Tag: world war two

DIY WWII Era Wall

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Last year I made High Castle themed shelf (which grew and took over an entire wall of my dining room!).

In that same spirit, I’m working on a WWII/1940s era display. I’ve started posting work in progress (wip) photos on Instagram with how and where I got everything I have so far.

You don’t have to break the bank to make something unique. It doesn’t even have to actually be from the era you’re going for (although that would be nice). I am posting my progress in the hopes that it helps someone else out there who is trying to create something similar.

Uncle Sam & Wooden Crate

The tin U.S. Army recruiting poster is a replica, but it was only $8.99 on Amazon (who can beat 2 day shipping?). I got the crate at Home Depot for almost the same amount.

Awesome Fanta & Coke bottles

I picked these tasty gems up from the import aisle at the grocery store. They look antique and were only $1.25 each. Did I mention that they were delicious too? If you’re going for a 40s/50s vibe, these are a cheap and easy to get prop. These ones were imported from Mexico, so check the Hispanic aisle if your store doesn’t have an import one.

Giving the Crate a Makeover

I did a quick google search to find ideas for the crate to make it look and feel like it belongs in that era. Once I had a good idea of what I wanted, I opened up Word and used the Stencil font to type everything out and arrange the words. Once I was done, I printed it out.

I flipped it over and rubbed the charcoal pencil (orange) on the backside of the letters. I flipped it back over and laid it over the crate. I traced the letters with the regular pencil to make a charcoal imprint onto the crate.

Now all I have to do is paint over the imprint! Just remember, charcoal smears easily, so if you’re going to do two sides of something, you’ll have to fully complete one side (ie, finish the paint job) before starting the other.

Thanks for tuning in! I’ll be back again with more updates.

Project Grandpa

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I hope you enjoyed my High Castle fan tale, The Prathra Project Files—It was a rare opportunity for fun! I don’t know if I’ll be able to come up with something like that again. A lot of work was involved in creating that, but it was all a labor of love. I cannot wait to see what Season 3 has in store for us.

★ ★ ★ ★

The Man in the High Castle rekindled my interest in WWII.

My paternal grandfather (a good man and a shining example of the Greatest Generation) joined the Navy during WWII and served aboard a ship in the Pacific. On a whim one haunting night in October, I googled his ship. I saved the few black and white photos of it I could find (including a wonderful shot of the crew) and had them printed.

On Veteran’s Day, I hung a framed dedication to him in the living room. After I stepped back and gazed at his black and white face, I decided I wanted to learn more about his time during WWII. My aunts say he never spoke about the war.

What started out as curiosity has become an extensive research project.

I’m going to post it here. There is some fascinating stuff out there! Information on his ship was hard to find, believe me. Scouring through old Navy reunion sites and 90s era web pages is a lot of work, but I can almost paint a picture of what my grandfather went through and of some of the things he saw now.

If my paper (yes, I’m willingly writing a paper, and no I am not in school right now!) is long enough, I might make a hard copy of it to give to relatives and to have as a keepsake.

DunKirk: Best Movie of 2017

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I feel spoiled by these amazing films and shows coming out in recent years. We’ve got Mad Max: Fury Road, The Man in the High Castle, and now Dunkirk.

Honestly, I feel like it is MY time (as far as movies and shows go). I feel as though these works were written just for me! Well, I know they weren’t, but it feels that way!

I was lucky enough to see Dunkirk in an IMAX theatre, and let me tell you this: I was blown away. If there is an IMAX theatre near you, I recommend seeing it there. It’s worth the extra cost. The massive screen and sound system throw you into the film; if there is a match made in heaven, it is Dunkirk and IMAX.

We all know how the Battle of Dunkirk ends, but there are little nuances in the film that warrant a Spoilers Alert. Scroll past the image to read my review!

The movie follows three different sets of characters/places, The Mole, The Sea, and The Air. They take place at different times, but by the end of the movie, everything weaves itself together like a beautiful tapestry.

The background score was one of the best I’ve heard. It played right into the film, your emotions, and radiated a sense of urgency the entire time. It fit the stories like a leather glove (okay, so that was cliché, but it was the glove or sit here for ten minutes thinking of another metaphor).

While all three sets were wonderfully done, for brevity’s sake, I’m going to focus on The Mole. 

You are thrown into The Mole with a young British private whose primary goal is to survive. The adventure starts immediately! He comes across another private (Gibson). The pair become unspoken battle buddies and do everything they can to survive while, somehow, doing the right thing the entire time.

The beauty of this is that no dialogue passes between them, for it is not needed (but there is a reason which I’ll touch on in a moment). Like the other soldiers, they want to survive. They aren’t cliché superheroes with raging biceps and capes; they are ordinary young men stranded under enemy fire. As a veteran, I found their scenes to be spot on.

The survival adventure begins to reach its crescendo when the pair join a group of soldiers and climb into a ship that had drifted to the beach. The soldiers hope that the tide will come in and carry it out to sea.

The ship is dangerously near enemy lines. The enemy does not see the group of British soldiers take refuge in the ship and start using it for target practice.

Tension rises.

The tide starts coming in.

Someone is shot trying to plug the holes.

He screams.

The enemy now knows that there are men aboard, so they begin firing on the ship with purpose. Tempers inside begin to flare, and it is then one of the soldiers notices that Gibson has never uttered an actual word.

The scene that follows sums up the perfection and beauty of the film. Gibson is not British. He is a French soldier trying to survive and escape just like the rest of them. When he realized only the British had a way off, he posed as one.

You don’t care about what he did. You want him and the others to survive and get back home.

Dunkirk is a masterpiece that ranks either first or second in my all-time favorite movies (I can’t decide if I like it better than Mad Max: Fury Road or not).  It is a must see.

I give Dunkirk 5/5 stars.