New Banner for the Blog

So it's been nearly five years since I started this blog, and the banner for the blog was looking a little dated.

This is what it looked like:

I can't remember why I chose the name for the blog. Probably because it has several meanings (Christmas, the thunder of war, lightning assaults, etc).

Arthur Rackham has always been an illustrator I have liked, and when I was searching for images of Donner/Thor, I found this one that he drew for a set based on Wagner's 'Das Rheingold', the first dramas that constitute 'Der Ring des Nibelungen'. It was perfect, covering both ancient and fantasy wargaming and what was one of my first historical wargaming armies - Ancient Germans for DBA back in 2005.

For the "Blitzen" I went to the other extreme with something modern. I immediately thought of German WWII tanks (Blitzkrieg) but also something fun. At the time I had discovered 'Girls und Panzer', and the StuG III in the show was simply beautiful. I have still ideas to recreate the tanks on the tabletop.

So what did I want to update? Well the overall quality of the banner, but also that wasted grey space in the middle could do with something more interesting.

In about 30 minutes I created an updated version:

The name stays the same, but I used an online font generator to create the text (Fette Unz Fraktur) and gave it a stroke (white outline) in Photoshop. I also spread it out a bit more.

I found a better quality version of Rackham's Donner. This would represent both the early period and land-based wargaming.

For the middle section I chose something that represented both the middle time period (roughly 1500 - 1900) in historical wargaming, and also sea-based wargaming. The painting is John Thomas Serres' 'The Battle of Copenhagen, 2 April 1801'. I have a connection to Copenhagen, and the tones used match the greys in the blog's background.

Finally there's the Kawanishi N1K (allied reporting name "George"). The Kawanishi N1K-J Shiden (紫電 "Violet Lightning") was the land-based version of the N1K. It covers the semi-modern period and air combat part of my wargaming. The blue tones in the sky also tie in with the blue I use for this blog's theme, so that was a bonus.

Anyway - there you have it, some insights to my design choices in updating the banner.