An experiment - or is the video working?

120mm Roll Call figure
Officer of the 19th Foot in the Crimea

Today was Mrs. Kinch's great uncles un-birthday.

He has been loudly telling anyone that would listen that his ninetieth birthday was due this week and he didn't want any fuss made of it for nearly a month now. So naturally we didn't make a fuss, but we did all happen to drop by the house casually, while coincidentally holding a succession of cakes and books about war, grande horizontales and cinema.

My contribution to the proceedings was the (just finished, the video is of work in progress) chap shown above, an officer of the 19th Regiment of Foot made by Roll Call, which he seemed to like. I spent the rest of the afternoon chatting to family and sitting with Mrs. Kinch's grandfather, who despite a heart problem, dicky legs and the frailty natural to a man in his early nineties can still swear like a sailor when presented with a picture of this man.

Pleasant dinner of egg and chips with Mrs. Kinch and thence to bed.

Remote Control Aircraft & Fireworks

There is no combination of the above words that can fail to please me.

I am an old school sort at heart, I like serried ranks of uniformed men, the elegant ballet of horse, foot and guns. I'm very much of the opinion that once cavalry stop playing a key battlefield role, all the heart has gone out of the business.

And then I see something like this and it reminds me that H.G. Wells used to fire lead shot at his beautifully painted figures and that a little sound and fury is no bad thing. For those of you who cannot watch this footage, it is three minutes and forty seconds of pure joy - remote control zeppelin busting. Make time.

This amused me greatly...

...and is probably all the better for not being explained.