasov. In both cases, use was made of a heat-resistant landing platform; further land-based trials tested the practicality of dispersed landing platforms, in a similar concept to the RAF’s Harrier operations in West Germany.

General characteristics

Crew: One

Length: 16.37 m (50 ft 1 in)

Wingspan: 7.32 m (24 ft 0 in)

Height: 4.25 m (14 ft 5 in)

Wing area: 18.5 m² (199 ft²)

Empty weight: 7,385 kg (16,281 lb)

Loaded weight: kg (lb)

Max takeoff weight: 11,300 kg (28,700 lb)

Powerplant: 1 x Tumansky R-28 V-300 turbojet, 66.7 kN (15,000 lbf)

Powerplant: 2× Rybinsk RD-38 turbojets, 31.9 kN (7,870 lbf>) each

Performance

Maximum speed: 1 280 km/h (795 mph)

Range: 1,300 km[3] (807 miles)

Service ceiling: 11,000 m (36,089 ft)

Rate of climb: 4,500 m/min (14,760 ft/min)

Wing loading: kg/m² (lb/ft²)

Thrust/weight: 1+

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yak-38

Yor's default outfit set, using Megumins default wig,

Yor Forger - Spy X Family

Ceramic with polychrome slip.

c. 600 A.D.-900 A.D.

Portland Art Museum

The Classic Maya had the most complex and best developed writing systems of any of the cultures in the Americas.

Maya glyphs cover this bowl.

Scholars have made great progress in interpreting Maya writing, starting in about the early 1990s.

Some of the glyps are phonetic, that is, they represent sounds, the way the letters of our alphabet do.

Others are symbols that represent words. A jaguar head might represent the word for jaguar.

And that's about as far as I can take you, except that the large glyph on the left is probably a bat.

If the Portland Art Museum were better at pre-Columbian art than they are, the label for this piece might include a whole or partial translation of the text.

From what I've read, texts on vessels sometimes identified the owner. Also, it would be surprising if there weren't date glyphs on this piece.

It would be interesting to hear what an expert on Maya writing would make of this piece. Most crucial is whether these glyphs were the work of a Maya artist-scribe during the Classic era or the handiwork of forgers in the 19th or 20th centuries.

When I was in the capital of Belize, I was privileged to see the storage vault in the national archaeological museum. I made a beeline for the shelf that had what were to my eye the most dazzling Maya painted vessels. And you know what? They were all fakes.

Faversham /ˈfævərʃəm/ is a market town and civil parish in the Swale district of Kent, England. The town is 48 miles from London and 10 miles from Canterbury and lies next to the Swale, a strip of sea separating mainland Kent from the Isle of Sheppey in the Thames Estuary. It is close to the A2, which follows an ancient British trackway which was used by the Romans and the Anglo-Saxons, and known as Watling Street. The Faversham name is of Latinvia Old English origin, meaning "the metal-worker's village".

There has been a settlement at Faversham since pre-Roman times, next to the ancient sea port on Faversham Creek, and archaeological evidence has shown a Roman theatre was based in the town. It was inhabited by the Saxons and mentioned in the Domesday bookas Favreshant. The town was favoured by King Stephen who established Faversham Abbey, which survived until the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1538. Subsequently, the town became an important seaport and established itself as a centre for brewing, and the Shepherd Neame Brewery, founded in 1698, remains a significant major employer.

The town was also the centre of the explosives industry between the 17th and early 20th century, before a decline following an explosion in 1916 which killed over 100 workers. This coincided with a revival of the shipping industry in the town. Faversham has a number of landmarks, with several historic churches including St Mary of Charity, Faversham Parish Church, the Maison Dieu and Faversham Recreation Ground. Faversham Market has been established for over 900 years and is still based in the town centre. There are good road and rail links, including a Southeastern service to the High Speed 1 line at Ebbsfleet International and London.

History

Faversham was established as a settlement before the Roman conquest. The Romans established several towns in Kent including Faversham, with traffic through the Saxon Shore ports of Reculver, Richborough, Doverand Lympne converging on Canterbury before heading up Watling Street to London. The town was less than 10 miles from Canterbury, and consequently Faversham had become established on this road network by 50 AD following the initial conquest by Claudius in 43 AD. Numerous remains of Roman buildings have been discovered in and around Faversham, including under St Mary of Charity Church where coins and urns were discovered during reconstruction of the western tower in 1794. In 2013, the remains of a 2,000-year-old Roman theatre, able to accommodate some 12,000 people, were discovered at a hillside near the town. The cockpit-style outdoor auditorium, the first of its kind found in Britain, was a style the Romans used elsewhere in their empire on the Continent.

There is archaeological evidence to suggest that Faversham was a summer capital for the Saxon kings of Kent. It was held in royaldemesne in 811, and is further cited in a charter granted by Coenwulf, the King of Mercia. Coenwulf described the town as the King's little town of Fefresham, while it was recorded in the Domesday Book as Favreshant. The name has been documented as meaning "the metal-worker's village", which may derive from the Old English fæfere, which in turn comes from the Latin "faber" meaning "craftsman" or "forger". The town had established itself as a seaport by the Middle Ages, and became part of the Confederation of the Cinque Ports in the 13th century, providing a vessel to Dover. The Gough Map of Britain, printed in 1360, shows the Swale as an important shipping channel for trade.

The manor was recorded as Terra Regis, meaning it was part of the ancient royal estates. King Stephen gave it to his chief lieutenant, William of Ypres, but soon made him swap it with Lillechurch (now Higham) so that the manor of Faversham could form part of the endowment of Faversham Abbey. Stephen established the abbey in 1148, and is buried there with his consort Matilda of Boulogne, and his son, Eustace, the Earl of Boulogne. Stephen favoured the town because of the abbey, and so it was historically important during his reign. King John tried to give the church to Simon of Wells in 1201, but it was owned by the monks of St Augustine's Abbeyat Canterbury, who appealed to Rome and denied the request. Abbey Street was constructed around this time in order to provide an appropriate approach to the abbey from the town. It still houses timber framed buildings and has been described as "the finest medieval street in southeast England".

Sir Thomas Culpeper was granted Faversham Abbey by Henry VIII during the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1538. Most of the abbey was demolished, and the remains of Stephen were rumoured to have been thrown into Faversham Creek. An excavation of the abbey in 1964 uncovered the empty graves. The entrance gates survived the demolition and lasted until the mid-18th century, but otherwise only a small section of outer wall survived. The abbey's masonry was taken to Calais to reinforce defence of the town, then in British possession, against the French army. In 1539, the ground upon which the abbey had stood, along with nearby land, passed to Sir Thomas Cheney, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports.

Among the few surviving buildings of Faversham Abbey are the two barns at Abbey Farm. Minor Barn was built around 1425; Major Barn, the larger of the two, dates from 1476. Next to the barns is the Abbey Farmhouse, part of which dates from the 14th century. The Abbey Guest house, on the east side of the Abbey's Outer Gateway, has survived as Arden's House. This house, now a private residence in Abbey Street, was the location of the murder of Thomas Arden in 1551. The Faversham Almshouses were founded and endowed by Thomas Manfield in 1614, with additional houses being built by Henry Wright in 1823.

Due to the poor quality of roads in the middle ages, travel by sea was an important transport corridor. Richard Tylman (or Tillman), mayor in 1581, expanded the port at Faversham, building two wharfs. He became a key figure in exporting corn, wheat and malt to London from the town.

Several notable people in the middle ages had origins in Faversham. Haymo of Faversham was born in Faversham and later moved to Paris to join the Franciscans, becoming the "Aristotelian of Aristotelians".[27] Simon of Faversham was born in the town around the middle of the 13th century and later became Chancellor of the University of Oxford in 1304. The notorious pirate Jack Ward is believed to have been born in Faversham around 1553. John Wilson, lutenist and teacher was born in Faversham in 1595 who was the principal composer for the King's Men and a professor of music at Oxford. There is now a plaque at the site of the house in Abbey Street where he was born.

A gunpowder plant had been established around 1573 in Faversham. The town had a stream which could be dammed at intervals to provide power for watermills. It became known as the Home Works in the 18th century and was nationalised in 1759. By the 19th century, the site stretched for around a mile along the waterfront. A second explosive works was established at Oare to the northwest of town in the late 17th century, with the Marsh Works following in 1786. Towards the end of the 19th century, two new factories were built alongside the Swale to manage production of TNT and cordite. Faversham developed six explosive factories, and from 1874 to 1919, the town was the centre of the explosives industry in the UK.

The first production of guncotton took place in the Marsh Works in 1847. Due to a lack of experience with production methods, an explosion took place soon after work started, with several fatalities. On Sunday 2 April 1916, an explosion occurred at one of the Swale factories in Uplees after sparks from a chimney ignited the works containing around 150 tonnes of high explosives. The incident killed over 100 people, which led to decline of the explosives industry in the town. Later accounts suggested that had the incident not happened on a Sunday, there would have been many more casualties.

All three gunpowder factories closed in 1934 due to the impending threat of World War II. Production was moved to Ardeer in Ayrshire, Scotland, and the munition industry around Faversham is now extinct. The town is now a harbour and market community; old sail-powered Thames barges are repaired, rebuilt and moored along the creekside.

Kent is the centre of hop-growing in England, being centred on nearby Canterbury and Faversham has been the home of several breweries. The Shepherd Neame Brewery was officially founded in 1698, though brewing activities in Faversham pre-date this. The brewery claims to be the oldest in Britain and continues to be family-owned. The Rigden brewery was founded in the early 18th century by Edward Rigden. It subsequently merged with the Canterbury based George Beer in 1922 to become George Beer & Rigden before being purchased by the Maidstone based Fremlins. Whitbread bought out Fremlins in 1967, and closed the Faversham brewery in 1990. The site is now a Tesco superstore. Shepherd Neame remains a significant regional brewer despite a decline in consumption of traditional bitter beer, producing around 230,000 barrels a year. It now also makes India Pale Ale under licence.

A shipyard was established in Faversham by James Pollock & Sons (Shipbuilders) in 1916 at the request of Lord Fisher, the First Lord of The Admiralty, for manufacturing barges for landing craft. Faversham already had a tradition of shipbuilding, and it soon became a major contributor to markets throughout the world, producing vessels such as the Molliette and the Violette, both constructed of concrete. Over 1200 ships were built and launched from Faversham between 1916 and 1969.

Faversham Market is still held in the town centre. It is now the oldest street market in Kent, dating back over 900 years. Monthly markets are also held in Preston Street and Court Street.

Having been an important thoroughfare since the 12th century, Abbey Street went into decline around the start of the 20th. Some buildings on the street adjoining Quay Lane were demolished in 1892 and much of the entire street was intended for demolition as recently as the 1950s, until intervention from the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings. Local people began a determined fight to restore and preserve the area. Faversham has a highly active archaeological society and a series of community archaeologyprojects are run every year. In 2009, evidence of the town's medieval tannery was unearthed in back gardens of one street, and evidence from the Saxon period was uncovered during the Hunt the Saxons project between 2005 and 2007.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faversham

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based historical facts. BEWARE!

Some background:

In early 1968, the Soviet Ministry of Defense decided to develop a specialized shturmovik armored assault aircraft in order to provide close air support for the Soviet Ground Forces. The idea of creating a ground-support aircraft came about after analyzing the experience of shturmovaya (ground attack) aviation during World War II, and in local wars during the 1950s and 1960s. The Soviet fighter-bombers in service or under development at this time (Su-7, Su-17, MiG-21 and MiG-23) did not meet the requirements for close air support of the army. They lacked essential armor plating to protect the pilot and vital equipment from ground fire and missile hits, and their high flight speeds made it difficult for the pilot to maintain visual contact with a target. Ordnance load and loiter time were also insufficient.

From 1982 on the Yak-35Ds were quickly replaced by the then-finally-ready Su-25 and relegated into second line services. Most of the remaining Yak-35Ds were kept in use for weapon training, mostly at flight academies along MiG-21 fighters until 1990, and some served as target tugs with frontline units in the Far East. No specimen was ever exported.

General characteristics

Crew: One

Length incl. pitot: 14.54 m (47 ft 7 3/4 in) incl. pitot

Wingspan: 9,52 m (31 ft 2½ in)

Height: 4.6 m (15 ft ½ in)

Empty weight: 6.525 kg (14.375 lb)

Loaded weight: 8.750 kg (19.275 lb)

Max. take-off weight: 11.400 kg (25.110 lb)

Powerplant:

2× Ivchenko AI-25T non-afterburning turbofans, each with a thrust of 1.750 kgp (3.860 lbst)

Performance:

Maximum speed: 1.050 km/h (652 mph/Mach 0.9) at height, clean configuration; 825 km/h (512 mph) with external stores at sea level

Range: 1.450 km (900 mi); high, clean configuration

Ferry range: 2.500 km (1,553 mi)

Service ceiling: 14.000 m (45.850 ft)

Rate of climb: 76 m/s (14.936 ft/min)

Thrust/weight: 0.54

Armament:

2× NR-30 30mm cannons with 100 RPG

7 hardpoints for up to 2.500 kg (5.511 lb) of external ordnance, including rails for 2× IR-guided air-to-air missiles for and a wide variety of general-purpose bombs, cluster bombs, gun pods, rocket pods, drop tanks and radio-guided air-to-surface missiles like the Kh-23 or Kh-25.

The kit and its assembly:

This fantasy thing was spawned by the vague thought that one could turn the rather crude Yak-38 kit from Tsukuda Hobby into "something pretty". The plan had been lingering for some time, and when I got hands on an incomplete Yak-38 (Revell re-boxing of the kit, canopy missing) I eventually started with the surgery, letting inspiration and donation parts flow.

I had a vague idea of what the aircraft should look like, but the overall layout evolved step by step. One initial measure was to shorten the fuselage considerably: plugs from in front of and behind the original wings were cut out, and the remaining three fuselage pieces glued together. As the fuselage has an almost even diameter and shape all along its length, this turned out to be pretty easy, but still needed considerably putty work.

The original fittings for the wings and tail surfaces were then filled with styrene plugs and sanded even.

Moving the wings from their original mid-position to the shoulders was already something I had in mind before the project started. But the eventual solution just evolved as I had the fuselage ready and could judge positions and proportions.

The wings I used come from a Alpha Jet (Heller), and they were not simply stuck to the fuselage. Due to the curved back of the Yak-38 I had to add a kind of console, made from the upper wing's mid section of a Matchbox SBC Helldiver biplane (!). This connector piece was placed into a carved fairing on top of the fuselage, the new wings attached to it, and the missing bodywork sculpted with 2C putty. This way I was able to blend the new arrangement into the rest of the body with matching wing roots, without having it look as if the wings had simple been stuck onto it. The result is pretty good, looks rather organic.

The tail is new, too. Original plan had been to use the Yak-38 tail, maybe with a T-tail arrangement - but that simply did not look good. Finding a replacement was tough, I finally settled on an A-4M (Italeri) fin, which had to be modified with a clipped top, Yak-38 style, in order NOT to remind too much of the Douglas creation! It fits in shape and size, though.

New stabilizers had to be used, too - the original Yak-38 looked much too small and flimsy. A T-tail was not possible anymore, so I used a cruciform tail, A-4 style, even though the stabilizers had to be moved upwards since the Yak-38 tail is much wider than an A-4. The stabilizers themselves are new, too: a pair of F-86 fins(!), leftover from Hobby Boss kits. They are a bit thick, but look great and blend well into the whole arrangement.

The main landing gear was taken OOB, but with new wheels and extra struts fitted. The front wheel is totally new, it belongs to a Fiat G-91. The cockpit received a new seat (from a MiG-29), a pilot figure and a primitive dashboard, and a donation canopy had to be found and integrated (I think it comes from a Tamiya 1:100 F-105).

All around the hull small details were added, including the seven pylons and the rocket pod ordnance.

Painting and markings:

It took a while and some research to turn up a suitable, tactical paint scheme. Normally I keep whifs rather subtle, and I did not want to paint the Yak-35 in a dark green/brown scheme, typical for Eastern Europe aircraft.

Afghanistan was a vague idea, a desert/mountainous scheme, as well as the Su-25 prototype which appreared at Le Bourget ("301 Blue"), with its two-tone brown livery and a few green accents.

I finally found a Su-7UM trainer in a light, three-tone camouflage which I transplanted on my Yak-35. It consists of two sand tones (Humbrol 187 and 63) and a green tone (Humbrol 155). Looks rather surreal! The undersides are kept in Russian Blue (Humbrol 115).

Since much of the fuselage consists of pure putty and re-engraving would be rather hazardous I painted panel lines, with a mix of sepia ink and acrylic matt varnish. A second-best solution, but the result is O.K., when you do not take a closer look...

The whole thing received a light wash with black ink in order to emphasize panel line and details and the leading edges were lightly dry-brushed with pale grey. Basic colors were also ‘tamed down’ trough dry painting with shades of light beige and grey, for a worn and bleached look.

Cockpit interior was painted in typical, Soviet "anti fatigue" turquoise, the landing gear was painted in a mix of Aluminum and Olive Drab. Di-electric panels were painted in a bright green, a mix of Humbrol 2 and 175.

Most markings come from the scrap box, insignia and tactical code come from a Carpena Decals 1:72 MiG17 aftermarket sheet.

This thing was a major surgical act, but turned out nicely. With an arrestor hook this could also have become a maritime fighter bomber, e. g. an alternative to the French Dassault Ètendard or the Jaguar M? It looks familiar, has some serious Su-25 appeal, yet the thing looks unique. And the desert/mountain style paint scheme suits the aircraft well.

Yor's default outfit set, using Megumins default wig,

Yor's default outfit set, using Megumins default wig,

German cigarette card by Ross Verlag in the 'Künstler im Film' series for Zigarettenfabrik Monopol, Dresden, Serie 1, image 133 (of 200). Photo: Binder, Berlin.

Viktor de Kowa (1904-1973) was a German actor, singer, director and comedy writer. In the 1930s he became one of the most prominent and beloved comedy actors of the German cinema.

Viktor (sometimes Victor) de Kowa was born as Viktor Paul Karl Kowarzik (some sources write Kowal(l)czyk) in 1904 in the village Hochkirch (nowadays Przesieczany), Germany (now south-western Poland, close to the German border). He was educated at the Art Academy in Dresden and started his career as a poster and fashion drawer. Soon he abandoned this job and took acting lessons by the famous actor Erich Ponto. He debuted in 1922 at the Dresdner Staatstheater and also worked in Lübeck, Frankfurt am Main and Hamburg before he went to Berlin. There he was engaged at the Volksbühne, the Deutsches Theater and from 1935 at the Staatstheater. He made his cinema debut with the silent film Der Herzensdieb/The Heart Thief (Nils Olaf Chrisander, 1927) starring Joseph Schildkraut and Lya de Putti. Two years later he had a supporting part in the circus film Katharina Knie (Karl Grune, 1929) featuring Carmen Boni. After the introduction of the sound film, he became a darling of the female public with his very individual romantic roles. He took part in such films as the comedy Pension Schöller (Georg Jacoby, 1930), the war drama Die andere Seite/The Other Side (Heinz Paul, 1931) with Conrad Veidt, the comedy Der Stolz der 3. Kompanie/The Pride of the Third Company (Fred Sauer, 1932), the horror-comedy Unheimliche Geschichten/Unholy Tales (Richard Oswald, 1932) with Paul Wegener, and the romantic drama Ein Lied geht um die Welt/The Joseph Schmidt Story (Richard Oswald, 1933). He had his great breakthrough with the post-war drama Kleiner Mann - was nun?/Little Man What Now (Fritz Wendhausen, 1933), based on the novel by Hans Fallada.

In the following years, Viktor de Kowa became a star with comedies like Die Finanzen des Grossherzogs/The Grand Duke's Finances (Gustaf Gründgens, 1934) opposite Hilde Weissner, Der junge Baron Neuhaus/The Young Baron Neuhaus (Gustav Ucicky, 1934) with Käthe von Nagy, Die grosse und die kleine Welt/The Big and the Small World (Johannes Riemann, 1936), and Die göttliche Jette/The Divine Jetta (Erich Waschneck, 1937) with Grethe Weiser. During the war years, he starred in Wir machen Musik/We Make Music (Helmut Käutner, 1942) co-starring Ilse Werner, and the crime comedy Peter Voss, der Millionendieb/Peter Voss - the million thief (Karl Anton, 1943-1946). In those years he also directed three films - Schneider Wibbel/Tailor Wibbel (1939) starring Erich Ponto, Casanova heiratet/Casanova Marries (1940) and Kopf hoch, Johannes/Head Up, Johannes (1941) starring Albrecht Schoenhals and Dorothea Wieck. He continued his acting during the war. He was a member of the NSDAP and directed the Nazi propaganda film Kopf Hoch, Johannes/Head high, Johannes. In this Nazi youth film the independent, freedom-loving boy Johannes is converted in a Nazi-youth organization, a Napola school, to discipline and obedience. This subject made De Kowa euphoric: "The task to create an image from the life of this young generation, these future leaders of Greater Germany - this is a work about which one can be enthusiastic honestly and without reservations." Although Joseph Goebbels called the subject of the film 'well', he was disappointed by the direction of De Kowa. Nevertheless, Goebbels placed De Kowa in August 1944 on the Gottbegnadeten-Liste (god-gifted list of the indispensable actors) which retained him from a war application, and from the Heimatfront.

After the war, Viktor de Kowa immediately received a working permit and he became the manager of the Berliner Tribüne till 1950. From 1956 to 1962 he was a member of the Burgtheater in Vienna. As chairman of the trade unions for art, culture, and media, he was also a board director of the Confederation of German Trade Unions (DGB). He was also active in the post-war film, produced some films and wrote plays. To his well-known films after the war belong Zwischen gestern und morgen/Between Yesterday and Tomorrow (Harald Braun, 1947) starring Hildegard Knef, Anonyme Briefe/Anonymous Letters (Arthur Maria Rabenalt, 1949) with Käthe Haack. During the 1950s, such films followed as Des Teufels General/The Devil's General (Helmut Käutner, 1955) opposite Curd Jürgens, Ein Mädchen aus Flandern/The Girl from Flanders (Helmut Käutner, 1955) with Maximilian Schell, Scampolo (Alfred Weidenmann, 1957) starring Romy Schneider, and Der veruntreute Himmel/Embezzled Heaven (Ernst Marischka, 1958), based on a novel by Franz Werfel. From the 1960s on, Viktor de Kowa worked for the cinema as well as for television. To his last films belong the Edgar Wallace mystery Der Fälscher von London/The Forger of London (Harald Reinl, 1961), the thriller Es muss nicht immer Kaviar sein/Operation Caviar (Géza von Radványi, 1961) with O.W. Fischer, and the comedy Das Haus in Montevideo/The House in Montevideo (1963, Helmut Käutner) with Heinz Rühmann. His last film part was Ravenhurst in Winnetou und sein Freund Old Firehand/Thunder at the Border (Alfred Vohrer, 1966) with Rod Cameron and Pierre Brice. Viktor de Kowa was married twice. In 1926 he married the actress Ursula Grabley. After their divorce, he married in 1941 the Japanese actress and singer Michiko Tanaka. Viktor de Kowa died of cancer in 1973 in Berlin. He was 66.

Sources: Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), The Androom Archives, Wikipedia (German), and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

'YOR FORGER - SPY X FAMILY' - 'COSPLAY BY GRACIE' - 'MAGNA SCIENCE MUSEUM COSPLAY EVENT' -

'UNLEASHED EVENTS' - MAY 11th 2025

'YOR FORGER - SPY X FAMILY' - 'COSPLAY BY GRACIE' - 'MAGNA SCIENCE MUSEUM COSPLAY EVENT' -

'UNLEASHED EVENTS' - MAY 11th 2025

Faversham /ˈfævərʃəm/ is a market town and civil parish in the Swale district of Kent, England. The town is 48 miles from London and 10 miles from Canterbury and lies next to the Swale, a strip of sea separating mainland Kent from the Isle of Sheppey in the Thames Estuary. It is close to the A2, which follows an ancient British trackway which was used by the Romans and the Anglo-Saxons, and known as Watling Street. The Faversham name is of Latinvia Old English origin, meaning "the metal-worker's village".

There has been a settlement at Faversham since pre-Roman times, next to the ancient sea port on Faversham Creek, and archaeological evidence has shown a Roman theatre was based in the town. It was inhabited by the Saxons and mentioned in the Domesday bookas Favreshant. The town was favoured by King Stephen who established Faversham Abbey, which survived until the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1538. Subsequently, the town became an important seaport and established itself as a centre for brewing, and the Shepherd Neame Brewery, founded in 1698, remains a significant major employer.

The town was also the centre of the explosives industry between the 17th and early 20th century, before a decline following an explosion in 1916 which killed over 100 workers. This coincided with a revival of the shipping industry in the town. Faversham has a number of landmarks, with several historic churches including St Mary of Charity, Faversham Parish Church, the Maison Dieu and Faversham Recreation Ground. Faversham Market has been established for over 900 years and is still based in the town centre. There are good road and rail links, including a Southeastern service to the High Speed 1 line at Ebbsfleet International and London.

History

Faversham was established as a settlement before the Roman conquest. The Romans established several towns in Kent including Faversham, with traffic through the Saxon Shore ports of Reculver, Richborough, Doverand Lympne converging on Canterbury before heading up Watling Street to London. The town was less than 10 miles from Canterbury, and consequently Faversham had become established on this road network by 50 AD following the initial conquest by Claudius in 43 AD. Numerous remains of Roman buildings have been discovered in and around Faversham, including under St Mary of Charity Church where coins and urns were discovered during reconstruction of the western tower in 1794. In 2013, the remains of a 2,000-year-old Roman theatre, able to accommodate some 12,000 people, were discovered at a hillside near the town. The cockpit-style outdoor auditorium, the first of its kind found in Britain, was a style the Romans used elsewhere in their empire on the Continent.

There is archaeological evidence to suggest that Faversham was a summer capital for the Saxon kings of Kent. It was held in royaldemesne in 811, and is further cited in a charter granted by Coenwulf, the King of Mercia. Coenwulf described the town as the King's little town of Fefresham, while it was recorded in the Domesday Book as Favreshant. The name has been documented as meaning "the metal-worker's village", which may derive from the Old English fæfere, which in turn comes from the Latin "faber" meaning "craftsman" or "forger". The town had established itself as a seaport by the Middle Ages, and became part of the Confederation of the Cinque Ports in the 13th century, providing a vessel to Dover. The Gough Map of Britain, printed in 1360, shows the Swale as an important shipping channel for trade.

The manor was recorded as Terra Regis, meaning it was part of the ancient royal estates. King Stephen gave it to his chief lieutenant, William of Ypres, but soon made him swap it with Lillechurch (now Higham) so that the manor of Faversham could form part of the endowment of Faversham Abbey. Stephen established the abbey in 1148, and is buried there with his consort Matilda of Boulogne, and his son, Eustace, the Earl of Boulogne. Stephen favoured the town because of the abbey, and so it was historically important during his reign. King John tried to give the church to Simon of Wells in 1201, but it was owned by the monks of St Augustine's Abbeyat Canterbury, who appealed to Rome and denied the request. Abbey Street was constructed around this time in order to provide an appropriate approach to the abbey from the town. It still houses timber framed buildings and has been described as "the finest medieval street in southeast England".

Sir Thomas Culpeper was granted Faversham Abbey by Henry VIII during the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1538. Most of the abbey was demolished, and the remains of Stephen were rumoured to have been thrown into Faversham Creek. An excavation of the abbey in 1964 uncovered the empty graves. The entrance gates survived the demolition and lasted until the mid-18th century, but otherwise only a small section of outer wall survived. The abbey's masonry was taken to Calais to reinforce defence of the town, then in British possession, against the French army. In 1539, the ground upon which the abbey had stood, along with nearby land, passed to Sir Thomas Cheney, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports.

Among the few surviving buildings of Faversham Abbey are the two barns at Abbey Farm. Minor Barn was built around 1425; Major Barn, the larger of the two, dates from 1476. Next to the barns is the Abbey Farmhouse, part of which dates from the 14th century. The Abbey Guest house, on the east side of the Abbey's Outer Gateway, has survived as Arden's House. This house, now a private residence in Abbey Street, was the location of the murder of Thomas Arden in 1551. The Faversham Almshouses were founded and endowed by Thomas Manfield in 1614, with additional houses being built by Henry Wright in 1823.

Due to the poor quality of roads in the middle ages, travel by sea was an important transport corridor. Richard Tylman (or Tillman), mayor in 1581, expanded the port at Faversham, building two wharfs. He became a key figure in exporting corn, wheat and malt to London from the town.

Several notable people in the middle ages had origins in Faversham. Haymo of Faversham was born in Faversham and later moved to Paris to join the Franciscans, becoming the "Aristotelian of Aristotelians".[27] Simon of Faversham was born in the town around the middle of the 13th century and later became Chancellor of the University of Oxford in 1304. The notorious pirate Jack Ward is believed to have been born in Faversham around 1553. John Wilson, lutenist and teacher was born in Faversham in 1595 who was the principal composer for the King's Men and a professor of music at Oxford. There is now a plaque at the site of the house in Abbey Street where he was born.

A gunpowder plant had been established around 1573 in Faversham. The town had a stream which could be dammed at intervals to provide power for watermills. It became known as the Home Works in the 18th century and was nationalised in 1759. By the 19th century, the site stretched for around a mile along the waterfront. A second explosive works was established at Oare to the northwest of town in the late 17th century, with the Marsh Works following in 1786. Towards the end of the 19th century, two new factories were built alongside the Swale to manage production of TNT and cordite. Faversham developed six explosive factories, and from 1874 to 1919, the town was the centre of the explosives industry in the UK.

The first production of guncotton took place in the Marsh Works in 1847. Due to a lack of experience with production methods, an explosion took place soon after work started, with several fatalities. On Sunday 2 April 1916, an explosion occurred at one of the Swale factories in Uplees after sparks from a chimney ignited the works containing around 150 tonnes of high explosives. The incident killed over 100 people, which led to decline of the explosives industry in the town. Later accounts suggested that had the incident not happened on a Sunday, there would have been many more casualties.

All three gunpowder factories closed in 1934 due to the impending threat of World War II. Production was moved to Ardeer in Ayrshire, Scotland, and the munition industry around Faversham is now extinct. The town is now a harbour and market community; old sail-powered Thames barges are repaired, rebuilt and moored along the creekside.

Kent is the centre of hop-growing in England, being centred on nearby Canterbury and Faversham has been the home of several breweries. The Shepherd Neame Brewery was officially founded in 1698, though brewing activities in Faversham pre-date this. The brewery claims to be the oldest in Britain and continues to be family-owned. The Rigden brewery was founded in the early 18th century by Edward Rigden. It subsequently merged with the Canterbury based George Beer in 1922 to become George Beer & Rigden before being purchased by the Maidstone based Fremlins. Whitbread bought out Fremlins in 1967, and closed the Faversham brewery in 1990. The site is now a Tesco superstore. Shepherd Neame remains a significant regional brewer despite a decline in consumption of traditional bitter beer, producing around 230,000 barrels a year. It now also makes India Pale Ale under licence.

A shipyard was established in Faversham by James Pollock & Sons (Shipbuilders) in 1916 at the request of Lord Fisher, the First Lord of The Admiralty, for manufacturing barges for landing craft. Faversham already had a tradition of shipbuilding, and it soon became a major contributor to markets throughout the world, producing vessels such as the Molliette and the Violette, both constructed of concrete. Over 1200 ships were built and launched from Faversham between 1916 and 1969.

Faversham Market is still held in the town centre. It is now the oldest street market in Kent, dating back over 900 years. Monthly markets are also held in Preston Street and Court Street.

Having been an important thoroughfare since the 12th century, Abbey Street went into decline around the start of the 20th. Some buildings on the street adjoining Quay Lane were demolished in 1892 and much of the entire street was intended for demolition as recently as the 1950s, until intervention from the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings. Local people began a determined fight to restore and preserve the area. Faversham has a highly active archaeological society and a series of community archaeologyprojects are run every year. In 2009, evidence of the town's medieval tannery was unearthed in back gardens of one street, and evidence from the Saxon period was uncovered during the Hunt the Saxons project between 2005 and 2007.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faversham

On Granville Island, Ocean Concrete commissioned 2 Brazilian artists to spray paint their sand silos. I forger how many thousands of spray cans they used but it was a lot. To get an idea of the size of these silos, the opening between their legs is big enough to drive a cement truck in.

Hatsune Miku - Vocaloid / Anya Forger - Spy X Family

Type(s) de contenu et mode(s) de consultation : Image fixe tridimensionnelle : stéréoscopique

Auteur(s) : Lefort (1804-1880 ; photographe). Photographe

Titre(s) : [Recueil. Vues stéréoscopiques de Lefort. Scènes composées : à la forge] [Image fixe] /

Lefort

Date(s) : Paris, [1859]

Description matérielle : 6 photogr. pos. (vues stéréoscopiques) sur papier albuminé d'après des

négatifs sur verre au collodion ; 8,6 x 17,6 cm

Note(s) : Timbre sec : "Lefort Fg St Martin 33 Paris"

S:BNF

Évidemment, il y a bien les cages à fromages, en hauteur pour éviter chat et souris. ( même combat sur le fromage?!)

Nos forgerons sont en plein concours : À qui tiendra le plus longtemps sont marteaux en l'air… À droite, l'homme est disqualifié, tellement bougé que son marteau est assez difficile à distinguer !

La stéréo en GIF présente toutes les caractéristiques d'un hyper décalage gauche droit habituel…

Du papier peint dans une forgerie ? Sans compter en haut à droite chapeau paysan et tableaux… Quant à la paille au sol, près de deux foyers rougissants…

Mais il me faudra quand même une confirmation, donnée par Paula Fleming sur Luminous-Lint pour rajouter cette stéréo avec les autres d'Henri Armand LEFORT C1860 .

Marquage : en bas photo gauche : N°m8 ( ?)

Distributeur : S.MONTREZZA BORDIGA; Milan.

www.flemingphotohistory.com/published-papers/published-pa...

People work on their painting technique by making copies of works in the National Gallery of Art.

Another view of the lights on 9/11/11

Just a snap of my working area in my room, some WIP objects…

Peace and Noise!

/a very tired MushroomBrain

"Je soupçonne un de ces articles de n'être pas authentiquement africain"

Braderie de Lille

The East Penge Arts Council thought they had achieved a real coup when they booked "Self Portrait with a Sunflower", by Antoon Van Dyke for their summer exhibition. Little did they know they had fallen victim to Freddie 'The Forger' Ramsbotham who had knocked this up in his garage the week before!

We're here, and we're paying homage to the low countries in our own special way!

Tap here to watch video👉 youtu.be/qYNC5bE_1II

Continental panels of the late 15th or early 16th century. They came to the cathedral after the Costessey Hall collection of glass was sold in 1918.

-------------

Here Tubal-Cain, son of Lamech, forger of all instruments of bronze and iron - and Jubal "father of all who play the harp and flute". {Genesis 4:22}

This piece was inspired by imagination and what ifs~

Known as "The Forger of Thunderbolts" Charles Proteus Steinmetz ( April 9, 1865 - October 26, 1923) was one such genius and thinker of what ifs... A German - American mathematician and electrical engineer, Steinmetz made groundbreaking discoveries in the understanding of hysteresis and formulated mathematical theories for engineers... The list goes on and on...

Steinmetz held more than 200 patents at the time of his death in 1923.

The Proteus Zephyr Oracle Machine is indeed a contraption of what ifs~ Mixed medium sculpture.

dan jones ~ San Diego, Ca USA

Yor Forger - Spy X Family @melody.adrift

This is a leaf from a Book of Hours that was probably produced in Northern France c.1450-1475 that has on it a large miniature of the Decollation of Saint John the Baptist the was added by THE SPANISH FORGER" early in the 1900's.

The text is the opening of the “Gospel sequences” that begin with the Gospel of Saint John chapter 1, verses 1 to 14.

The size of the leaf is 165mm x 122mm (6 1/2ins. x 4 8/10ins.).

A full description of the miniature is shown against the detail picture.

PROVENANCE: -

This is not the miniature that would be expected to accompany the text to the Gospel of Saint John. That would be his writing on Patmos or his martyrdom. It is not even a miniature that would be expected to be found in a Book of Hours other than very infrequently. Advice has been taken from experts and it has been confirmed that THIS MINIATURE IS NOT FROM THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY BUT THAT IT WAS PRODUCED EARLY IN THE TWENTYETH CENTURY BY THE “SPANISH FORGER”. The Margan Library, New York, has confirmed the authenticity of this miniature and have assigned it leaf L 268 in their record of the works produced by the Spanish Forger camp or workshop.

GENERAL COMMENTS: -

This is a superb addition to the collection with the miniature being in perfect condition even though the border has been subject to age related wear.

The leaf was purchased because of the beauty of the miniature and the fact that such a subject matter would be totally unexpected to be found with the text that the leaf contains. I am aware that from time to time texts can have different miniatures to those usually seen - an artist can make a mistake or the original owner could have asked for something special. But having searched reference books it became obvious that a miniature of the Decollation of John the Baptist occurs very infrequently and only in relation to devotions to him.

During the course of that research, I came across Item 11 in the 2001 catalogue "Books of Hours" of Bruce Ferrini where there is a description of a Book of Hours that includes miniatures by the Spanish Forger (prior to finding this, I had always thought that the Forger's work had been on parts of old music leaves) where one of the images shown includes several soldiers in armour which look quite like the soldier on my leaf. As a result of this discovery, I then searched through Spanish Forger images on the Internet where most of the images of soldiers are also so similar to the one on my leaf. I have to say though, that I have not found any images of a lady with a head covering that correspond with the lady here or images that correspond with the executioner here.

Confirmation of the authenticity of the miniature is a significant event for me.

THE SPANISH FORGER: -

The Spanish Forger is the name given to an unidentified individual who, in the late 19th to early 20th century, created a large number of forgeries of medieval miniatures. The Spanish Forger's works were painted on vellum or parchment leaves of genuine medieval books, using either blank margins or scraping off the original writing. He also “completed” unfinished miniatures or added missing miniatures in medieval choir books. His works fooled many experts and collectors and appear today in the collections of many museums and libraries. Over 200 forgeries have been identified. Although he was originally thought to be Spanish, it is now believed he may have been French, working in Paris. A number of his forged miniatures have been identified as copied, with modifications, from those published in several French books published in the 1870s -1880s. His works were very deceptive when created, but over time it has been recognized that the faces of individuals in his pictures have “sugary expressions” inconsistent with genuine medieval illuminations. Some of his miniatures have also been identified as forgeries because they are of secular scenes that would not have appeared in genuine medieval religious texts. The Spanish Forger’s works were the subject of an exhibition at the Morgan Library in New York City in 1978, for which an extensive catalogue was published. His works are now themselves collected as forgeries, selling for several thousand dollars each.

(Taken from Wikipedia)

from SPY×FAMILY

スパイファミリー　より　アーニャ・フォージャー

cosplaied by Mamedaifuku(まめだいふく さん)

@Ikebukuro Halloween Cosplay Fes 2022,Day2

IKEBUKURO ,Tokyo,Japan