Back from ten days on (mostly) sunny Kent, Saxon house building & then on to Military Odyssey at Detling for the bank holiday.
A thoroughly absorbing display by The Diehards of Victorian military signals gear, including telegraph stuff powered by a genuine set of Leyden Jars. Lots of interesting WW2 German and Allied armour, bikes & staff cars, including the HUGE Jagdpanther tank, one of three that goes & restored from two heaps of steel & ali scrap at the cost of close to a million quid! I had an excellent view of it as I was asked to narrate the WW2 battle re-enactment. High point of the day on Saturday was when it fired its main gun, with a flash, bang & a lot of smoke. Away in the distance appeared a lone figure, getting in for nothing by walking up the public footpath from the village. BANG! He literally fell over backwards, got up and ran off - that'll larn 'im!
On Sunday, I had fun trying to co-ordinate the activities of two rather over enthusiastic YAK pilots that had been brought in as Allied air support & just could not resist a few aerobatics as the entire German army filled the sky with small arms fire. Ah, the value of the ad lib ..........
Anyway, to return to something approaching the Topic -
Last year at this very show, a German guy had a couple of WW2 Wermacht generators for sale on his stall. The larger was in its carrying case, but sadly lacked the dynamo, the other was remarkably complete but painted a fetching shade of yucky purpleish. Both were £150, a good deal more than I was prepared to pay, although I'm aware that in the antique military radio world, they can be easily twice that. Arrgh. He'd not budge below £140 so I walked away.
Imagine my surprise to find them both present this year, still £150 each. I dickered & he came to £120, but I thought I'd leave it until Monday afternoon. When I arrive, he is putting things in boxes already & I got the smaller, purplish one for £80.00. an inverted TS single with overhung crank, it has compression but no spark, does not clank & the brushes squeak encouragingly on the comm, although I have not looked inside it yet. I'm rather chuffed about buying that one, actually, the one that didn't get away. Here's a pic of a similar genny.
On a junk stall, I found for a quid a nice little aranoid barometer that someone has squeezed into a Air Ministry tacho case & a quick strip & clean returned it to good order. Now I have a WW2 aircraft rev counter sitting on the monitor shelf in front of me, indicating barometric pressure instead.
Finally, I spoiled myself & treated me to a beautiful little Persian steel recurve bow ( as in archery). Blued steel & a fantastically complex silver inlay on the back of the bow. The blue is fading & I need some chemical gun blue - any ideas gentlemen?
All in all, a thoroughly enjoyable, diverse - if tiring - three days.
Regards,
J. Kim Siddorn,