Awesome Pictures Thread

[Chimpy]

Is it just a painting on the side of the building?  Have trouble with her shadow.

She is part of the painting.

[Cyrrex]

Okay you just blew my goddamn mind.

[DraconianOne]

It's a Trompe L'oeil mural by a guy called John Pugh in Los Gatos, CA.  More here.

Also, he has a book.

[Sky]

Looks like a mexican restaurant. Which would make it awesome x2.

2nd rapier from the bottom or last basket hilt rapier.

[apocrypha]

Awesome.

Top bastard sword.

[IainC]

The c.1450 knight's sword.

[Ironwood]

Ahhhh, I see.  It's a painting on the side of a restaurant.

Clever.  I thought the whole thing was a painting.

 

[Jherad]

One of the two knight's swords, 1400-1450 with the dark grip.



The making of:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=3SNYtd0Ayt0

[Merusk]

   RL "Photoshop" scenes.  Cincinnati has a fake facade on a building downtown that is equally convincing when the paint is kept fresh.

Are we going with sword you'd use or one you'd hang up?  Use I'll pick teh top-right cup-hilted rapier.  Display I've got the Claymore, the 4th Knight Sword in Short and Full sizes and a variant of the last Swiss sword w/o a branch and twisted quillions.  Oh, and the requisite replica Katana.

[HaemishM]

I'd probably go with the c. 1500 rapiers.

[Sand]

That picture cant possibly be accurate. D&D taught me bastard swords dont have guards and are "hand and a half" swords. Those dont look right!  

[Ingmar]

The first knight's sword with a dark hilt.

[Ironwood]

I'd probably go with the c. 1500 rapiers.

That'll make your arse hurt.

 

[Count Nerfedalot]

I'd probably go with the c. 1500 rapiers.

That'll make your arse hurt.

 

eh? 

[Lantyssa]

I like the original rapier line around 1550-1600.

Were I strong enough, I'd go for the Zwei-hander.  There's an authentic one in the Angel Swords at the RenFest that I've been drooling over for years, if I could justify that kind of expense.

[Hawkbit]

The first knight's sword with a dark hilt.

Both dark hilted long swords are near perfect design.  I prefer the diamond pommeled version because of the aesthetics of the crossguard, but they're both damned beautiful. 

I spent a year considering blacksmithing to make swords.  Turns out it's not an easy market to get into.     Looked into schools and everything, finally gave up after realizing the thousands I would need to invest to basically be an iron gate/fence/railing maker that makes blades in spare time.  If wishes were fishes, and all that.  Not to mention that it is really hard work and one is destined to get burned seriously at some point.

Chicago Field Museum had an awesome 5ft ceremonial claymore about 10 years ago.  It was so fucking big I have no idea how anyone was taken seriously wielding it. 

[Sky]

  There's an authentic one in the Angel Swords at the RenFest that I've been drooling over for years, if I could justify that kind of expense.

Back in the 80s there was an awesome smith who made period weapons in period style. They didn't have a smith for about ten, fifteen years and the new guy uses steel and doesn't forge onsite.

Anyway, lost the dagger and poniard I had because I kept them in my car (they were handy!) and the cops confiscated them when it was towed. I was so pissed.

[Tebonas]

Knights Sword with the dark hilt and round pommel.

I guess thats the design I grew up with equating with the term "sword" as a roleplayer.

[IainC]

I am (was) a fully qualified blacksmith who has made swords and such for re-enactors. It's a lot of work and the margins are pretty thin. I know a few guys who are in the business including a really good one in Brittany who does the whole thing period authentic - he even smelts his own ore using Dark Ages tech - and while they always have full order books, none of them are making much money from it.

I stayed with the guy in Brittany for a week while he made some stuff for me (a scramaseax, a spatha and a couple of belt daggers) and felt really bad when it came to paying him for the work he'd done as it wasn't nearly enough even though it was more than the usual re-enactor's market price.

[Der Helm]

Dark Ages

 

Please, never ever use that term again. Thank you. 

[Furiously]

Dark Ages

 

Please, never ever use that term again. Thank you. 

I'm curious....why not?

[Viin]

African American Ages is more PC.

[NiX]

African American Ages is more PC.

slow clap.

[Strazos]

I'll take any of the two-handers, thanks.

[IainC]

Dark Ages

 

Please, never ever use that term again. Thank you. 

Fine, he uses methods in use from the post-Western Empire period until the early middle-ages.

[Bzalthek]

I'm writing a script that changes all instances of Der Helm to Dark Ages.  It's glorious!

[Der Helm]

Fine, he uses methods in use from the post-Western Empire period until the early middle-ages.

Much better.... but your terminology still confuses me. 

[Der Helm]

Dark Ages

 

Please, never ever use that term again. Thank you.  

I'm curious....why not?

Because the term is not accurate. The dark ages were not that dark. Most people knew that the earth was not flat.... etc.

I study european history, so it is a touchy subject for me.  

edit: I'd elaborate, but I am getting drunk tonight and I am late already.  

[stu]

I'm seriously interested to hear more. Things aren't exactly great now so I can't imagine how awful it must have been to live back then.

Maybe I've just been reading too far into the Culture novels recently. 

[IainC]

It was pretty brutal. There were only three channels on TV. We thought that a model spaceship that came apart to form a gun was the most awesome thing ever and The Bangles were considered prime masturbation material. You kids with your Playstation 360s and Katy Perrys don't know you're born.

[stu]

Hmm sounds like you had it easy.

[Teleku]

Having also studied history in college, to elaborate on what he said:

The term is highly discouraged in modern history courses.  The term came about from old christian scholarship.  Light vs. dark narrative.  Back when people still worshiped stupid pagan gods before we could crush them ALL under the tender loving hand of god.  Ect.  It's just too tidy of a term that doesn't explain things well.  Its nice to look at history as "Rome was great and mighty!  Then it fell apart and Europe was pure shit for a 1,000 years.  But then we got better when a bunch of Italians sat around, smoked pot while reading Greek books, and had a Renaissance", but that's not true.  Truth is that the 'Dark Ages' weren't as bad as portrayed.  Life went on much as normal after Rome fell apart.  They still retained a lot of the civilization of previous ages.  Just because scholars of the middles ages couldn't find as many books on the era to study, they decided to just write the whole era off as 'here be dragons'.

I'd elaborate more, but I'm also drinking, and want to play some more blood bowl.  But having said all that, I really like the term Dark Ages!  Its so Grimdark in an overpriced citadel way.  You can pry it from my cold dead hands history professor!

[Bzalthek]

 Heh, you learn something new everyday.  I always thought it referred to the darkness of ignorance we were forced back into by fucking zealots.

[.img]themoreyouknow.jpg[/.img]

[Ruvaldt]

The idea of a dark age originates from Petrarch, who was lamenting the extinguishing of the "light of Rome," and thus the period that followed thereafter was "dark."  It was largely a literary critique though.  I think Baronius was the first to use it regarding the study of the idea of historical eras, but even that was pretty narrow when he wrote it.

The "dark ages" weren't anywhere near that grimdark though, and were only considered so after the fact by people pushing the idea that Europe was entering a new golden age from the 14th century on.  Renaissance means, literally, "rebirth" and in that context they were referring to the rebirth of Rome and classical scholarship.  In order for there to be a rebirth there had to have been a death so they assigned it to the in-between period and called it the dark age.

[Der Helm]

Wow... what a hangover... no dead hookers so far at least... 

Good points made by the other posters.

Let me add that the only "dark ages" I could accept are greek.

Back to pictures now ?