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In 1997, the PA-46 was developed from the very successful PA-36 'Nove' as a special climate condition version - namely for the use in desert regions. Tests and tactical reports from Africa had shown that Earth Defence Forces were in dire need for a more climate-resilient powered armour than the standard PA-36s and PA-58s, which suffered heavily under dust and extremely high temperatures.
Field modifications and enhancement packages were hastily developed, but these proved to be unsuitable for the battlefield. The biggest problem was overheating and fine dust getting anywhere, especially into the engines and the joints of the legs.
As a consequence, the PA-46 was to be a complete package for tropic and subtropical climate and harsh conditions like low air pressure in great heights. While being based on the PA-36 hull, the 'Nettai' became an independent PA development and finally received its own designation, PA-46. As a PA-36 evolution, Its bulky hull offered enough space for additional installations like a heavy duty heat exchanger, various dust filters, a dust-repelling system based on compressed air (ducted from enhanced and dust-proof engines), an enhanced sensor package and an improved climate control for the pilot.
Basically, the duty profile of the PA-36 was to be kept, which included the PA's ability to make a jet-assisted jump of at least 820m at 85 km/h and keep a ground running speed of 28km/h. In order to keep up with this profile and the additional systems running in the background, more powerful engines had to be installed, raising the power output from 34ps to 42ps. As a side effect, dry weight rose dramatically so that the PA-46's suspension had to be augmented, too. All in all, the PA-46's weight even outclassed the beefed-up PA-36K 'Berlon', but the PA-46 was ordered into production since no short-term alternative was in sight for troop introduction in 1999, where this special profile PA was desperately needed.
Around 140 specimen of the PA-46 were built and mainly used on the African continent and in Middle East Asia. While the original PA-46 was not delivered with internal weapons, it was compatible with the full weapon range of the PA-36, what made the PA-46 very versatile. Weapon field packs like the simple HR-670 'Wrist Racate' (a set of six single 70mm 'Thunder Crush' artillery missile launchers) were other frequent additions, as well as modified and sometimes improvised communication systems.
Despite its sheer weight and bulk which limited its use, the PA-46 became a reliable weapon in the Northern and Middle African conflict theatre against Idelian forces and saw frequent use until 2013, when it was retired or used to retrofit PA-36 units with spare parts.
Another major conversion of an Aoshima kit, this time the inspiration came through the simple question what a special desert use PA would look like, and which modifications it would need and show, esp. from a rather realistic point of view?
The basis for this conversion was a PA-36K kit, but so many donations went into this one that it is rather a scratch-built kit than a mere conversion.
Special parts and modification sinclude:
·The bigger/square feet come from the Berlon kit
·New knee guards (made from Cornerstone Modulars HO scale chimney parts and 2C putty)
·The visor unit comes from a PA-58
·A modified/enlarged left shoulder, sculpted with 2C putty, containing the assumed heat exchanger
·A pressurized air tank at the right flank (from the Berlon kit) with tubes around the hull
·The right lower arm is standard but fitted with six missile launchers and wiring,
·The left lower arm once was an R2 laser but was modified to hold a gatling gun (from a PA-58 conversion kit) with an ammo box
·The air filters are (modified) anchor bolts
·Many small details like hard points, hooks and covers were added from the scrap box
·All joints on arms and legs received protective and flexible covers made from nylon stockings
The flexible dust covers made the kit's assemby complicated: instead of building torso, arms and legs as separate pieces as usual and putting them together when separately finished, I had to put all the major parts together before painting, because the flexible nylon material is hard to fix and needs some room in order to keep arms end legs moveable. I cut out some roughly matching strips of the nylon stocking material and attached them with super glue. A bit messy, but effective and at the 1:24 scale a convincing result.
The camouflage was inspired by the Egyptian Air Force, a pattern used on Tu-16 "Badger" bombers and MiG fighters - a three-colored paint scheme made of stripes in light sand, grey-green and a pale dark brown, with the green always separating the sand from the brown. An attractive and effective pattern for desert surroundings and for rural areas in this climate zone.
The basic colours are Pale Stone (Humbrol 121, FS 33531), Light Green (Humbrol 120, FS 34227) and Chocolate (Humbrol 98, maybe FS30051?), but that was only the beginning. Since I wanted a sun-worn and dust-bleached look, I added some layers of dry painting with lighter shades like Humbrol 103 (Cream) and 71 (Beige) on the Pale Stone, a mix of 120 and 95 on the green and 98 and 64 on the brown.
Light contrast areas and details like the chest box, the visor unit or the pressurized air tank were painted with Ivory (Humbrol 41). To add some more contrast, the PA-46's "face" was painted with a mix of 98 and matte black.
A black ink wash followed, and with dry painting in light grey and cream the weathered look of the already bleached basic tones was even enhanced. Additional dry pinting with silver at some edges would emphasize the used look of the whole PA. Decals came partly from the PA-36K basis kit, numbers and the „Saint“ emblem from the scrap box.
As a last step, the PA was dusted with a mix of artist pigments in sang, beige and grey – the same tones which were used on the small 10x10cm base.
+++ 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 Short Tucano is a two-seat turboprop basic trainer built by Short Brothers in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It is a licence-built version of the Brazilian Embraer EMB-312 Tucano. Development of the Tucano started in May 1984 after an agreement between Embraer and Short Brothers to meet a requirement to replace the BAC Jet Provost as a basic trainer with the Royal Air Force. The Royal Air Force issued Air Staff Target 412 to define the requirement for a high-performance turboprop trainer. A shortlist of designs competed for the contract; the other types considered were the Pilatus PC-9, the NDN-1T Turbo-Firecracker and the Australian Aircraft Consortium (AAC) A.20 Wamira II.
In 1984 Embraer sent Shorts the seventh EMB-312 airframe off the production line for modifications in order to meet AST-412 requirements. The type was displayed in September 1984 at the Farnborough Airshow featuring an uprated PT6A-25C2 engine and a ventral air brake to meet required stall speed of 60kt. However, tests undertaken at Boscombe Down later on that year indicated the need to re-engine the aircraft (to meet the RAF requirement for time to height) and the Garrett TPE331 was chosen.
On 21 March 1985, the Short Tucano proposal was declared the winner of the AST.412 contract worth £126 million for 130 aircraft and an option for a further 15, but the option was never taken up. The first flight of the prototype EMB-312G2 which featured a four-bladed Hartzell propeller with the Garrett TPE331-10 engine took place in Brazil on 14 February of the following year, the aircraft being then disassembled and airlifted back to Belfast on 29 March 1986 to fly again just ten days later. In June, the TPE331-10 engine was replaced by the TPE331-12B, a major difference being the integration of an Electronic Engine Controller (EEC) system.
In addition to the revised engine, the major differences of the Shorts Tucano are a strengthened airframe for an improved fatigue life, a cockpit layout similar to the Hawk advanced trainer, a revised oxygen system, a flight data recorder, a four-bladed propeller, ventral airbrake and restyled wingtips. Two Martin-Baker MB 8LC ejection seats are used and the canopy was modified to meet the RAF's bird strike requirements. During its production run, Shorts commonly promoted the airframe as being "100% British-built". In order to meet RAF requirements, the EMB-312 has some 900 modifications reducing commonality with the original aircraft to only 50%.
The first standard production model T.Mk 1 was flown on 30 December 1986 and the official rollout took place on 20 January 1987. First deliveries to the RAF took place in 1989, while the last delivery to RAF occurred 25 January 1993.
In addition to the primary order from the RAF, export customers emerged for the Shorts-produced Tucanos. The Kenyan Air Force ordered a total of 12 units and a further 16 Tucanos were exported to Kuwait. The Tucanos serving in the Kuwait Air Force were furnished to be armed and combat-capable for the purposes of weapons training and light attack duties; each aircraft features four pylons capable of mounting various rocket pods, cannons, bombs, and auxiliary fuel tanks.
In RAF service the Short Tucano replaced the Jet Provost as the basic trainer, preparing the student pilots for progression to BAe Hawk advanced flying training. The aircraft proved to be 70% cheaper to operate than its predecessor and the Tucano's accident record has also been remarkably better than other ab-initio training aircraft, with only five aircraft written off with no fatalities in over 20 years.
In March 2007, regarding experiences from the War in Afghanistan, the British Parliament was debating the idea of replacing Harriers and Tornados for armed Short Tucanos during close air support missions. This led to the Tucano TGR.2, an armed version with extensive modification, since the RAF aircraft were not fitted with wing hardpoints.
The Tucano TGR.2 was created from existing T.1 trainers in the course of standard overhaul procedures through the VT Group, which supported maintenance for the RAF. 22 aircraft were converted in the course of 2008-9, primarily through new, reinforced wings with four hardpoints that could carry up to 1.000 lb ordnance, similar to the Tucano export models. Under the hood, avionics were upgraded, too, so that the machine could carry podded sensors like FLIR pods for a limited all-weather capability or a laser target illuminator, so that smart weapons (including laser-guide bombs or the Brimstone missile) could be effectively deployed. Other external weapon loads include machine gun and cannon pods, unguided missiles and iron bombs of up to 500 lb caliber. Furthermore, up to eight Starstreak launch tubes for self-defense or against other aircraft or helicopters could be carried, too.
The full trainer capability was retained, so that the T.1's full mission spectrum remained covered, but armed training was now made possible, too. During attack missions the aircraft would be typically flown by single pilot only, even though surveillance and Forward Air Control missions would require a crew of two.
The Tucano T.1 trainer was scheduled to be withdrawn from service in 2015, and it will be replaced by the winner of the UK Military Flying Training System (UKMFTS) programme. The armed TGR.2 will be kept in service for some further years (probably 2020) and complement Operational Conversion Units, primarily for basic and weapon training, but also as aggressor aircraft in dissimilar training at low altitude.
General characteristics:
Crew: one–two
Length: 32 ft 4 in (9.85 m)
Wingspan: 37 ft 0 in (11.28 m)
Height: 11 ft 1¾ in (3.40 m)
Wing area: 208 ft² (19.3 m²)
Empty weight: 4,447 lb (2,017 kg)
Max. takeoff weight: 7,220 lb (3,275 kg)
Powerplant:
1 Garrett TPE331-12B turboprop, 1,100 shp (820 kW)
Performance:
Maximum speed: 274 kn (315 mph, 507 km/h) (at 10,000–15,000 ft)
Cruise speed: 180/240 (low level) knots (253 mph, 407 km/h) (economy cruise)
Never exceed speed: 300 kts (322 mph, 555 km/h)
Stall speed: 69 kn (80 mph, 128 km/h) (flaps and gear down)
Range: 900 nmi (1,035 miles, 1,665 km)
Service ceiling: 34,000 ft (10,363 m)
Rate of climb: 3,510 ft/min (17.8 m/s)
Wing loading: 28.6 lb/ft² (140 kg/m²)
Power/mass: 0.152 hp/lb (0.250 kW/kg)
Armament:
No internal weapons, but 4× underwing hardpoints for 1,000 lb (454 kg) of stores
The kit and its assembly:
The relatively simple 7th contribution to the “RAF Centenary” Group Build at whatifmodelers.com in 2018. I had this project on the agenda for a while, and the GB was a good occasion to tackle it.
The basic idea had been a camouflaged Short Tucano in RAF service, namely in the NATO Green/Lichen Green livery typical for the RAF’s Harrier GR.5.
I also had already a kit stashed away, a Tucano from Premiere. The model was built basically OOB, just with a few cosmetic additions. The kit itself is rather simple and reminds of a mediocre Matchbox kit: without “trenches”, and some nice details like the wheels or separate clear parts for the position lights. But nothing actually fits together well, PSR was necessary literall everywhere. Certainly not a kit for beginners.
Personal changes are:
- Ejection trigger handles and filled headrests for the seats; HUDs on the dashboards
- A metal axis for the propeller and a styrene tube adapter in the front fuselage
- Some additional blade antennae and radar warning bumps
- Flare/chaff dispensers under the stabilizers
- Four underwing hardpoints with ordnance (a pair of slightly pimped SUU-11 minigun pods from a Matchbox AH-1 and two pairs of missile launch tubes, IIRC these come from a H0 scale Bo 105 wreck and are actually TOW launch tubes)
Despite my attempts to add as much lead as possible to the nose, the kit still won’t rest on its front wheel and tip over…
Painting and markings:
As mentioned above, this is basically a livery whif – and the green/green paint scheme is rather simple, too. For the NATO Green I used Tamiya XF-67, which is supposed to be the authentic tone. In the past I have used other shades of Green (Humbrol 75, but it’s too dark and bluish, and 102, which lacks yellow), but with mixed results.
The undersides, Lichen Green, were painted with Xtracolors X024, which is supposed to be the authentic tone. At first I found it to look much too dark and murky – at least for a small 1:72 model – but in combination with the NATO Green it works well. To my surprise, the tone looks quite similar to RLM 02!
For some better contrast of the soft engravings, I gave the kit a light black ink wash and did some post-shading with FS 34096 (Modelmaster) on the upper surfaces and Revell’s 45 underneath.
The cockpit was painted in Dark Sea Grey (Tamiya XF-54), while the landing gear wells became Light Aircraft Grey (Humbrol 166) and the struts, as well as the wheel discs, white.
The propeller spinner and the blades’ back side became black, while the front was painted in light grey (Humbrol 64), with blade tips in red-white-red.
Decals came from various aftermarket sheets (Sky Models, XXX), primarily from Harrier GR.5 aircraft. Some stencils had to be replaced, since Premiere’s OOB decal sheet turned out to be highly brittle, and any decal without any color foundation disintegrated immediately upon contact.
The canopy frames, as well as the black walkways on the wing roots, were created with generic decal stripe material.
The fancy shark mouth was a spontaneous addition, since I found the all-green aircraft to look rather bleak – and its low-viz design in black and light grey blends well into the overall look. The decals originally come from an Academy AH-64, but the eyes were placed in a higher position and the area of the front landing gear well was improvised with paint.
Finally, the kit was sealed with a coat of matt acrylic varnish (Italeri).
Well, nothing spectacular, but I must say that I find the green/green livery rather attractive, and it works IMHO well with the modern Tucano.
+++ 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 G.91Y was an increased-performance version of the Fiat G.91 funded by the Italian government. Based on the G.91T two-seat trainer variant, the single Bristol Orpheus turbojet engine of this aircraft was replaced by two afterburning General Electric J85 turbojets which increased thrust by 60% over the single-engine variant. Structural modifications to reduce airframe weight increased performance further and an additional fuel tank occupying the space of the G.91T's rear seat provided extra range. Combat manoeuvrability was improved with the addition of automatic leading edge slats. The avionics equipment of the G.91Y was considerably upgraded with many of the American, British and Canadian systems being license-manufactured in Italy.
Flight testing of three pre-production aircraft was successful, with one aircraft reaching a maximum speed of Mach 0.98. Airframe buffeting was noted and was rectified in production aircraft by raising the position of the tailplane slightly.
An initial order of 55 aircraft for the Italian Air Force was completed by Fiat in March 1971, by which time the company had changed its name to Aeritalia (from 1969, when Fiat aviazione joined the Aerfer). The order was increased to 75 aircraft with 67 eventually being delivered. In fact, the development of the new G.91Y was quite long, and the first order was for about 20 pre-series examples that followed the two prototypes. The first pre-series 'Yankee' (the nickname of the new aircraft) flew in July 1968.
AMI (Italian Air Force) placed orders for two batches, 35 fighters followed by another 20, later cut to ten. The last one was delivered around mid 1976, so the total was two prototypes, 20 pre-series and 45 series aircraft. No immediate export success followed, though, and the Italian G.91Ys’ service lasted until the early '90s as attack/recce machines, both over ground and sea, until the AMX replaced them until 1994.
However, upon retirement some G.91Ys were still in good condition and the airframes had still some considerable flight hours left, so that about thirty revamped aircraft were put up for sale from 1992 onwards. At the same time, Poland was undergoing a dramatic political change. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union the Eastern European country immediately turned its political attention westward, including the prospects of joining NATO. The withdrawal of Russian forces based in Poland and partly obsolete military equipment of the Polish forces themselves led to a procurement process from 1991 onwards, which, among others, included a replacement for the Polish MiG-17 (domestic Lim-5, Lim-6 and Lim-6bis types), which had been operated by both Polish air force and navy since the late Sixties, primarily as fighter bombers in their late career, but also for reconnaissance tasks.
The G.91Y appeared, even though a vintage design, to be a suitable replacement option, since its performance envelope and the equipment outfit with three cameras in the nose made it a perfect package – and the price tag was not big, either. Especially the Polish Navy showed much interest, and after 10 months of negotiations Poland eventually bought 22 G.91Y from Italy, plus five G.91T two-seaters for conversion training, which were delivered between June 1993 and April 1994.
For the new operator the machines only underwent minor modifications. The biggest change was the addition of wirings and avionics for typical Polish Air Force ordnance, like indigenous MARS-2 pods for 16 unguided 57mm S-5 missiles, iron bombs of Russian origin of up to 500 kg (1.100 lb) caliber, SUU-23-2 gun pods as well as R-3 and R-60 missiles (which were very similar to the Western AIM-9 Sidewinder and actually date back to re-engineered specimen obtained by the USSR during the Korea war!). All machines were concentrated at Gdynia-Babie Doły in a newly founded, dedicated fighter bomber of the 1 Naval Aviation Squadron, which also operated MiG-21 fighters and PZL Iskra trainers. The Polish G.91Ys, nicknamed “Polski Fiat” by their crews (due to their compact size and overall simplicity, in reminiscence of the very popular, locally license-built Fiat 126), not only replaced the vintage MiG-17 types and some Polish Navy MiG-21 fighters, but also the handful of MiG-15UTI trainer veterans which were still used by the Polish Navy for observation duties over the Baltic Sea.
When Poland joined NATO on 12 March 1999, the G.91Ys (18 were still in service, plus all five trainers) received another major overhaul, a new low-visibility paint scheme, and they were updated with avionics that ensured inter-operability with other NATO forces, e .g. a GPS positioning sensor in a small, dorsal hump fairing. In 2006, when deliveries of 48 F-16C/D fighters to Poland started, the G.91Ys were to be retired within 12 months. But problems with the F-16s’ operability kept the G.91Y fleet active until 2011, when all aircraft were grounded and quickly scrapped.
General characteristics:
Crew: one
Length: 11.67 m (38 ft 3.5 in)
Wingspan: 9.01 m (29 ft 6.5 in)
Height: 4.43 m (14 ft 6.3 in)
Wing area: 18.13 m² (195.149 ft²)
Empty weight: 3,900 kg (8,598 lb)
Loaded weight: 7,800 kg (17,196 lb)
Max. takeoff weight: 8,700 kg (19,180 lb)
Powerplant:
2× General Electric J85-GE-13A turbojets, 18.15 kN (4,080 lbf) each
Performance:
Maximum speed: 1,110 km/h (600 kn, 690 mph, Mach 0.95) at 10,000 m (33,000 ft)
Range: 1,150 km (621 nmi, 715 mi)
Max. ferry range with drop tanks: 3,400 km (2,110 mls)
Service ceiling: 12,500 m (41,000 ft)
Rate of climb: 86.36 m/s (17,000 ft/min)
Wing loading: 480 kg/m² (98.3 lb/ft² (maximum)
Thrust/weight: 0.47 at maximum loading
Armament:
2× 30 mm (1.18 in) DEFA cannons with 120 RPG
4× under-wing pylon stations with a capacity of 1,814 kg (4,000 lb)
The kit and its assembly:
This whiffy Yankee Gina was inspired by a profile that had popped up during WWW picture search a while ago. Tracking it back, I found it to be artwork created and posted at DeviantArt by user “Jeremak-J”, depicting a G.91Y in polish markings and sporting a two-tone grey camouflage with light blue undersides and a medium waterline. I found the idea bizarre, but attractive, and, after some research, I found a small historic slot that might have made this “combo” possible.
When I recently delved through my (growing…) kit pile I came across a Matchbox G.91Y in a squashed box and with a cracked canopy – and decided to use that kit for a personal Polish variant.
The Matchbox G.91Y bears light and shadow galore. While it is IIRC the only IP kit of this aircraft, it comes with some problem areas. The fit of any major kit component is mediocre and the cockpit tub with an integral seat-thing is …unique. But the overall shape is IMHO quite good – a typical, simple Matchbox kit with a mix of (very fine) raised and engraved panel lines.
The OOB canopy could not be saved, but I was lucky to find a replacement part in the spares box – probably left over from the first G.91Y I built in the early Eighties. While the donor part had to be stripped from paint and was quite yellowed from age, it saved the kit.
It was built almost OOB, since major changes would not make sense in the context of my background story of a cheap 2nd hand purchase for an air force on a lean budget. I just added some details to the cockpit and changed the ordnance, using missile pods and iron bombs of Soviet origin (from a Kangnam/Revell Yak-38).
The exhausts were drilled open, because OOB these are just blank covers, only 0.5 mm deep! Inside, some afterburners were simulated (actually main wheels from an Arii 1:100 VF-1).
The flaps were lowered and extended, which is easy to realize on this kit.
The clumsy, molded guns were cut away, to be later replaced with free-standing, hollow steel needles.
In order to add some more exterior detail I also scratched the thin protector frames around the nozzles with thin wire.
Since the replacement canopy looked quite old and brittle, I did not dare cutting the clear part in two, so that the cockpit remained closed, despite the effort put into the interior.
A personal extra is the pair of chaff/flare dispensers on the rear fuselage, reminiscent of Su-22 installations.
Painting and markings:
The inspiring profile was nice, but I found it to be a bit fishy. The depicted tactical code format would IMHO not be plausible for the aircraft’s intended era, and roundels on the fuselage flanks would also long have gone in the Nineties. Therefore, I rather looked at real world benchmarks from the appropriate time frame for my Polish Gina’s livery, even though I wanted to stay true to the artist’s original concept, too.
One direction to add more plausibility was the scheme that Polish Su-22 fighter bombers received during their MLU, changing the typical tactical camouflage in up to four hues of green and brown into a much more subdued two tone grey livery with lighter, bluish-grey undersides, combined with toned-down markings like tactical codes in white outlines only. Some late MiG-21s also received this type of livery, and at least one Polish Fishbed instructional airframe received white low-viz national insignia.
For the paint scheme itself I used the MiG-21 pattern as benchmark (found in the Planes & Pilots MiG-21 book) and adapted it to the G.91Y as good as possible. The tones were a little difficult to define – some painting instructions recommend FS 36118 (US Gunship Grey) for the dark upper grey tone, but this is IMHO much too murky. Esp. on the Su-22s, the two upper greys show only little contrast, and the lower grey does not stand out much against the upper tones, either. On the other side, I found a picture of a real-life MiG-21U trainer in the new grey scheme, and the contrast between the grey on the upper surfaces appeared much stronger, with the light grey even having a brownish hue. Hmpf.
As a compromise I settled for FS 36173 (F-15E Dark Grey) and 36414 (Flint Grey). For the undersides I went for FS 35414 (Blue Green), which comes close to the typical Soviet underside blue, but it is brighter.
After basic painting, the kit received a light black ink wash and subtle post-shading, mostly in order to emphasize single panels, less for a true weathering effect.
The cockpit was painted in Dark Gull Grey (Humbrol 140), with a light blue dashboard and a black ejection seat. The OOB pilot was used and received an olive drab suit with a light grey helmet, modern and toned down like the aircraft itself. The landing gear as well as the air intake interior were painted in different shades of aluminum.
The decals were, as so often, puzzled together from various sources. The interesting, white-only Polish roundels come from a Mistercraft MiG-21. I also added them to the upper wing surfaces – this is AFAIK not correct, but without them I found the model to look rather bleak. Under the wings, full color insignia were used, though. The English language “Navy” markings on the fuselage might appear odd, but late MiG-21s in Polish Navy service actually had this operator designation added to their spines!
The typical, tactical four-digit code consists of markings for Italian Tornados, taken from two different Italeri sheets. The squadron emblem on the fin came from a Mistercraft Su-22, IIRC.
Most stencils were taken from the OOB sheet, some of them were replaced with white alternatives, though, in order to keep a consistent overall low-viz look.
Finally the kit was sealed with matt acrylic varnish.
An interesting result. Even though this Polish Gina is purely fictional, the model looks surprisingly convincing, and the grey low-viz livery actually suits the G.91Y well.
Modification of the Oliver + S free pattern.
More here: bartacksandsingletrack.blogspot.com.au/2015/12/a-million-...
and tutorial here: oliverands.com/community/blog/2015/12/customizing-the-ons...
Public School 98, Crotona Park East, The Bronx, New York City, New York, United States of America
Summary
Herman Ridder Junior High School, Public School 98, the Bronx, was the first thoroughly "modernistic" Art Deco style public school building in New York City and the first junior high school to depart in design from a modification of a standard elementary school plan. Designed by the Board of Education's Bureau of Design and Construction, headed by Walter C. Martin as Superintendent of School Buildings, and built in 1929-31, the school was one of the first projects to result from a program initiated in 1927 to erect facilities designed specifically for junior high programs, which prior to this time had been housed in elementary school buildings. The striking design of Herman Ridder Junior High School is representative of the initial phase of American academic modernism in which the Art Deco style influenced both plan-generated massing and modernistic ornamentation of school designs.
Several Art Deco elements characteristic of contemporary commercial and industrial buildings were employed in the design, including an entrance tower modeled as a set-back skyscraper, structural emphasis in the pier and window treatment of the classroom facades, and a lively roof line with cresting and pedimented parapets, as well as Art Deco style ornament.
The school is "identified" by an extensive iconographic program of academic symbols and exceptional modernistic sculptural figures on the tower. Named for the prominent publisher and philanthropist, Herman Ridder Junior High School exemplifies the union of modernistic trends in architecture and progressive educational ideals, resulting in a civic monument symbolizing hope and achievement.
The Development of the Morrisania Section of the Bronx
The Herman Ridder Junior High School is located in the Morrisania section of the Bronx at the southeastern edge of Crotona Park, an area, like the rest of the Bronx, which remained essentially rural until the turn of the century.
Morrisania, named for the British Army officer Colonel Lewis Morris who owned land in the area in the Revolutionary War era, was first settled by two groups of immigrants in the mid-nineteenth century; a group of Irish who worked on the construction of the Harlem and Hudson River Railroads settled in the area in the early 1840s, soon followed by a large number of German immigrants. The German-American population of the area continued to grow, and by the late-nineteenth century, Morrisania had become predominantly German.
The urbanization of the Bronx followed annexation to the City of New York in 1874 and the subsequent improvement of transportation between the Bronx and Manhattan. The expansion of elevated train lines, particularly the completion of the IRT subway system to West Farms Square just north of Morrisania in 1904, prompted real estate speculation and development, and, ultimately, increases in population in the Morrisania section, and the Bronx as a whole.
During the 1920s there was a tremendous housing boom in the Bronx accompanied by a corresponding increase in population; only the Depression slowed the explosive growth of the borough. The 1930 census documented the 72.8 percent increase in population during the previous decade, and revealed the Crotona Park area to be the geographical center of population in the Bronx. Mirroring this growth, the number of school-age children in the borough increased by 44 percent between 1918 and 1928. During the 1920s thirty-nine elementary and junior high schools and four high schools were erected in the Bronx, as well as additions to nineteen existing buildings.
A Model Junior High School for the Bronx
The construction of the Herman Ridder Junior High School documents the commitment of the New York City Board of Education to expanding the system of junior high schools in the late 1920s. The junior high school concept had developed in New York City in tandem with the movement in the rest of the United States to better address the educational needs of young teenagers in preparation for their high school years or entrance into the workforce. Junior high schools, known as intermediate schools prior to 1922, were established in New York City during the 1910s, including three in the Bronx; these were begun as experimental departments in elementary school buildings. The number of junior high programs in New York City increased considerably around 1920 as the idea became accepted.
As the 1920s progressed, it became clear to educators that junior high schools should be located in separate, specially-designed school buildings. The standard three curricula — academic, commercial, and industrial — and the athletic and music programs required specialized classrooms and equipment. In 1927 the New York City Board of Education initiated a junior
high school construction program to provide these facilities.
The first group of junior high schools to be erected included Public School 96, Brooklyn, considered to be the first junior high school designed by the Bureau of Construction and Maintenance; its design was a modification of one the standard plans which had been developed by the Bureau for elementary school buildings. The Bureau of Construction and Maintenance began to prepare standard specifications for junior high schools, including the type and number of various specialized rooms and the size of classrooms.
The construction of Public School 98 in the Bronx was proposed in July, 1927, to reduce congestion in three of the eleven existing junior high schools in the Bronx, Public School 30, Public School 40, and Public School 61.
A site was found near Public School 61 on Boston Road, a prominent thoroughfare, and adjacent to the recreational facilities of Crotona Park. Considerable effort went into the planning of Public School 98, and the school was the first in New York City to depart from a modified elementary school building design.
In September, 1929, the Superintendent of School Buildings presented plans for a model junior high school with all the recommended facilities and a distinctive exterior design meant to demonstrate the "educative value of artistic effects. "
The school was named the Herman Ridder Junior High School in honor of a successful German immigrant, the self-made publisher of the Catholic News who succeeded Oswald Ottendorfer as publisher of the New Yorker Staats-Zeitung and who was also respected for his contributions to education and community service. Herman Ridder Junior High School, which opened in September, 1931, and accommodated 3,090 students, was erected during 1930-31 at a cost of $1,800,000.
The school was considered outstanding in its imposing appearance and its advancement of the aims and goals of the junior high school, as well as a symbol of hope and accomplishment.
The Modernization of School Architecture
The 1920s were a period of change in the design of American school buildings, with a gradual move away from established norms in building type and design toward modernized and standardized educational facilities. The hold of the strong tradition of the Collegiate Gothic or "scholastic" style of school buildings lessened as other styles joined the repertory, including the Colonial Revival, Renaissance Revival, and regional styles such as the Mission Revival style in California. Despite the emergence of different stylistic treatments, however, the "American school house" remained, typically, a brick clad structure with stone ornament and an imposing entrance tower; there was the strong feeling that a school building, above all, should look like a school building with the appropriate amount of civic monumental ity and be designed in good taste with appropriateness to its community setting.
While school buildings remained stylistically traditional prior to 1930, the progressive aspect of school design was less visible on the exterior. Great strides were made in planning for school size and programs, the standardization of plans and classroom requirements, the sophistication of mechanical systems, and the provision of campus-like settings; the
increasing specialization of school design was directed at producing efficient and economical school buildings. Concern with the practical aspects of school design in the 1920s greatly overshadowed interest in the detailing of the exterior of the building, which at times lacked a vitality in design.
By the end of the decade, advancements had been made in planning and constructing school buildings, although progressive educators and designers were urging a more visible modernization of school exteriors. Around 1928, as the Art Deco style was gaining in popularity and acceptance, it began to be used as another type of ornamentation for the brick-clad school; in the earliest examples, the detailing of the brick sheathing and trim at entrances, parapets, and windows were executed modernistically.
Around 1930 school designs appeared that were more truly characteristic of Art Deco style architecture, with complex, plan-generated massing, functional designs, and well-integrated ornamentation programs, such as the Newark Public School of Fine & Industrial Art (Guilbert & Betelle, 1930-31) and the Herman Ridder Junior High School. At about this same time, in the more avant-garde realm of private school design, the International style was appearing in the work of Howe & Lescaze and others.
As the 1930s progressed, the bold forms and massing strategies of the Art Deco style were emphasized rather than ornamentation and there was an increasing influence of the European International style in public school design.
When American school designers turned to modernistic ornament for schools, their primary sources of inspiration, both theoretically and practically, were industrial and commercial buildings. The aesthetic austerity and fenestration of many school designs in the mid-1920s had already prompted a comparison of schools and factory buildings.
The image of an industrial America was a strong influence on the art and national consciousness of the 1920s, and the idea of a building designed as a machine for a specific use was popular in architectural theory. Architect Wallace K. Harrison expressed an ideological approach to school design by asserting that "the [school] building must be, to a certain extent, industrial in character as it is a machine for education..."
The massing of a large, low school building was similar to that of a factory or warehouse, where an elevator shaft was freguently treated as a tower at the entrance. The skyscraper, which dominated all architectural imagery in the late 1920s, was linked to academia with the design for the projected fifty-four-stor/ "Cathedral of Learning" for the University of Pittsburgh (Charles Z. Klauder, 1925-37) which was conceived to dominate the city both physically and psychologically. The designs of tall buildings provided prototypes for wall treatment and entrances, as well as for the massing of the traditional school tower.
Reflecting these national trends in school design were the changes in school building architecture in New York City, controlled by the Superintendent of School Buildings who supervised the design and construction of all city school buildings for the Board of Education. An era in school design passed with the retirement of C.B.J. Snyder in 1923 after over thirty years as Superintendent of School Buildings; Snyder had introduced the Collegiate Gothic style and made improvements in the planning of schools. William Gompert, who succeeded Snyder, supervised the extensive school building program which peaked in the mid-1920s, when as many as sixty-four buildings were completed in a year. This period of school design was marked by the need for economy and increasing standardization in design and construction.
Gompert designed schools in the accepted range of revival styles, including the Georgian Revival style that became popular in the 1920s, and tentatively explored the use of modem design in the detailing of the De Witt Clinton High School, the Bronx, which featured "modernistic features designed in a careful way.
Walter C. Martin, who assumed the position of Superintendent of School Buildings in 1928, supervised the emergence of the "modernistic academic" style in New York City. The designs of the Seward Park High School in Manhattan (finished under Martin's supervision, 1928-29) and the Brooklyn Industrial High School for Girls (now the Sarah J. Hale High School, 1929-30) combined Art Deco-inspired ornamentation with modernized classical elements applied to the brick-clad structures, resulting in an incipient modernistic approach characteristic of the first phase of Art Deco style schools.
With the design of Herman Ridder Junior High School and Public School 107 (the Bronx, 1931) bolder steps were taken with the style; the modernistic elements were well-integrated with the lingering references to classical architecture — the pedimented entrance surrounds, the implied dome, and pilasters with capitals. This pioneering use of a "modernistic" aesthetic for the design of Herman Ridder Junior High School, which extended to the interior of the school as well, reflects the maturation of Art Deco style school design about 1930.
The decision by the Board of Education to use a modernistic style for the Herman Ridder Junior High School in the Bronx reflects the increasing popularity and acceptance of the Art Deco style in that area of the city. The Board of Education was admittedly conservative in its approach to the use of new styles for public schools, an attitude confirmed in the Board of Education's description of the design of Public School 98, which noted the necessity for "crystallized public approval" of modem architecture before it could be proposed in a school design.
This new approach to school design did not preclude the use of more traditional styles; modernistic designs would only be used for some new school buildings and the contextual setting of a new school building would remain an influential factor in the selection of a style for that structure.
Herman Ridder Junior High School was planned and built, apparently by no coincidence, during the same years that Art Deco style apartment buildings were introduced in the Bronx, most notably along the Grand Concourse. The extensive use of ornament on the school reflects not only the early stage of the architectural style, but also an attempt to present a decorative building with ornament placed in traditional locations, and thus appealing to the general public.
"Modernism in Architecture Has Reached the Schools"
"Modernism in architecture has reached the schools," declared the New York Times, as it presented the design of Herman Ridder Junior High School in 1929.
The design of the school emphasized the expression of structural features and incorporated several elements popular in Art Deco style tall buildings. The wall treatment, with projecting piers and vertical window bays, was a direct borrowing from tall building design, noted by Martin as "exemplified by some recent skyscrapers. "H A tower at the main entrance, with "set-back terraces, reminiscent of Babylonian temples" was modeled in the form of a set-back skyscraper. The Art Deco style ornament, executed in a variety of polychromatic materials, featured "colored enamel tiles borrowed from a later age." Added to these commercial- and industrial-inspired design elements was an iconographic program with numerous references to educational ideals which announced, without a doubt, the purpose of the building.
The treatment of the facades of the classroom wings in the manner of tall buildings was a definite departure from the more typical organization of school building facades in which banks of windows indicated the placement of each classroom.This "skyscraper motif" was expected optimistically, in fact, to provide better lighted classrooms.
The articulation of the vertical bays of the facades, with piers projecting beyond recessed bays of windows and spandrel panels, was the characteristic wall treatment of Art Deco style tall buildings which expressed steel-frame construction and reinforced the vertical lines of the building. The street facades of Herman Ridder Junior High School have a strong rhythm created by wide piers which terminate in stepped cresting above the parapet level alternating with simpler, flat ribs between the paired windows. In the typical configuration of factory buildings, entrance and end pavilions of the facades of the school are accentuated; with their pedimental terminations rising above the main parapet level, they enliven the roofline and act as vertical counterpoints to the long expanses of the classroom facades.
The placement of a tower above the entrance to a public school has been a traditional feature of school design since the mid-nineteenth century; a modernistic interpretation of this feature emerges in the design of Herman Ridder Junior High School. The tower, with "terraces and modernistic lines," rises from the main story where it defines the entrance lobby to one story above the juncture of two classroom wings at the comer of Boston Road and East 173rd Street.
The set-back sixth story, a two-stage cylindrical form embraced by four planar window bays, serves as the base of the implied dome. The tower appears to draw on more recent sources of inspiration, as well as the Babylonian temples Martin cited. With the suggestion of a domed termination and sculptural figures emerging from piers, the tower appears to have been inspired by well-known and admired prototypes: the Nebraska State Capitol (Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue, 1920-32) which in turn appears to draw upon the design of the Helsinki Railroad Station (Eliel Saarinen, 1906-14), with its modeled piers and set-back upper stage expressed by alternating planar and curved forms. The inventive form of the school tower, however, also declares its proximity to the city of skyscrapers.
The uninterrupted rise of the tower from the street to its setbacks suggests the zoning- generated skyscraper forms of New York City and the characteristic Manhattan silhouette of set-back skyscrapers rising above neighboring buildings.
The ornamentation of the building incorporates both abstract elements executed in the Art Deco manner and a distinctive iconographic program. Geometric and abstracted ornament includes panels with star medallions and foliate and floral designs placed at spandrels and parapets.
These designs enhance the polychromy of the building, employing a dark red-brown background which also appears in the dark brick of the window spandrels of the classroom wing facades and contrasts with the light tones of buff-colored limestone and yellow brick. The iconography of the stylized figurative elements features many traditional academic symbols — male and female students in profile, the open book, the lamp of knowledge, and, in the larger plaques on the tower, representations of the educational goals of knowledge (the lamp), art (the Pantheon), and music (the lyre).
Another use of classicist design appears in the modernized pedimented entrance surrounds which are, nonetheless, quite similar to entrances to contemporary skyscrapers in scale and emphasis.
The sculptural figures which terminate the piers of the tower are exceptional examples of modernistic sculpture on a public school building. These female figures holding open books are a traditional academic subject presented in a decidedly modernistic manner. They can be considered among the descendants of Eliel Saarinen's lamp-holders that emerge from the piers flanking the entrance of the Helsinki Railroad Station, which include lee Lawrie's figures on the Nebraska State Capitol and the Los Angeles Public Library (Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue, 1921-26), as well as the interior and exterior angels of the Church of Heavenly Rest in New York City (Hardie Philip of Mayers, Murray & Philip, 1927-29).
The school's abstracted robed figures with naturalistic heads are executed in the style popularized by Lawrie — a limited realism with simplified and stylized details. The placement of the figures on the school near the top of all four facades of the tower, rather than near the entrance, as in many other examples, enhances their visibility and gives an academic aura to the commercial form of the skyscraper-like tower.
Description
The Herman Ridder Junior High School building, with four stories above a raised basement, has an irregular plan due to the configuration of the lot in the block bounded by Boston Road, Crotona Park East, Suburban Place, and East 173rd Street, the Bronx. Two classroom wings extend along Boston Road and East 173rd Street; a six-story tower rises to a height of 133 feet at the juncture of these wings and marks the main entrance.
A third wing, extending from the Boston Road wing through the middle of the block to Crotona Park East, houses an auditorium and two gymnasiums. Above a raised basement sheathed in granite, the first story of the steel-frame structure is clad in limestone, as are the tower, several entrance pavilions, and the parapet. The piers of the street facades, and the interior court elevations, are sheathed with yellow brick.
The centerpiece of the design is the tower, square in plan and set at an angle at the acute comer formed by the intersection of Boston Road and East 173rd Street, in which the main entrance to the school is located. The tower defines the entrance lobby and houses classrooms on the upper stories and, originally, music and band practice rooms at the fifth and sixth stories.
It rises in three bays, the center one projecting slightly. Terra-cotta panels in the spandrels of the center bay express the educational ideals of "Knowledge," "Music," and "Art," while those in the side bays are of a star medallion design, executed in grayed metallic tones with a dark red-brown background.
The piers framing the center bay terminate at the fifth-story setback with curvaceous limestone lamps of knowledge, while those of the side bays evolve into carved female figures holding open books. The fifth story is treated identically on all four exposed sides of the tower. Emerging from this level is a three-stage, cylindrical, flat-topped implied dome. At the sixth story piers project above the central bays of the lower portion of the tower as window surrounds, and create an alternating curved and planar form.
Terra-cotta bands of stylized foliate and floral motifs edge the setbacks, and similar panels at the same level above each window continue this horizontal accent. Two shallow setbacks at the flat-topped terminus of the tower suggest a dome. The tower is linked to the wings on each side by a limestone bay with wide piers flanking a window bay that has stepped reveals and spandrels in a star-medallion design.
A stylized pedimented entry, which projects in three stages from the base of the tower, is edged with a scored cornice, an extension of the limestone band that separates the first story from the upper stories, and a
band of decorative rondels. The name of the school, "P.S. 98 Hermann^ Ridder Junior High School" is carved in relief lettering above the entrance. Modeme style lamps flank the replacement triple doors above which is a large multi-pane transom; decorative metalwork at the lower edge of the transom has been removed.
The original cast-iron fence which surrounds the school has a more ornate section in front of the entry; gates, incorporating "PS 98 HR3HS" in the design, are hung from granite posts with rounded, carved tops. A cornerstone with the date 1930 and octagonal rondels with the City and Board of Education seals, above the windows flanking the entrance on the first story, complete the identification of the school.
The classroom wings along Boston Road and East 173rd Street are divided into bays of two windows by wide modeled piers; narrower ribs rise between the windows.
Spandrels at the third- and fourth-story levels feature terracotta panels — with profiles of male and female students, the lamp of knowledge, and an open book — surrounded by a vertical stripe pattern created through the use of several shades of dark red-brown brick. At the parapet level the spandrel area is filled with paired panels of stylized foliate designs; the piers and ribs project above the panels to form stepped cresting faced in limestone. All of the windows are single and paired with six-over-six double-hung wood sash.
Those on the fifth story of the tower, with segmentally-arched heads, are much taller and have a third multi-pane sash; the windows at the sixth story have multi-pane sidelights.
The auditorium entrance, near the middle of the Boston Road facade, is accentuated by a stylized pedimented surround which projects from a limestone pavilion that terminates above the parapet in a abstracted pedimental form. Stepped piers, which form part of the door surround, are enriched with carved panels; below, the light fixtures have been removed.
A panel with "Auditorium" in relief carving is located above the entrance; the doors and transom are replacements. Banks of four windows on the upper stories of this section are separated by spandrel panels in the star medallion pattern and topped by larger panels. The pediment features an octagonal plaque with an open book; extending above is a flagpole. Flanking this entrance are the original freestanding notice boards.
Entrance pavilions at the west end of the Boston Road facade and the north end of the East 173rd Street facade, faced in limestone, also project above the main parapet level. The upper stories of these sections, identical to the bays linking the tower to the side wings, are single windows flanked by wide piers. The entrance on Boston Road has a stepped pediment edged with an extension of the scored ground-story cornice.
One of the original light fixtures remains in place to the west of the metal replacement doors. The entrance on East 173rd Street has metal replacement doors in a simple scored surround with carved comer blocks.
On the Crotona Park East facade two limestone entrance pavilions frame the slightly recessed facade; the gabled roof over this wing is set back from the parapet. The pavilions are similar to those on the other facades, with stepped piers supporting a stylized pediment that rises above the parapet level. The single bays of windows and spandrels are topped by rondels depicting "Racing" on the east pavilion and "Games" on the west
pavilion; elongated medallions flank the rondels. Identical entrances to the two gymnasiums feature stylized pedimented surrounds; piers with curved tops and carved panels flank the small shouldered pediments in which "Boys Gymnasium" on the east entry and "Girls Gymnasium" on the west entry are carved in relief lettering.
Both entries are filled with four metal doors below a transom area of brick infill. The upper portion of the recessed central portion of the facade is treated similarly to the other street facades. The shorter windows at the second story have four-over-four double-hung wood sash while those at the third and fourth stories have eight-over-eight wood sash. The first story of the facade is a blank wall (behind which is the auditorium stage); the lower portion of this facade has been painted brown. The original cast-iron fence remains in place in front of the recessed central bays.
The visible rear and court elevations are sheathed in yellow brick. The design of the rear wall of the Boston Road classroom wing is an abstraction of the pier and window configuration of the main facades; single and paired windows with six-over-six double-hung wood sash in extremely shallow vertical bays are flanked by piers implied by the cresting which extends above the limestone-coped parapet. This pattern of pier cresting is extended above the blank west wall of the Boston Road wing. Elongated medallions enrich the upper walls of the auditorium wing where visible from the street. The horizontal parapet is coped with limestone.
Subsequent History
The Herman Ridder Junior High School now serves as an intermediate school (grades 6-8). It also enrolls adults in a model parent education program. The school has had a strong music and theatre arts program, and its graduates include Metropolitan Opera diva Regina Resnick and the actors Al Pacino and Hal Linden. The building exists in a remarkably intact condition; the few minor alterations to the street facades include the replacement of original doors and transoms and the loss of some exterior light fixtures.
- From the 1990 NYCLPC Landmark Designation Report
new modification of last model of KAMAZ dump trucks КАМАЗ-6520 - model -53 with max load 20 tons has improved classic 11.76 liter V8 diesel 740.735-400 with increased to 400 hp power and Euro-5 ecological level (Ad blue technology) as the air suspension of cabine.
The construction of the NEFAZ plant began in 1972 in Neftekamsk, Bashkiria, specifically to provide the Kamsky Automobile Plant (KAMAZ), which was under construction, with spare parts and component parts for trucks in accordance with a decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR from December 7, 1970. Since 1977 and up to the present time NEFAZ has been the main producer of dump trucks on KAMAZ chassis. On May 19, 1982, the 100 thousandth KAMAZ-5511 dump truck was produced. In 2000 the development of a large capacity first class city bus was started and in September of the same year a prototype vehicle was produced. The first bus of the Nefaz-5299 family rolled off the assembly line on December 6, 2000. In 2001 115 buses were produced, which were delivered to Ufa, Ishimbai, Sterlitamak, Sibai, Neftekamsk, Kumertau, Beloretsk and Oktyabrsky. At present NEFAZ-5299 is the whole family of Russian buses, which are produced as high-floor (since 2000), low-floor (since 2004), full-floor (since 2011) city, suburban and long-distance buses with diesel and gas engine, as well as trolleybus (since 2008) and electric bus (since 2012) variants. The base model has undergone three significant design restyles (in 2005, 2013 and 2018). NEFAZ-5299 is one of the most popular city bus models in modern Russia: more than 10,000 copies have been produced in 15 years of production. In August 2018, the KAMAZ-6282 electric bus, a joint development of NEFAZ and KAMAZ, was released.
Chinatown Central Plaza Mid-Block PED XING - Pedestrian Crosswalk Crossing traffic signal flashing yellow lights switched off and Bernard Street intersection traffic signal flashing red lights modification controlled by LADOT Special Traffic Operations during the operation of the Los Angeles Chinatown Golden Dragon Parade located at 639 to 651 North Broadway in Chinatown Los Angeles, California 90012 between two towers of Jia Apartments 甲公寓 and Cathay Manor Senior Apartments 國泰莊園老人公寓, HSBC - Hong Kong Shanghai Banking Corporation 香港上海滙豐銀行公司 (港滬銀), Teo Chew Association Temple 潮州會館廟 and BC Plaza 百昌商場.
Note: The new current G.D.P. route travelled Southbound Broadway and made a left turn at Eastbound West Cesar E. Chavez Avenue and ENDS at a right turn into Southbound Spring Street Olvera Street for parade floats disbanding zone since February 2007 to February 2012 but now this Golden Dragon Parade route on Southbound Broadway turns right to Westbound Cesar E. Chavez Avenue and ENDS at North Hill Street overpass bridge and North Grand Avenue for parade floats disbanding zone since February 2013 to present. The former G.D.P. route was on Northbound Broadway (ended here until 2000) from Cesar E. Chavez Avenue to Bernard Street and Southbound Hill Street at Ord Street took place here until 2006.
The former G.D.P. route was on Northbound Broadway (ended here until 2000) from Cesar E. Chavez Avenue to Bernard Street and Southbound Hill Street at Ord Street took place here until 2006.
小公子, 小皇后及洛杉磯市消防員工參加者坐上洛杉磯市消防局車群隊在金龍大遊行巡遊會洛杉磯中國城華埠北百老滙街及奧德街
KRISTIN
Custom Marianne by Sheryl Designs to jpinto
MODIFICATIONS:
Remake Eyebrows
Replaced acrylic eyes
©2007-2010 Sheryl Designs Eyemech Modification
See more photos at: jpinto's Flickr
The doc is cutting off excess plaster which pressed up into dad's arm. Dad said it was a huge relief once the doc cut it off.
A small side project for a friend, I made a minor change to the nose to give it a slightly more realistic texture.
Shows modification of protective coveralls on a worker inside an active remediation work area: respirator around neck, street-footwear in work area, sleeves and hood have been torn off, footings were cut off at calf level, and front zipper was down at waist level. Not sure what the point is anymore in wearing such compromised PPE.
"Abatement Fashion Chic" ?
Arbeia was a large Roman fort in South Shields, Tyne & Wear, England, now ruined, and which has been partially reconstructed. It was first excavated in the 1870s. All modern buildings on the site were cleared in the 1970s. It is managed by Tyne and Wear Museums as Arbeia Roman Fort and Museum.
Name
"Arbeia" may mean the "fort of the Arab troops" referring to the fact that part of its garrison at one time was a squadron of Mesopotamian boatmen from the Tigris, following Emperor Septimius Severus securing the city of Singara in 197.
Otherwise it could mean "(fort by a) stream noted for wild turnips".
History
The fort was built in 129 AD as a small cohort fort, a few years later than most of the Hadrian's Wall forts, on the Lawe Top overlooking the mouth of the River Tyne and four miles beyond the eastern end of Hadrian’s wall, from where it guarded the flank and main sea supply route to the Wall and the small port on the south of the Tyne.
Its garrison was reduced during the occupation of Scotland in the reign of Antoninus Pius. Early in Marcus Aurelius's reign (161 to 180) it was reoccupied and from 198 it was considerably altered in plan and usage. A dividing wall between the northern and southern halves of the fort allowed the north part to store supplies from sea-going ships, while the southern part remained a garrison. The modifications are associated with Septimius Severus' Roman invasion of Caledonia (208–211), a series of campaigns against the troublesome Caledonian tribes, in which the fort may have served as his headquarters.
From 220-235 a new principia (headquarters) with new barracks were built in the southern part of the fort, probably to house the new garrison of Cohors V Gallorum of double size (nominally 1000 men) while the original principia were converted to a granary and 9 more granaries were built in the southern part of the fort, bringing the total to 24. It contains the only permanent stone-built granaries yet found in Britain.[10] It shows that Arbeia became the main supply base for the whole of Hadrian’s Wall rather than obtaining its supplies from the local region by purchase, taxation or requisition which was the usual assumption.
In later 3rd century occupants of the vicus appear to have moved into the empty fort.
After a fire in about 300, 8 of the granaries were converted to barracks, the principia were enlarged and a new large praetorium (commanding officer’s house) built. The fort was finally abandoned around 400.
It is said to be the birthplace of the Northumbrian King Oswin.
When the fort was unexpectedly discovered in 1875 by an unknown amateur it made national news as the numerous finds near the centre of a Northern industrial town were of a quality that shocked archaeologists who found it hard to believe such a site could yield these treasures. The Roman remains attracted crowds that flocked to the town and despite some believing that they were forgeries, further excavations proved that it was a sensational archaeological discovery.
Garrison
The Ala Primae Pannoniorum Sabiniana was the first garrison, a nominally 500-strong cavalry regiment from the Pannonian tribes of modern Hungary. When they were transferred to Onnum later in the 2nd century, another cavalry regiment replaced them, the Ala I Hispanorum Asturum from the Astures tribe of north-western Spain. After it moved to Benwell, they were replaced before 222 by the Cohors V Gallorum, a nominally one-thousand strong infantry regiment possibly from Fort Cramond on the Forth.
The final garrison was the Numerus Barcariorum Tigrisiensium who were transferred from Lancaster Roman Fort and originally barge-men from the River Tigris in the Middle-East recorded in the Notitia Dignitatum.
Praetorium
The later commanding officer’s house built after 300 resembled elegant 3rd and 4th century houses from the Mediterranean area and included an atrium at the entrance leading to a colonnaded courtyard with fountain around which most of the rooms were organised. Many of the rooms were decorated with frescoes. A private thermal baths suite included hypocausts for the heated rooms.
Museum
Two monuments in the museum at Arbeia testify to the cosmopolitan nature of its shifting population. One commemorate Regina, a British woman of the Catuvellauni tribe (approximately modern Hertfordshire). She was first the slave, then the freedwoman and wife of Barates, an Arab merchant from Palmyra (now part of Syria) who, evidently missing her greatly, set up a gravestone after she died at the age of 30 in the second half of the second century. (Barates himself is buried at the nearby fort at Corbridge in Northumberland.) The second commemorates Victor, another former slave, freed by Numerianus of the Ala I Asturum, who also arranged his funeral ("piantissime": with all devotion) when Victor died at the age of 20. The stone records that Victor was "of the Moorish nation".
The museum also holds an altarpiece to a previously unknown god and a tablet with the name of the Emperor Severus Alexander (died 235) chiselled off, an example of damnatio memoriae.
Reconstruction
The West Gate of the fort was reconstructed in 1986 to give an impression of the place. The Reconstruction of the fort has been accomplished using research which was undertaken following excavations, standing where it had originally existed during the Roman occupation of Britain.
A Roman gatehouse, barracks and Commanding Officer's house have been reconstructed on their original foundations. The gatehouse holds many displays related to the history of the fort, and its upper levels provide an overview of the archaeological site.
Roman Britain was the territory that became the Roman province of Britannia after the Roman conquest of Britain, consisting of a large part of the island of Great Britain. The occupation lasted from AD 43 to AD 410.
Julius Caesar invaded Britain in 55 and 54 BC as part of his Gallic Wars. According to Caesar, the Britons had been overrun or culturally assimilated by the Belgae during the British Iron Age and had been aiding Caesar's enemies. The Belgae were the only Celtic tribe to cross the sea into Britain, for to all other Celtic tribes this land was unknown. He received tribute, installed the friendly king Mandubracius over the Trinovantes, and returned to Gaul. Planned invasions under Augustus were called off in 34, 27, and 25 BC. In 40 AD, Caligula assembled 200,000 men at the Channel on the continent, only to have them gather seashells (musculi) according to Suetonius, perhaps as a symbolic gesture to proclaim Caligula's victory over the sea. Three years later, Claudius directed four legions to invade Britain and restore the exiled king Verica over the Atrebates. The Romans defeated the Catuvellauni, and then organized their conquests as the province of Britain. By 47 AD, the Romans held the lands southeast of the Fosse Way. Control over Wales was delayed by reverses and the effects of Boudica's uprising, but the Romans expanded steadily northward.
The conquest of Britain continued under command of Gnaeus Julius Agricola (77–84), who expanded the Roman Empire as far as Caledonia. In mid-84 AD, Agricola faced the armies of the Caledonians, led by Calgacus, at the Battle of Mons Graupius. Battle casualties were estimated by Tacitus to be upwards of 10,000 on the Caledonian side and about 360 on the Roman side. The bloodbath at Mons Graupius concluded the forty-year conquest of Britain, a period that possibly saw between 100,000 and 250,000 Britons killed. In the context of pre-industrial warfare and of a total population of Britain of c. 2 million, these are very high figures.
Under the 2nd-century emperors Hadrian and Antoninus Pius, two walls were built to defend the Roman province from the Caledonians, whose realms in the Scottish Highlands were never controlled. Around 197 AD, the Severan Reforms divided Britain into two provinces: Britannia Superior and Britannia Inferior. During the Diocletian Reforms, at the end of the 3rd century, Britannia was divided into four provinces under the direction of a vicarius, who administered the Diocese of the Britains. A fifth province, Valentia, is attested in the later 4th century. For much of the later period of the Roman occupation, Britannia was subject to barbarian invasions and often came under the control of imperial usurpers and imperial pretenders. The final Roman withdrawal from Britain occurred around 410; the native kingdoms are considered to have formed Sub-Roman Britain after that.
Following the conquest of the Britons, a distinctive Romano-British culture emerged as the Romans introduced improved agriculture, urban planning, industrial production, and architecture. The Roman goddess Britannia became the female personification of Britain. After the initial invasions, Roman historians generally only mention Britain in passing. Thus, most present knowledge derives from archaeological investigations and occasional epigraphic evidence lauding the Britannic achievements of an emperor. Roman citizens settled in Britain from many parts of the Empire.
History
Britain was known to the Classical world. The Greeks, the Phoenicians and the Carthaginians traded for Cornish tin in the 4th century BC. The Greeks referred to the Cassiterides, or "tin islands", and placed them near the west coast of Europe. The Carthaginian sailor Himilco is said to have visited the island in the 6th or 5th century BC and the Greek explorer Pytheas in the 4th. It was regarded as a place of mystery, with some writers refusing to believe it existed.
The first direct Roman contact was when Julius Caesar undertook two expeditions in 55 and 54 BC, as part of his conquest of Gaul, believing the Britons were helping the Gallic resistance. The first expedition was more a reconnaissance than a full invasion and gained a foothold on the coast of Kent but was unable to advance further because of storm damage to the ships and a lack of cavalry. Despite the military failure, it was a political success, with the Roman Senate declaring a 20-day public holiday in Rome to honour the unprecedented achievement of obtaining hostages from Britain and defeating Belgic tribes on returning to the continent.
The second invasion involved a substantially larger force and Caesar coerced or invited many of the native Celtic tribes to pay tribute and give hostages in return for peace. A friendly local king, Mandubracius, was installed, and his rival, Cassivellaunus, was brought to terms. Hostages were taken, but historians disagree over whether any tribute was paid after Caesar returned to Gaul.
Caesar conquered no territory and left no troops behind, but he established clients and brought Britain into Rome's sphere of influence. Augustus planned invasions in 34, 27 and 25 BC, but circumstances were never favourable, and the relationship between Britain and Rome settled into one of diplomacy and trade. Strabo, writing late in Augustus's reign, claimed that taxes on trade brought in more annual revenue than any conquest could. Archaeology shows that there was an increase in imported luxury goods in southeastern Britain. Strabo also mentions British kings who sent embassies to Augustus, and Augustus's own Res Gestae refers to two British kings he received as refugees. When some of Tiberius's ships were carried to Britain in a storm during his campaigns in Germany in 16 AD, they came back with tales of monsters.
Rome appears to have encouraged a balance of power in southern Britain, supporting two powerful kingdoms: the Catuvellauni, ruled by the descendants of Tasciovanus, and the Atrebates, ruled by the descendants of Commius. This policy was followed until 39 or 40 AD, when Caligula received an exiled member of the Catuvellaunian dynasty and planned an invasion of Britain that collapsed in farcical circumstances before it left Gaul. When Claudius successfully invaded in 43 AD, it was in aid of another fugitive British ruler, Verica of the Atrebates.
Roman invasion
The invasion force in 43 AD was led by Aulus Plautius,[26] but it is unclear how many legions were sent. The Legio II Augusta, commanded by future emperor Vespasian, was the only one directly attested to have taken part. The Legio IX Hispana, the XIV Gemina (later styled Martia Victrix) and the XX (later styled Valeria Victrix) are known to have served during the Boudican Revolt of 60/61, and were probably there since the initial invasion. This is not certain because the Roman army was flexible, with units being moved around whenever necessary. The IX Hispana may have been permanently stationed, with records showing it at Eboracum (York) in 71 and on a building inscription there dated 108, before being destroyed in the east of the Empire, possibly during the Bar Kokhba revolt.
The invasion was delayed by a troop mutiny until an imperial freedman persuaded them to overcome their fear of crossing the Ocean and campaigning beyond the limits of the known world. They sailed in three divisions, and probably landed at Richborough in Kent; at least part of the force may have landed near Fishbourne, West Sussex.
The Catuvellauni and their allies were defeated in two battles: the first, assuming a Richborough landing, on the river Medway, the second on the river Thames. One of their leaders, Togodumnus, was killed, but his brother Caratacus survived to continue resistance elsewhere. Plautius halted at the Thames and sent for Claudius, who arrived with reinforcements, including artillery and elephants, for the final march to the Catuvellaunian capital, Camulodunum (Colchester). Vespasian subdued the southwest, Cogidubnus was set up as a friendly king of several territories, and treaties were made with tribes outside direct Roman control.
Establishment of Roman rule
After capturing the south of the island, the Romans turned their attention to what is now Wales. The Silures, Ordovices and Deceangli remained implacably opposed to the invaders and for the first few decades were the focus of Roman military attention, despite occasional minor revolts among Roman allies like the Brigantes and the Iceni. The Silures were led by Caratacus, and he carried out an effective guerrilla campaign against Governor Publius Ostorius Scapula. Finally, in 51, Ostorius lured Caratacus into a set-piece battle and defeated him. The British leader sought refuge among the Brigantes, but their queen, Cartimandua, proved her loyalty by surrendering him to the Romans. He was brought as a captive to Rome, where a dignified speech he made during Claudius's triumph persuaded the emperor to spare his life. The Silures were still not pacified, and Cartimandua's ex-husband Venutius replaced Caratacus as the most prominent leader of British resistance.
On Nero's accession, Roman Britain extended as far north as Lindum. Gaius Suetonius Paulinus, the conqueror of Mauretania (modern day Algeria and Morocco), then became governor of Britain, and in 60 and 61 he moved against Mona (Anglesey) to settle accounts with Druidism once and for all. Paulinus led his army across the Menai Strait and massacred the Druids and burnt their sacred groves.
While Paulinus was campaigning in Mona, the southeast of Britain rose in revolt under the leadership of Boudica. She was the widow of the recently deceased king of the Iceni, Prasutagus. The Roman historian Tacitus reports that Prasutagus had left a will leaving half his kingdom to Nero in the hope that the remainder would be left untouched. He was wrong. When his will was enforced, Rome[clarification needed] responded by violently seizing the tribe's lands in full. Boudica protested. In consequence, Rome[clarification needed] punished her and her daughters by flogging and rape. In response, the Iceni, joined by the Trinovantes, destroyed the Roman colony at Camulodunum (Colchester) and routed the part of the IXth Legion that was sent to relieve it. Paulinus rode to London (then called Londinium), the rebels' next target, but concluded it could not be defended. Abandoned, it was destroyed, as was Verulamium (St. Albans). Between seventy and eighty thousand people are said to have been killed in the three cities. But Paulinus regrouped with two of the three legions still available to him, chose a battlefield, and, despite being outnumbered by more than twenty to one, defeated the rebels in the Battle of Watling Street. Boudica died not long afterwards, by self-administered poison or by illness. During this time, the Emperor Nero considered withdrawing Roman forces from Britain altogether.
There was further turmoil in 69, the "Year of the Four Emperors". As civil war raged in Rome, weak governors were unable to control the legions in Britain, and Venutius of the Brigantes seized his chance. The Romans had previously defended Cartimandua against him, but this time were unable to do so. Cartimandua was evacuated, and Venutius was left in control of the north of the country. After Vespasian secured the empire, his first two appointments as governor, Quintus Petillius Cerialis and Sextus Julius Frontinus, took on the task of subduing the Brigantes and Silures respectively.[38] Frontinus extended Roman rule to all of South Wales, and initiated exploitation of the mineral resources, such as the gold mines at Dolaucothi.
In the following years, the Romans conquered more of the island, increasing the size of Roman Britain. Governor Gnaeus Julius Agricola, father-in-law to the historian Tacitus, conquered the Ordovices in 78. With the XX Valeria Victrix legion, Agricola defeated the Caledonians in 84 at the Battle of Mons Graupius, in north-east Scotland. This was the high-water mark of Roman territory in Britain: shortly after his victory, Agricola was recalled from Britain back to Rome, and the Romans initially retired to a more defensible line along the Forth–Clyde isthmus, freeing soldiers badly needed along other frontiers.
For much of the history of Roman Britain, a large number of soldiers were garrisoned on the island. This required that the emperor station a trusted senior man as governor of the province. As a result, many future emperors served as governors or legates in this province, including Vespasian, Pertinax, and Gordian I.
Roman military organisation in the north
In 84 AD
In 84 AD
In 155 AD
In 155 AD
Hadrian's Wall, and Antonine Wall
There is no historical source describing the decades that followed Agricola's recall. Even the name of his replacement is unknown. Archaeology has shown that some Roman forts south of the Forth–Clyde isthmus were rebuilt and enlarged; others appear to have been abandoned. By 87 the frontier had been consolidated on the Stanegate. Roman coins and pottery have been found circulating at native settlement sites in the Scottish Lowlands in the years before 100, indicating growing Romanisation. Some of the most important sources for this era are the writing tablets from the fort at Vindolanda in Northumberland, mostly dating to 90–110. These tablets provide evidence for the operation of a Roman fort at the edge of the Roman Empire, where officers' wives maintained polite society while merchants, hauliers and military personnel kept the fort operational and supplied.
Around 105 there appears to have been a serious setback at the hands of the tribes of the Picts: several Roman forts were destroyed by fire, with human remains and damaged armour at Trimontium (at modern Newstead, in SE Scotland) indicating hostilities at least at that site.[citation needed] There is also circumstantial evidence that auxiliary reinforcements were sent from Germany, and an unnamed British war of the period is mentioned on the gravestone of a tribune of Cyrene. Trajan's Dacian Wars may have led to troop reductions in the area or even total withdrawal followed by slighting of the forts by the Picts rather than an unrecorded military defeat. The Romans were also in the habit of destroying their own forts during an orderly withdrawal, in order to deny resources to an enemy. In either case, the frontier probably moved south to the line of the Stanegate at the Solway–Tyne isthmus around this time.
A new crisis occurred at the beginning of Hadrian's reign): a rising in the north which was suppressed by Quintus Pompeius Falco. When Hadrian reached Britannia on his famous tour of the Roman provinces around 120, he directed an extensive defensive wall, known to posterity as Hadrian's Wall, to be built close to the line of the Stanegate frontier. Hadrian appointed Aulus Platorius Nepos as governor to undertake this work who brought the Legio VI Victrix legion with him from Germania Inferior. This replaced the famous Legio IX Hispana, whose disappearance has been much discussed. Archaeology indicates considerable political instability in Scotland during the first half of the 2nd century, and the shifting frontier at this time should be seen in this context.
In the reign of Antoninus Pius (138–161) the Hadrianic border was briefly extended north to the Forth–Clyde isthmus, where the Antonine Wall was built around 142 following the military reoccupation of the Scottish lowlands by a new governor, Quintus Lollius Urbicus.
The first Antonine occupation of Scotland ended as a result of a further crisis in 155–157, when the Brigantes revolted. With limited options to despatch reinforcements, the Romans moved their troops south, and this rising was suppressed by Governor Gnaeus Julius Verus. Within a year the Antonine Wall was recaptured, but by 163 or 164 it was abandoned. The second occupation was probably connected with Antoninus's undertakings to protect the Votadini or his pride in enlarging the empire, since the retreat to the Hadrianic frontier occurred not long after his death when a more objective strategic assessment of the benefits of the Antonine Wall could be made. The Romans did not entirely withdraw from Scotland at this time: the large fort at Newstead was maintained along with seven smaller outposts until at least 180.
During the twenty-year period following the reversion of the frontier to Hadrian's Wall in 163/4, Rome was concerned with continental issues, primarily problems in the Danubian provinces. Increasing numbers of hoards of buried coins in Britain at this time indicate that peace was not entirely achieved. Sufficient Roman silver has been found in Scotland to suggest more than ordinary trade, and it is likely that the Romans were reinforcing treaty agreements by paying tribute to their implacable enemies, the Picts.
In 175, a large force of Sarmatian cavalry, consisting of 5,500 men, arrived in Britannia, probably to reinforce troops fighting unrecorded uprisings. In 180, Hadrian's Wall was breached by the Picts and the commanding officer or governor was killed there in what Cassius Dio described as the most serious war of the reign of Commodus. Ulpius Marcellus was sent as replacement governor and by 184 he had won a new peace, only to be faced with a mutiny from his own troops. Unhappy with Marcellus's strictness, they tried to elect a legate named Priscus as usurper governor; he refused, but Marcellus was lucky to leave the province alive. The Roman army in Britannia continued its insubordination: they sent a delegation of 1,500 to Rome to demand the execution of Tigidius Perennis, a Praetorian prefect who they felt had earlier wronged them by posting lowly equites to legate ranks in Britannia. Commodus met the party outside Rome and agreed to have Perennis killed, but this only made them feel more secure in their mutiny.
The future emperor Pertinax (lived 126–193) was sent to Britannia to quell the mutiny and was initially successful in regaining control, but a riot broke out among the troops. Pertinax was attacked and left for dead, and asked to be recalled to Rome, where he briefly succeeded Commodus as emperor in 192.
3rd century
The death of Commodus put into motion a series of events which eventually led to civil war. Following the short reign of Pertinax, several rivals for the emperorship emerged, including Septimius Severus and Clodius Albinus. The latter was the new governor of Britannia, and had seemingly won the natives over after their earlier rebellions; he also controlled three legions, making him a potentially significant claimant. His sometime rival Severus promised him the title of Caesar in return for Albinus's support against Pescennius Niger in the east. Once Niger was neutralised, Severus turned on his ally in Britannia; it is likely that Albinus saw he would be the next target and was already preparing for war.
Albinus crossed to Gaul in 195, where the provinces were also sympathetic to him, and set up at Lugdunum. Severus arrived in February 196, and the ensuing battle was decisive. Albinus came close to victory, but Severus's reinforcements won the day, and the British governor committed suicide. Severus soon purged Albinus's sympathisers and perhaps confiscated large tracts of land in Britain as punishment. Albinus had demonstrated the major problem posed by Roman Britain. In order to maintain security, the province required the presence of three legions, but command of these forces provided an ideal power base for ambitious rivals. Deploying those legions elsewhere would strip the island of its garrison, leaving the province defenceless against uprisings by the native Celtic tribes and against invasion by the Picts and Scots.
The traditional view is that northern Britain descended into anarchy during Albinus's absence. Cassius Dio records that the new Governor, Virius Lupus, was obliged to buy peace from a fractious northern tribe known as the Maeatae. The succession of militarily distinguished governors who were subsequently appointed suggests that enemies of Rome were posing a difficult challenge, and Lucius Alfenus Senecio's report to Rome in 207 describes barbarians "rebelling, over-running the land, taking loot and creating destruction". In order to rebel, of course, one must be a subject – the Maeatae clearly did not consider themselves such. Senecio requested either reinforcements or an Imperial expedition, and Severus chose the latter, despite being 62 years old. Archaeological evidence shows that Senecio had been rebuilding the defences of Hadrian's Wall and the forts beyond it, and Severus's arrival in Britain prompted the enemy tribes to sue for peace immediately. The emperor had not come all that way to leave without a victory, and it is likely that he wished to provide his teenage sons Caracalla and Geta with first-hand experience of controlling a hostile barbarian land.
Northern campaigns, 208–211
An invasion of Caledonia led by Severus and probably numbering around 20,000 troops moved north in 208 or 209, crossing the Wall and passing through eastern Scotland on a route similar to that used by Agricola. Harried by punishing guerrilla raids by the northern tribes and slowed by an unforgiving terrain, Severus was unable to meet the Caledonians on a battlefield. The emperor's forces pushed north as far as the River Tay, but little appears to have been achieved by the invasion, as peace treaties were signed with the Caledonians. By 210 Severus had returned to York, and the frontier had once again become Hadrian's Wall. He assumed the title Britannicus but the title meant little with regard to the unconquered north, which clearly remained outside the authority of the Empire. Almost immediately, another northern tribe, the Maeatae, went to war. Caracalla left with a punitive expedition, but by the following year his ailing father had died and he and his brother left the province to press their claim to the throne.
As one of his last acts, Severus tried to solve the problem of powerful and rebellious governors in Britain by dividing the province into Britannia Superior and Britannia Inferior. This kept the potential for rebellion in check for almost a century. Historical sources provide little information on the following decades, a period known as the Long Peace. Even so, the number of buried hoards found from this period rises, suggesting continuing unrest. A string of forts were built along the coast of southern Britain to control piracy; and over the following hundred years they increased in number, becoming the Saxon Shore Forts.
During the middle of the 3rd century, the Roman Empire was convulsed by barbarian invasions, rebellions and new imperial pretenders. Britannia apparently avoided these troubles, but increasing inflation had its economic effect. In 259 a so-called Gallic Empire was established when Postumus rebelled against Gallienus. Britannia was part of this until 274 when Aurelian reunited the empire.
Around the year 280, a half-British officer named Bonosus was in command of the Roman's Rhenish fleet when the Germans managed to burn it at anchor. To avoid punishment, he proclaimed himself emperor at Colonia Agrippina (Cologne) but was crushed by Marcus Aurelius Probus. Soon afterwards, an unnamed governor of one of the British provinces also attempted an uprising. Probus put it down by sending irregular troops of Vandals and Burgundians across the Channel.
The Carausian Revolt led to a short-lived Britannic Empire from 286 to 296. Carausius was a Menapian naval commander of the Britannic fleet; he revolted upon learning of a death sentence ordered by the emperor Maximian on charges of having abetted Frankish and Saxon pirates and having embezzled recovered treasure. He consolidated control over all the provinces of Britain and some of northern Gaul while Maximian dealt with other uprisings. An invasion in 288 failed to unseat him and an uneasy peace ensued, with Carausius issuing coins and inviting official recognition. In 293, the junior emperor Constantius Chlorus launched a second offensive, besieging the rebel port of Gesoriacum (Boulogne-sur-Mer) by land and sea. After it fell, Constantius attacked Carausius's other Gallic holdings and Frankish allies and Carausius was usurped by his treasurer, Allectus. Julius Asclepiodotus landed an invasion fleet near Southampton and defeated Allectus in a land battle.
Diocletian's reforms
As part of Diocletian's reforms, the provinces of Roman Britain were organized as a diocese governed by a vicarius under a praetorian prefect who, from 318 to 331, was Junius Bassus who was based at Augusta Treverorum (Trier).
The vicarius was based at Londinium as the principal city of the diocese. Londinium and Eboracum continued as provincial capitals and the territory was divided up into smaller provinces for administrative efficiency.
Civilian and military authority of a province was no longer exercised by one official and the governor was stripped of military command which was handed over to the Dux Britanniarum by 314. The governor of a province assumed more financial duties (the procurators of the Treasury ministry were slowly phased out in the first three decades of the 4th century). The Dux was commander of the troops of the Northern Region, primarily along Hadrian's Wall and his responsibilities included protection of the frontier. He had significant autonomy due in part to the distance from his superiors.
The tasks of the vicarius were to control and coordinate the activities of governors; monitor but not interfere with the daily functioning of the Treasury and Crown Estates, which had their own administrative infrastructure; and act as the regional quartermaster-general of the armed forces. In short, as the sole civilian official with superior authority, he had general oversight of the administration, as well as direct control, while not absolute, over governors who were part of the prefecture; the other two fiscal departments were not.
The early-4th-century Verona List, the late-4th-century work of Sextus Rufus, and the early-5th-century List of Offices and work of Polemius Silvius all list four provinces by some variation of the names Britannia I, Britannia II, Maxima Caesariensis, and Flavia Caesariensis; all of these seem to have initially been directed by a governor (praeses) of equestrian rank. The 5th-century sources list a fifth province named Valentia and give its governor and Maxima's a consular rank. Ammianus mentions Valentia as well, describing its creation by Count Theodosius in 369 after the quelling of the Great Conspiracy. Ammianus considered it a re-creation of a formerly lost province, leading some to think there had been an earlier fifth province under another name (may be the enigmatic "Vespasiana"), and leading others to place Valentia beyond Hadrian's Wall, in the territory abandoned south of the Antonine Wall.
Reconstructions of the provinces and provincial capitals during this period partially rely on ecclesiastical records. On the assumption that the early bishoprics mimicked the imperial hierarchy, scholars use the list of bishops for the 314 Council of Arles. The list is patently corrupt: the British delegation is given as including a Bishop "Eborius" of Eboracum and two bishops "from Londinium" (one de civitate Londinensi and the other de civitate colonia Londinensium). The error is variously emended: Bishop Ussher proposed Colonia, Selden Col. or Colon. Camalodun., and Spelman Colonia Cameloduni (all various names of Colchester); Gale and Bingham offered colonia Lindi and Henry Colonia Lindum (both Lincoln); and Bishop Stillingfleet and Francis Thackeray read it as a scribal error of Civ. Col. Londin. for an original Civ. Col. Leg. II (Caerleon). On the basis of the Verona List, the priest and deacon who accompanied the bishops in some manuscripts are ascribed to the fourth province.
In the 12th century, Gerald of Wales described the supposedly metropolitan sees of the early British church established by the legendary SS Fagan and "Duvian". He placed Britannia Prima in Wales and western England with its capital at "Urbs Legionum" (Caerleon); Britannia Secunda in Kent and southern England with its capital at "Dorobernia" (Canterbury); Flavia in Mercia and central England with its capital at "Lundonia" (London); "Maximia" in northern England with its capital at Eboracum (York); and Valentia in "Albania which is now Scotland" with its capital at St Andrews. Modern scholars generally dispute the last: some place Valentia at or beyond Hadrian's Wall but St Andrews is beyond even the Antonine Wall and Gerald seems to have simply been supporting the antiquity of its church for political reasons.
A common modern reconstruction places the consular province of Maxima at Londinium, on the basis of its status as the seat of the diocesan vicarius; places Prima in the west according to Gerald's traditional account but moves its capital to Corinium of the Dobunni (Cirencester) on the basis of an artifact recovered there referring to Lucius Septimius, a provincial rector; places Flavia north of Maxima, with its capital placed at Lindum Colonia (Lincoln) to match one emendation of the bishops list from Arles;[d] and places Secunda in the north with its capital at Eboracum (York). Valentia is placed variously in northern Wales around Deva (Chester); beside Hadrian's Wall around Luguvalium (Carlisle); and between the walls along Dere Street.
4th century
Emperor Constantius returned to Britain in 306, despite his poor health, with an army aiming to invade northern Britain, the provincial defences having been rebuilt in the preceding years. Little is known of his campaigns with scant archaeological evidence, but fragmentary historical sources suggest he reached the far north of Britain and won a major battle in early summer before returning south. His son Constantine (later Constantine the Great) spent a year in northern Britain at his father's side, campaigning against the Picts beyond Hadrian's Wall in the summer and autumn. Constantius died in York in July 306 with his son at his side. Constantine then successfully used Britain as the starting point of his march to the imperial throne, unlike the earlier usurper, Albinus.
In the middle of the century, the province was loyal for a few years to the usurper Magnentius, who succeeded Constans following the latter's death. After the defeat and death of Magnentius in the Battle of Mons Seleucus in 353, Constantius II dispatched his chief imperial notary Paulus Catena to Britain to hunt down Magnentius's supporters. The investigation deteriorated into a witch-hunt, which forced the vicarius Flavius Martinus to intervene. When Paulus retaliated by accusing Martinus of treason, the vicarius attacked Paulus with a sword, with the aim of assassinating him, but in the end he committed suicide.
As the 4th century progressed, there were increasing attacks from the Saxons in the east and the Scoti (Irish) in the west. A series of forts had been built, starting around 280, to defend the coasts, but these preparations were not enough when, in 367, a general assault of Saxons, Picts, Scoti and Attacotti, combined with apparent dissension in the garrison on Hadrian's Wall, left Roman Britain prostrate. The invaders overwhelmed the entire western and northern regions of Britannia and the cities were sacked. This crisis, sometimes called the Barbarian Conspiracy or the Great Conspiracy, was settled by Count Theodosius from 368 with a string of military and civil reforms. Theodosius crossed from Bononia (Boulogne-sur-Mer) and marched on Londinium where he began to deal with the invaders and made his base.[ An amnesty was promised to deserters which enabled Theodosius to regarrison abandoned forts. By the end of the year Hadrian's Wall was retaken and order returned. Considerable reorganization was undertaken in Britain, including the creation of a new province named Valentia, probably to better address the state of the far north. A new Dux Britanniarum was appointed, Dulcitius, with Civilis to head a new civilian administration.
Another imperial usurper, Magnus Maximus, raised the standard of revolt at Segontium (Caernarfon) in north Wales in 383, and crossed the English Channel. Maximus held much of the western empire, and fought a successful campaign against the Picts and Scots around 384. His continental exploits required troops from Britain, and it appears that forts at Chester and elsewhere were abandoned in this period, triggering raids and settlement in north Wales by the Irish. His rule was ended in 388, but not all the British troops may have returned: the Empire's military resources were stretched to the limit along the Rhine and Danube. Around 396 there were more barbarian incursions into Britain. Stilicho led a punitive expedition. It seems peace was restored by 399, and it is likely that no further garrisoning was ordered; by 401 more troops were withdrawn, to assist in the war against Alaric I.
End of Roman rule
The traditional view of historians, informed by the work of Michael Rostovtzeff, was of a widespread economic decline at the beginning of the 5th century. Consistent archaeological evidence has told another story, and the accepted view is undergoing re-evaluation. Some features are agreed: more opulent but fewer urban houses, an end to new public building and some abandonment of existing ones, with the exception of defensive structures, and the widespread formation of "dark earth" deposits indicating increased horticulture within urban precincts. Turning over the basilica at Silchester to industrial uses in the late 3rd century, doubtless officially condoned, marks an early stage in the de-urbanisation of Roman Britain.
The abandonment of some sites is now believed to be later than had been thought. Many buildings changed use but were not destroyed. There was a growing number of barbarian attacks, but these targeted vulnerable rural settlements rather than towns. Some villas such as Chedworth, Great Casterton in Rutland and Hucclecote in Gloucestershire had new mosaic floors laid around this time, suggesting that economic problems may have been limited and patchy. Many suffered some decay before being abandoned in the 5th century; the story of Saint Patrick indicates that villas were still occupied until at least 430. Exceptionally, new buildings were still going up in this period in Verulamium and Cirencester. Some urban centres, for example Canterbury, Cirencester, Wroxeter, Winchester and Gloucester, remained active during the 5th and 6th centuries, surrounded by large farming estates.
Urban life had generally grown less intense by the fourth quarter of the 4th century, and coins minted between 378 and 388 are very rare, indicating a likely combination of economic decline, diminishing numbers of troops, problems with the payment of soldiers and officials or with unstable conditions during the usurpation of Magnus Maximus 383–87. Coinage circulation increased during the 390s, but never attained the levels of earlier decades. Copper coins are very rare after 402, though minted silver and gold coins from hoards indicate they were still present in the province even if they were not being spent. By 407 there were very few new Roman coins going into circulation, and by 430 it is likely that coinage as a medium of exchange had been abandoned. Mass-produced wheel thrown pottery ended at approximately the same time; the rich continued to use metal and glass vessels, while the poor made do with humble "grey ware" or resorted to leather or wooden containers.
Sub-Roman Britain
Towards the end of the 4th century Roman rule in Britain came under increasing pressure from barbarian attacks. Apparently, there were not enough troops to mount an effective defence. After elevating two disappointing usurpers, the army chose a soldier, Constantine III, to become emperor in 407. He crossed to Gaul but was defeated by Honorius; it is unclear how many troops remained or ever returned, or whether a commander-in-chief in Britain was ever reappointed. A Saxon incursion in 408 was apparently repelled by the Britons, and in 409 Zosimus records that the natives expelled the Roman civilian administration. Zosimus may be referring to the Bacaudic rebellion of the Breton inhabitants of Armorica since he describes how, in the aftermath of the revolt, all of Armorica and the rest of Gaul followed the example of the Brettaniai. A letter from Emperor Honorius in 410 has traditionally been seen as rejecting a British appeal for help, but it may have been addressed to Bruttium or Bologna. With the imperial layers of the military and civil government gone, administration and justice fell to municipal authorities, and local warlords gradually emerged all over Britain, still utilizing Romano-British ideals and conventions. Historian Stuart Laycock has investigated this process and emphasised elements of continuity from the British tribes in the pre-Roman and Roman periods, through to the native post-Roman kingdoms.
In British tradition, pagan Saxons were invited by Vortigern to assist in fighting the Picts, Scoti, and Déisi. (Germanic migration into Roman Britannia may have begun much earlier. There is recorded evidence, for example, of Germanic auxiliaries supporting the legions in Britain in the 1st and 2nd centuries.) The new arrivals rebelled, plunging the country into a series of wars that eventually led to the Saxon occupation of Lowland Britain by 600. Around this time, many Britons fled to Brittany (hence its name), Galicia and probably Ireland. A significant date in sub-Roman Britain is the Groans of the Britons, an unanswered appeal to Aetius, leading general of the western Empire, for assistance against Saxon invasion in 446. Another is the Battle of Deorham in 577, after which the significant cities of Bath, Cirencester and Gloucester fell and the Saxons reached the western sea.
Historians generally reject the historicity of King Arthur, who is supposed to have resisted the Anglo-Saxon conquest according to later medieval legends.
Trade
During the Roman period Britain's continental trade was principally directed across the Southern North Sea and Eastern Channel, focusing on the narrow Strait of Dover, with more limited links via the Atlantic seaways. The most important British ports were London and Richborough, whilst the continental ports most heavily engaged in trade with Britain were Boulogne and the sites of Domburg and Colijnsplaat at the mouth of the river Scheldt. During the Late Roman period it is likely that the shore forts played some role in continental trade alongside their defensive functions.
Exports to Britain included: coin; pottery, particularly red-gloss terra sigillata (samian ware) from southern, central and eastern Gaul, as well as various other wares from Gaul and the Rhine provinces; olive oil from southern Spain in amphorae; wine from Gaul in amphorae and barrels; salted fish products from the western Mediterranean and Brittany in barrels and amphorae; preserved olives from southern Spain in amphorae; lava quern-stones from Mayen on the middle Rhine; glass; and some agricultural products. Britain's exports are harder to detect archaeologically, but will have included metals, such as silver and gold and some lead, iron and copper. Other exports probably included agricultural products, oysters and salt, whilst large quantities of coin would have been re-exported back to the continent as well.
These products moved as a result of private trade and also through payments and contracts established by the Roman state to support its military forces and officials on the island, as well as through state taxation and extraction of resources. Up until the mid-3rd century, the Roman state's payments appear to have been unbalanced, with far more products sent to Britain, to support its large military force (which had reached c. 53,000 by the mid-2nd century), than were extracted from the island.
It has been argued that Roman Britain's continental trade peaked in the late 1st century AD and thereafter declined as a result of an increasing reliance on local products by the population of Britain, caused by economic development on the island and by the Roman state's desire to save money by shifting away from expensive long-distance imports. Evidence has been outlined that suggests that the principal decline in Roman Britain's continental trade may have occurred in the late 2nd century AD, from c. 165 AD onwards. This has been linked to the economic impact of contemporary Empire-wide crises: the Antonine Plague and the Marcomannic Wars.
From the mid-3rd century onwards, Britain no longer received such a wide range and extensive quantity of foreign imports as it did during the earlier part of the Roman period; vast quantities of coin from continental mints reached the island, whilst there is historical evidence for the export of large amounts of British grain to the continent during the mid-4th century. During the latter part of the Roman period British agricultural products, paid for by both the Roman state and by private consumers, clearly played an important role in supporting the military garrisons and urban centres of the northwestern continental Empire. This came about as a result of the rapid decline in the size of the British garrison from the mid-3rd century onwards (thus freeing up more goods for export), and because of 'Germanic' incursions across the Rhine, which appear to have reduced rural settlement and agricultural output in northern Gaul.
Economy
Mineral extraction sites such as the Dolaucothi gold mine were probably first worked by the Roman army from c. 75, and at some later stage passed to civilian operators. The mine developed as a series of opencast workings, mainly by the use of hydraulic mining methods. They are described by Pliny the Elder in his Natural History in great detail. Essentially, water supplied by aqueducts was used to prospect for ore veins by stripping away soil to reveal the bedrock. If veins were present, they were attacked using fire-setting and the ore removed for comminution. The dust was washed in a small stream of water and the heavy gold dust and gold nuggets collected in riffles. The diagram at right shows how Dolaucothi developed from c. 75 through to the 1st century. When opencast work was no longer feasible, tunnels were driven to follow the veins. The evidence from the site shows advanced technology probably under the control of army engineers.
The Wealden ironworking zone, the lead and silver mines of the Mendip Hills and the tin mines of Cornwall seem to have been private enterprises leased from the government for a fee. Mining had long been practised in Britain (see Grimes Graves), but the Romans introduced new technical knowledge and large-scale industrial production to revolutionise the industry. It included hydraulic mining to prospect for ore by removing overburden as well as work alluvial deposits. The water needed for such large-scale operations was supplied by one or more aqueducts, those surviving at Dolaucothi being especially impressive. Many prospecting areas were in dangerous, upland country, and, although mineral exploitation was presumably one of the main reasons for the Roman invasion, it had to wait until these areas were subdued.
By the 3rd and 4th centuries, small towns could often be found near villas. In these towns, villa owners and small-scale farmers could obtain specialist tools. Lowland Britain in the 4th century was agriculturally prosperous enough to export grain to the continent. This prosperity lay behind the blossoming of villa building and decoration that occurred between AD 300 and 350.
Britain's cities also consumed Roman-style pottery and other goods, and were centres through which goods could be distributed elsewhere. At Wroxeter in Shropshire, stock smashed into a gutter during a 2nd-century fire reveals that Gaulish samian ware was being sold alongside mixing bowls from the Mancetter-Hartshill industry of the West Midlands. Roman designs were most popular, but rural craftsmen still produced items derived from the Iron Age La Tène artistic traditions. Britain was home to much gold, which attracted Roman invaders. By the 3rd century, Britain's economy was diverse and well established, with commerce extending into the non-Romanised north.
Government
Further information: Governors of Roman Britain, Roman client kingdoms in Britain, and Roman auxiliaries in Britain
Under the Roman Empire, administration of peaceful provinces was ultimately the remit of the Senate, but those, like Britain, that required permanent garrisons, were placed under the Emperor's control. In practice imperial provinces were run by resident governors who were members of the Senate and had held the consulship. These men were carefully selected, often having strong records of military success and administrative ability. In Britain, a governor's role was primarily military, but numerous other tasks were also his responsibility, such as maintaining diplomatic relations with local client kings, building roads, ensuring the public courier system functioned, supervising the civitates and acting as a judge in important legal cases. When not campaigning, he would travel the province hearing complaints and recruiting new troops.
To assist him in legal matters he had an adviser, the legatus juridicus, and those in Britain appear to have been distinguished lawyers perhaps because of the challenge of incorporating tribes into the imperial system and devising a workable method of taxing them. Financial administration was dealt with by a procurator with junior posts for each tax-raising power. Each legion in Britain had a commander who answered to the governor and, in time of war, probably directly ruled troublesome districts. Each of these commands carried a tour of duty of two to three years in different provinces. Below these posts was a network of administrative managers covering intelligence gathering, sending reports to Rome, organising military supplies and dealing with prisoners. A staff of seconded soldiers provided clerical services.
Colchester was probably the earliest capital of Roman Britain, but it was soon eclipsed by London with its strong mercantile connections. The different forms of municipal organisation in Britannia were known as civitas (which were subdivided, amongst other forms, into colonies such as York, Colchester, Gloucester and Lincoln and municipalities such as Verulamium), and were each governed by a senate of local landowners, whether Brythonic or Roman, who elected magistrates concerning judicial and civic affairs. The various civitates sent representatives to a yearly provincial council in order to profess loyalty to the Roman state, to send direct petitions to the Emperor in times of extraordinary need, and to worship the imperial cult.
Demographics
Roman Britain had an estimated population between 2.8 million and 3 million people at the end of the second century. At the end of the fourth century, it had an estimated population of 3.6 million people, of whom 125,000 consisted of the Roman army and their families and dependents.[80] The urban population of Roman Britain was about 240,000 people at the end of the fourth century. The capital city of Londinium is estimated to have had a population of about 60,000 people. Londinium was an ethnically diverse city with inhabitants from the Roman Empire, including natives of Britannia, continental Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. There was also cultural diversity in other Roman-British towns, which were sustained by considerable migration, from Britannia and other Roman territories, including continental Europe, Roman Syria, the Eastern Mediterranean and North Africa. In a study conducted in 2012, around 45 percent of sites investigated dating from the Roman period had at least one individual of North African origin.
Town and country
During their occupation of Britain the Romans founded a number of important settlements, many of which survive. The towns suffered attrition in the later 4th century, when public building ceased and some were abandoned to private uses. Place names survived the deurbanised Sub-Roman and early Anglo-Saxon periods, and historiography has been at pains to signal the expected survivals, but archaeology shows that a bare handful of Roman towns were continuously occupied. According to S.T. Loseby, the very idea of a town as a centre of power and administration was reintroduced to England by the Roman Christianising mission to Canterbury, and its urban revival was delayed to the 10th century.
Roman towns can be broadly grouped in two categories. Civitates, "public towns" were formally laid out on a grid plan, and their role in imperial administration occasioned the construction of public buildings. The much more numerous category of vici, "small towns" grew on informal plans, often round a camp or at a ford or crossroads; some were not small, others were scarcely urban, some not even defended by a wall, the characteristic feature of a place of any importance.
Cities and towns which have Roman origins, or were extensively developed by them are listed with their Latin names in brackets; civitates are marked C
Alcester (Alauna)
Alchester
Aldborough, North Yorkshire (Isurium Brigantum) C
Bath (Aquae Sulis) C
Brough (Petuaria) C
Buxton (Aquae Arnemetiae)
Caerleon (Isca Augusta) C
Caernarfon (Segontium) C
Caerwent (Venta Silurum) C
Caister-on-Sea C
Canterbury (Durovernum Cantiacorum) C
Carlisle (Luguvalium) C
Carmarthen (Moridunum) C
Chelmsford (Caesaromagus)
Chester (Deva Victrix) C
Chester-le-Street (Concangis)
Chichester (Noviomagus Reginorum) C
Cirencester (Corinium) C
Colchester (Camulodunum) C
Corbridge (Coria) C
Dorchester (Durnovaria) C
Dover (Portus Dubris)
Exeter (Isca Dumnoniorum) C
Gloucester (Glevum) C
Great Chesterford (the name of this vicus is unknown)
Ilchester (Lindinis) C
Leicester (Ratae Corieltauvorum) C
Lincoln (Lindum Colonia) C
London (Londinium) C
Manchester (Mamucium) C
Newcastle upon Tyne (Pons Aelius)
Northwich (Condate)
St Albans (Verulamium) C
Silchester (Calleva Atrebatum) C
Towcester (Lactodurum)
Whitchurch (Mediolanum) C
Winchester (Venta Belgarum) C
Wroxeter (Viroconium Cornoviorum) C
York (Eboracum) C
Religion
The druids, the Celtic priestly caste who were believed to originate in Britain, were outlawed by Claudius, and in 61 they vainly defended their sacred groves from destruction by the Romans on the island of Mona (Anglesey). Under Roman rule the Britons continued to worship native Celtic deities, such as Ancasta, but often conflated with their Roman equivalents, like Mars Rigonemetos at Nettleham.
The degree to which earlier native beliefs survived is difficult to gauge precisely. Certain European ritual traits such as the significance of the number 3, the importance of the head and of water sources such as springs remain in the archaeological record, but the differences in the votive offerings made at the baths at Bath, Somerset, before and after the Roman conquest suggest that continuity was only partial. Worship of the Roman emperor is widely recorded, especially at military sites. The founding of a Roman temple to Claudius at Camulodunum was one of the impositions that led to the revolt of Boudica. By the 3rd century, Pagans Hill Roman Temple in Somerset was able to exist peaceably and it did so into the 5th century.
Pagan religious practices were supported by priests, represented in Britain by votive deposits of priestly regalia such as chain crowns from West Stow and Willingham Fen.
Eastern cults such as Mithraism also grew in popularity towards the end of the occupation. The London Mithraeum is one example of the popularity of mystery religions among the soldiery. Temples to Mithras also exist in military contexts at Vindobala on Hadrian's Wall (the Rudchester Mithraeum) and at Segontium in Roman Wales (the Caernarfon Mithraeum).
Christianity
It is not clear when or how Christianity came to Britain. A 2nd-century "word square" has been discovered in Mamucium, the Roman settlement of Manchester. It consists of an anagram of PATER NOSTER carved on a piece of amphora. There has been discussion by academics whether the "word square" is a Christian artefact, but if it is, it is one of the earliest examples of early Christianity in Britain. The earliest confirmed written evidence for Christianity in Britain is a statement by Tertullian, c. 200 AD, in which he described "all the limits of the Spains, and the diverse nations of the Gauls, and the haunts of the Britons, inaccessible to the Romans, but subjugated to Christ". Archaeological evidence for Christian communities begins to appear in the 3rd and 4th centuries. Small timber churches are suggested at Lincoln and Silchester and baptismal fonts have been found at Icklingham and the Saxon Shore Fort at Richborough. The Icklingham font is made of lead, and visible in the British Museum. A Roman Christian graveyard exists at the same site in Icklingham. A possible Roman 4th-century church and associated burial ground was also discovered at Butt Road on the south-west outskirts of Colchester during the construction of the new police station there, overlying an earlier pagan cemetery. The Water Newton Treasure is a hoard of Christian silver church plate from the early 4th century and the Roman villas at Lullingstone and Hinton St Mary contained Christian wall paintings and mosaics respectively. A large 4th-century cemetery at Poundbury with its east–west oriented burials and lack of grave goods has been interpreted as an early Christian burial ground, although such burial rites were also becoming increasingly common in pagan contexts during the period.
The Church in Britain seems to have developed the customary diocesan system, as evidenced from the records of the Council of Arles in Gaul in 314: represented at the council were bishops from thirty-five sees from Europe and North Africa, including three bishops from Britain, Eborius of York, Restitutus of London, and Adelphius, possibly a bishop of Lincoln. No other early sees are documented, and the material remains of early church structures are far to seek. The existence of a church in the forum courtyard of Lincoln and the martyrium of Saint Alban on the outskirts of Roman Verulamium are exceptional. Alban, the first British Christian martyr and by far the most prominent, is believed to have died in the early 4th century (some date him in the middle 3rd century), followed by Saints Julius and Aaron of Isca Augusta. Christianity was legalised in the Roman Empire by Constantine I in 313. Theodosius I made Christianity the state religion of the empire in 391, and by the 5th century it was well established. One belief labelled a heresy by the church authorities — Pelagianism — was originated by a British monk teaching in Rome: Pelagius lived c. 354 to c. 420/440.
A letter found on a lead tablet in Bath, Somerset, datable to c. 363, had been widely publicised as documentary evidence regarding the state of Christianity in Britain during Roman times. According to its first translator, it was written in Wroxeter by a Christian man called Vinisius to a Christian woman called Nigra, and was claimed as the first epigraphic record of Christianity in Britain. This translation of the letter was apparently based on grave paleographical errors, and the text has nothing to do with Christianity, and in fact relates to pagan rituals.
Environmental changes
The Romans introduced a number of species to Britain, including possibly the now-rare Roman nettle (Urtica pilulifera), said to have been used by soldiers to warm their arms and legs, and the edible snail Helix pomatia. There is also some evidence they may have introduced rabbits, but of the smaller southern mediterranean type. The European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) prevalent in modern Britain is assumed to have been introduced from the continent after the Norman invasion of 1066. Box (Buxus sempervirens) is rarely recorded before the Roman period, but becomes a common find in towns and villas
Legacy
During their occupation of Britain the Romans built an extensive network of roads which continued to be used in later centuries and many are still followed today. The Romans also built water supply, sanitation and wastewater systems. Many of Britain's major cities, such as London (Londinium), Manchester (Mamucium) and York (Eboracum), were founded by the Romans, but the original Roman settlements were abandoned not long after the Romans left.
Unlike many other areas of the Western Roman Empire, the current majority language is not a Romance language, or a language descended from the pre-Roman inhabitants. The British language at the time of the invasion was Common Brittonic, and remained so after the Romans withdrew. It later split into regional languages, notably Cumbric, Cornish, Breton and Welsh. Examination of these languages suggests some 800 Latin words were incorporated into Common Brittonic (see Brittonic languages). The current majority language, English, is based on the languages of the Germanic tribes who migrated to the island from continental Europe
I add two washers to the governor. This adds some preload on the spring which retards the opening of the exhaust valves. This way i eliminate a small bog/hesitation in the powerband when using the bigger 38mm carburetor. Sidenote: instead of 2x 1,5mm washer you could also use just 1x3mm. NOT for ATAC engines !!! Just on HPP.
I add two washers to the governor. This adds some preload on the spring which retards the opening of the exhaust valves. This way i eliminate a small bog/hesitation in the powerband when using the bigger 38mm carburetor.
Another Matchbox Series No4 Dodge K Series Stake Bed Truck Modification. 1966 to 1968 - 1-75 Series. I didn't show it but the body has been painted a silver metallic that is actually a satin finish. I really wanted it gloss but I like this color for some reason. I used the color to restore my 65 Rambler dealer promo. My wife walked over with a box of the kids old 90's Matchbox and Hot Wheels cars that are pretty rough and she said maybe there are some good parts in here and there was this yellow truck box with all of the old cars. Kind of a silly side graphics but I was thinking maybe better than the stake bed.
This is more of a modification as opposed to a MOC. I took the original Lego official set "75901 Flash Speeder" and modified the rear to remove the awful stud shooters and rework the cannon. The Lego original was a solid and well-designed set however. I wish I would have picked up a few more of them while they were plentiful.
Leslie spoke at the President's Bioethics Commission that was asked to look into non-consensual human experimentation after it was exposed that the NIH infected Guatemalan citizen's with STDs without telling the subjects. They recorded the effects, their suffering and deaths like Nazi scientists did. Targeted individuals in the US are now subject to non-consensual testing in their homes. With this cochlear implant(note the two wires) they can hear what Leslie hears and send voices to her head that mimic illness but in reality are a psychological torture called Mind control, behavior modification or No-Touch-Torture by the CIA. This and other Implants like Retinal and subvocal speech recognition implants were secretly put into Leslie. She is now going blind from the retinal implants. Donate to the billboard fund from paypal to treelaw45@yahoo.com.
Here's a graphic showing the basic modifications I made to the Athearn RTR SW1000 to make it a better match for the prototype in its current form.
There are still a few other minor details I could change, but these have to do with the handrails and are a major nuisance to do with the flimsy plastic Athearn uses on their handrails. The row of vertical grabs on the hood should also be moved over to go between the louvers, but I decided that was not worth changing.
+++ 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 Fiat G.91Y was an Italian ground attack and reconnaissance aircraft that first flew in 1966. Resembling its predecessor, the Fiat G.91, the aircraft was a complete redesign, a major difference being its twin-turbojet engines for a considerably increased performance.
Funded by the Italian government, the G.91Y prototype was based on the G.91T two-seat trainer variant with a single Bristol Orpheus turbojet engine. This was replaced with two afterburning General Electric J85 turbojets which increased thrust by 60%. Structural modifications to reduce airframe weight increased performance further and an additional fuel tank occupying the space of the G.91T's rear seat provided extra range. Combat manoeuvrability was improved with the addition of automatic leading edge slats.
The avionics equipment of the G.91Y was considerably upgraded with many of the American, British and Canadian systems being license-manufactured in Italy.
Flight testing of three pre-production aircraft was successful with one aircraft reaching a maximum speed of Mach 0.98. Airframe buffeting was noted and was rectified in production aircraft by raising the position of the tailplane slightly.
An initial order of 55 aircraft for the Italian Air Force was completed by Fiat in March 1971, by which time the company had changed its name to Aeritalia (from 1969, when Fiat aviazione joined the Aerfer). The order was increased to 75 aircraft with 67 eventually being delivered. In fact, the development of the new G.91Y was quite long, and the first order was for about 20 pre-series examples that followed the two prototypes.
Like the G.91 before, the G.91Y attained much interest as it was a versatile light fighter bomber. One of the countries that ahd an eye on the upgraded Gina was Switzerland, looking for a dedicated support or even replacement for the Hawker Hunters, which were primarily used in the interceptor role, as well as the outdated D. H. Venom fighter bombers.
Fiat's answer was the G.91YS, a version tailored to Swiss needs. A first prototype with enhanced avionics, a strengthened structure for higher external loads as well as for typical operations on short runways with steep climbs and extra hardpoints to carry AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles for evaluation by Switzerland.
The first G.91YS flew on 16 October 1970, but at that time it was already clear that the machine was to carry smart weapons, primarily the AGM-65 'Maverick', which was also earmarked as new, additional Hawker Hunter ordnance.
In order to get things moving the Swiss Air Force ordered in 1972 an initial batch of 22 G.91YS, knowing that an upgrade would become necessary soon. It was a kind of stopgap purchase, though, because the original types for that role, Vought A-7 or the Mirage III derivative Milan S, were rejected after long negotiations. The G.91YS was a more simple and cost effective option, and also as a better option than a short-notice offer for second hand A-4Bs in late 1972.
The new machines were delivered until summer 1974 and allocated to Fliegerstaffel 22 which exclusively operated the fighter bomber. This came just in time because by 1975 plans were laid to replace the Hunter in the air-to-air role with a more modern fighter aircraft, the Northrop F-5E Tiger II (which became operational in 1978). The Hunter remained in a key role within the Swiss Air Force, though. Like the RAF's Hunter fleet, the type transitioned to become the country's primary ground attack platform, completely replacing the Venom, while the G.91YS was regarded as more sophisticated attack aircraft against small, single targets, including tanks (with Soviet mobile tactical missile launch platforms in mind), relying on the AGM-65 as its main armament. Four of these missiles could be carried under the wings, plus a pair of AIM-9 for self-defense. Alternative loads included unguided missiles of various sizes (incl. podded launchers), iron bombs or napalm tanks of up to 1.000 lb caliber, or drop tanks on the inner pylons.
The G.91YS’s primary mission as precision strike aircraft was further emphasized through a massive upgrade program in 1982, including improved sensors, a modernized radio system, a nose-mounted laser tracker/range finder (replacing the former Vinten cameras and greatly improving single pass attack capability and accuracy) and the integration of electronic countermeasure (ECM) systems. The upgraded machines were easily recognizable through their more rounded nose shape with a pitot tube mounted on top, a characteristic spine fairing and a radar warning system housing at the top of the fin.
In this form the G.91YS was kept in operational service until 1994, when it was retired together with the Swiss Hunter fleet. Six aircraft had been lost through accidents during the type’s career. Author Fiona Lombardi stated of the retirement of the Hunter and the G.91YS, the Swiss Air Force "definitively lost the capability to carry out air-to-ground operations". With the retirement of the G.91YS fleet Fliegerstaffel 22 was disbanded, too.
General characteristics:
Crew: 1
Length (incl. pitot): 12.29 m (40 ft 11 in)
Wingspan: 9.01 m (29 ft 6.5 in)
Height: 4.43 m (14 ft 6.3 in)
Wing area: 18.13 m² (195.149 ft²)
Empty weight: 4.000 kg (8.810 lb)
Loaded weight: 8.000 kg (17.621 lb)
Max. take-off weight: 9.000 kg (19.825 lb)
Powerplant:
2× General Electric J85-GE-13A turbojets with afterburners, 18.15 kN (4,080 lbf) each
Performance:
Maximum speed: 1.110 km/h (600 kn, 690 mph,
Mach 0.95 at 10,000 m (33,000 ft)
Range: 3,400 km (ferry range with droptanks) (2,110 mls)
Service ceiling: 12,500 m (41,000 ft)
Rate of climb: 86.36 m/s (17,000 ft/min)
Wing loading: 480 kg/m² (98.3 lb/ft² (maximum)
Thrust/weight: 0.47 at maximum loading
Armament:
2× 30 mm (1.18 in) DEFA cannons
6× under-wing pylon stations holding up to maximum of 2.270 kg (5.000 lb) of payload.
The kit and its assembly:
A classic whif – the G.91YS for the Swiss Air Force actually existed, and I just spun the idea further. The compact fighter would have been a suitable addition to the small nation’s air force, and I interpreted it as an addition to the big Hawker Hunter fleet with a dedicated role and with suitable special equipment.
The basis is the Matchbox G.91Y kit with some minor changes:
• A new nose from a Fujimi Harrier GR.3
• The jet exhausts were opened and some interior added
• Flaps were lowered
• Some added detail to the ejection seat
• The spine extension, a simple piece of sprue
• The radar warning fairing is a square piece of styrene sheet
• Replacement of the cast-on guns with hollow steel needles
• The Sidewinder hardpoints come from a Revell F-16A
• The AGM-65s and their launch rails come from a Hasegawa weapon set
Painting and markings:
The bigger challenge, because I did not want to use the typical “Hunter livery” in Extra Dark Sea Grey/SlateGrey/Aluminum – even if it would have been the natural choice for a Swiss aircraft. Choice for alternative yet authentic schemes is narrow, though – late Mirage III or the F-5Es carry a two-tone grey air superiority scheme, and I found this rather unsuitable for an attack aircraft.
So I developed my own design: a mix of the original Italian grey/green scheme and a two-tone pattern that late Turkish RF-4E/TMs carried - but with different colors and all mashed up into a modern, disruptive scheme. Experimental schemes of the German Luftwaffe in the late 70ies for their Alpha Jets and the F-4F fleet (leading to the complex Norm ’81 patterns) also had an influence.
As basic tones I used RAL 6007 (Grüngrau, Revell 67) and Dark Gull Grey (FS36231, Modelmaster, turned out to be a bit too pale for what I wanted to achieve), with added fields of RAL 7000 (Fehgrau, Revell 57) on the upper surfaces and on the mid-waterline flanks – lighter and softer than the original NATO tones and with disruptive lighter blotches that break up the silhouette.
The underside was simply painted in uniform FS36375 (Humbrol 127), which was also carried onto the fin. After a thin black ink wash panels were lightened through dry-brushing.
Cockpit interior was painted with Humbrol 140, the landing gear with a mix of White and Aluminum, trying to emulate look of real aircraft. In order not to make them stand out too much I painted the AGM-65s in olive drab, even though I think all Swiss missiles of that type were white. Artistic freedom…
Decals were puzzled together, e. g. from a Mirage III Carpena sheet and an Italieri Bae Hawk sheet, most stencils come from the OOB sheet (despite being slightly yellowed...).
A simple whif, done in a week, and based on an obscure real-life project. And the G.91 bears more whiffing potential, at least one more is to come!
AK-47 with grip and laser sight along with thermal scope and mussel flash plus metal slash aluminum parts instead of wood.
This model is actually the basic 6-Pointed Star A. Changing the gender of the initial folds, the points of the star can be made to display display 2 colours. [colour and white if Kami is used]. The folds can be repeated for the back but for this model, on the back, I have added some modifications on the points which is not included in my diagrams.
This series was created in 1988 and published in Modular Origami [self-publication]
The model is assembled from 6 modules folded from 7.5cm square Duo-coloured papers. Numerous patterns can be generated by adding simple folds to certain parts of the module.
Diagrams are posted in my old website - web.singnet.com.sg/~owrigami/geomet.htm [not updated]
and also at my new website, hosted by Nick Robinson. - www.nickrobinson.info/clients/owrigami/show_diagram.php?d...
I hope you enjoy folding these and perhaps make your own variations and hang them on your Christmas tree.
The Spirit of St. Louis (Registration N-X-211) is the custom-built single engine, single seat monoplane that was flown solo by Charles A. Lindbergh on May 20-21, 1927, on the first non-stop flight from New York to Paris, for which Lindbergh wont he $25,000 Orteig Prize. Officially known as the Ryan NYP (for New York to Paris), the plane was designed by Donald A. Hall of the aircraft manufacturer Ryan Airlines.
In 1922, after a year and a half at the University of Wisconsin, Lindbergh left to study aeronautics with the Nebraska Aircraft Corporation. He was a ‘barnstormer" until 1924, when he enrolled as a flying cadet in the Army Air Service. He won his reserve commission and began serving as a civilian airmail pilot, flying the route between St. Louis and Chicago.
Early in 1927 he obtained the backing of several St. Louis men to compete for the $25,000 prize offered by Raymond Orteig in 1919 for the first nonstop flight between New York City and Paris. In February of that year Lindbergh placed an order with Ryan Airlines in San Diego for an aircraft with specifications necessary to make the flight.
Development began based on a standard Ryan M-2, with DHall as principal designer. Certain modifications to the basic high-wing, strut-braced monoplane design had to be made because of the nature of the flight. The wingspan was increased by 10 feet and the structural members of the fuselage and wing cellule were redesigned to accommodate the greater fuel load. Plywood was fitted along the leading edge of the wings. The fuselage design followed that of a standard M-2 except that it was lengthened 2 feet. The cockpit was moved further to the rear for safety and the engine was moved forward for balance, thus permitting the fuel tank to be installed at the center of gravity. The pilot could see forward only by means of a periscope or by turning the aircraft to look out of a side window. A Wright Whirlwind J-5C engine supplied the power.
Late in April 1927 the work on the aircraft was completed. It was painted silver and carried registration number N-X-21 1, which, with all other lettering on the plane, was painted in black. Lindbergh made several test flights, and then flew the aircraft from San Diego to New York on May 10—12, making only one stop, at St. Louis. His flight time of 21 hours, 40 minutes set a new transcontinental record.
After waiting several days in New York for favorable weather, Lindbergh took off from Garden City for Paris alone, on the morning of May 20, 1927. Thirty-three hours, 30 minutes, and 3,610 miles later he landed safely at Le Bourget Field, near Paris, where he was greeted by a wildly enthusiastic crowd of 100,000.
Lindbergh and the Spirit of St Louis returned to the United States aboard the U.S.S. Memphis on June 11. He received tumultuous welcomes in Washington, D.C. and New York City. From July 20 until October 23 of that year he took the famous plane on a tour of the United States. Then, on December 13, he and the Spirit of St. Louis flew nonstop from Washington to Mexico City; through Central America, Colombia, Venezuela, Puerto Rico; and nonstop from Havana to St. Louis. Beginning in Mexico City, flags of the countries he visited were painted on both sides of the cowling.
On April 30, 1928, the Spirit of St. Louis made its final flight—from St. Louis to Washington, D.C where Lindbergh presented the aircraft to the Smithsonian Institution.
The National Air and Space Museum (NASM), administered by the Smithsonian Institute, maintains the largest collection of aircraft and spacecraft in the world and is a vital center for research into the history, science, and technology of aviation and spaceflight, as well as planetary science and terrestrial geology and geophysics. Established along the National Mall on July 1, 1976, the museum was designed by Gyo Obata of Hellmuth, Obata and Kassabaum as four simple marble-encased cubes containing the smaller and more theatrical exhibits, connected by three spacious steel-and-glass atrium which house the larger exhibits such as missiles, airplanes and spacecraft.
The Smithsonian Institution, an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its shops and its magazines, was established in 1846. Although concentrated in Washington DC, its collection of over 136 million items is spread through 19 museums, a zoo, and nine research centers from New York to Panama.
Chassis n° ZFF81BHB000223160
Bonhams : the Zoute Sale
Estimated : € 650.000 - 850.000
Sold for € 687.190
Zoute Grand Prix 2019
Knokke - Zoute
België - Belgium
October 2019
"The Ferrari F12 has never struck anyone as being in need of more power. It really doesn't feel like it needs more nor, at least without significant modification, should it be given it. But here we are: the Ferrari F12tdf, a special version of the F12, limited in production but unlimited in ambition." – Autocar.
Introduced to the motoring public at the 2102 Geneva Motor Show, the Ferrari F12 replaced the 599 family of front-engined Gran Turismos. "... the company has thrown everything at it to ensure it's vastly quicker than its seminal predecessor, but also that it's more enjoyable at low speeds," declared evo magazine, continuing: "It claims to be both GT and supercar, mixing front-engined packaging and civility with exotic, F1-inspired dynamic ability."
Ferrari's gorgeous new berlinetta was soon garnering critical accolades, being voted 'Supercar of the Year 2012' by Top Gear magazine, and in 2014 receiving the coveted 'Premio Compasso d'Oro ADI', one of the world's oldest and most prestigious design awards.
It is an oft-stated cliché that 'the heart of every Ferrari is its engine', and the F12's 6.3-litre, 65-degree, normally aspirated V12 is acknowledged as one of the finest ever, winning the 'Best Performance' and 'Best Engine above 4.0 litres' categories in the 2013 'International Engine of the Year Awards'. With 730bhp on tap, this class-leading power unit - one of the most powerful every installed in a Ferrari road car – delivers stupendous performance, propelling the F12 to 100km/h in 3.1 seconds on its way to a top speed of over 330km/h. Around Ferrari's Fiorano test track, the F12 proved to be 3.5 seconds quicker that the preceding 599 GTB and 2.0 seconds quicker than the mid-engined Enzo; even the hardcore 599 GTO was slower.
But these days even a supercar has to make the odd concession in the interests of fuel economy, and with this in mind the F12 incorporated Ferrari's HELE stop/start system that reduces consumption when idling. Paddle shifters mounted on the steering wheel – an innovation pioneered by Ferrari in Formula 1 - had long been a feature of the Maranello marque's road cars, and the F12's controlled a seven-speed dual-clutch semi-automatic transmission. Stability, traction control, suspension, and other settings were also controlled from the F12's steering wheel, while improved carbon-ceramic brakes helped keep things in check.
The engine/transmission package was mounted in an aluminium spaceframe chassis - developed by Ferrari's close neighbours and long-time collaborators, Carrozzeria Scaglietti – that represented significant gains in rigidity and weight reduction when compared with the preceding 599 GTB. As one would expect of a modern-day Ferrari supercar, the F12 came with the latest in driver aids as standard: ABS, SCM-E magnetorheological suspension, electronic limited-slip differential, ESP Premium stability control, and F1-Trac traction control.
Styled by the Ferrari Styling Centre and Carrozzeria Pininfarina, the F12's voluptuous body restated the traditional 'long bonnet, small cabin, short tail' look in a manner suggesting muscular horsepower while retaining all the elegance associated with the Italian coachbuilder's work for Maranello. A significant aerodynamic development was the 'Aero Bridge': an under-body air channel running from front to rear that increased down force while exerting less drag than an external wing. 'Active Brake Cooling' ducts had been adopted for the same reason; opening only when the brakes required cooling while remaining closed at other times to reduce aerodynamic drag. The result was a remarkably low drag coefficient of only 0.299. Based on that of the Ferrari FF, the 'Frau leather' interior featured aluminium, Alutex, and carbon fibre trim. The F12's optional accessories were extensive, though pricey: who would have thought that a carbon fibre cup holder could cost over €2,000?
In October 2015, Ferrari announced a limited-edition variant, the F12tdf, its nomenclature referencing a competition variant of the 250 GT, so named following the latter's many victories in the Tour de France Automobile in the late 1950s/early 1960s. Like its illustrious predecessor, the F12tdf was a lightweight, track-focused model aimed at wealthy connoisseurs and gentleman racers; only 799 were built during the 2016 and 2017 seasons.
The F12tdf used the same 6.3-litre V12 engine as the standard car, albeit modified to produce 770bhp, while deleting much of the leather/aluminium interior trim in favour of Alcantara and carbon fibre, together with swapping many exterior aluminium panels for carbon fibre, helped shed some 110kgs from the total weight. The result was a reduction of the 0-100km/h to 2.9 seconds while the claimed top speed was now 'in excess of 211km/h'. Around Fiorano, the F12tdf was 2.0 seconds quicker than its standard sibling.
Completed on 20th October 2016, this beautiful F12tdf is finished in special Grigio Alloy with central stripes, wheels and accents in Canna di Fucile (gunmetal) and Blu Medio Alcantara interior. Delivered new by the well-known official Ferrari dealer Monza in Sint-Martens-Latem, Belgium, the car was built to the special order of the current vendor, its sole owner from new. This car is one of only three F12tdf models delivered by Monza.
Used sparingly over the course of the last three years, this F12tdf has covered a little over 6,000 kilometres from new and has been painstakingly maintained with yearly services undertaken by Ferrari dealer Monza in Belgium. The owner has enjoyed his rare F12tdf on numerous occasions, including the Mille Miglia Tribute to Ferrari in 2017.
Representing a wonderful opportunity to own one of Ferrari's all-time great, front-engined supercars, this stunning F12tdf comes complete with factory tool kit; locking wheel nut key; service wallet and manuals; and the all-important F12tdf Classiche book. Offered for sale by a Belgian Ferrari collector, the car is presented in immaculate condition, ready to be enjoyed by its next custodian.
Another example of some of the fine work produced at the WFMU Record Fair's LP Cover Modification and Improvement Craft Table. This piece, by an anonymous artist, and others like it hang in the 2nd floor hallway outside WFMU's main broadcasting studio.
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