I was very lucky all through my school years to having some very inspiring history teachers. In junior school my teacher got us making a model of a Norman Keep out of balsa wood and papier-mâché, so much better than just looking at pictures in a book. He also read us stories from the Greek Myths, not history as such I suppose but those stories of Jason and Odysseus really grabbed my childhood imagination.Later at Secondary School I had another great teacher who really brought everything to life from the royal progresses of Elizabeth I right through to the implementation of the Schlieffen Plan in 1914. I loved history lessons and I’m sure they were largely responsible for my continued interest in the subject right through to this day.
A few years back I discovered in my parent’s house a dusty project folder entitled “The Second Boer War”. It was quite impressive really with 35 pages all written in my own fair hand probably at about age 14 and this rediscovery became one of the motivating factors in my starting this blog. One of the pages contained this illustration of a Gordon Highlander from 1900 shamelessly copied from my Blandford uniform book but still possibly the best drawing I have ever done (click on the image to expand).
Vey Good, its always a pkeasure to hear the motivations of the hobbyist. In the spirit of ' no one can have too much of something they did not need in the first place', it is entertaining to explore why we do this thing, at once so petty and so magnificent.
ReplyDeleteThat is a find! He reminds me of the Jacklex figures so much.
ReplyDeleteRoy - yes it is interesting I agree and clearly something about the Boer War has struck a chord in me!
ReplyDeleteMatt - you are right, just wait for my next post!
ReplyDelete