Republic of Denton: Revisited

It would also really help to see a bathymetric view, and I think your rivers should be drawn a bit more "jagged" in appearance - if you look at any of the Earth's rivers on Google maps, you will find that almost all of them follow a much more jagged course than you have depicted. Especially in mountainous regions (like your islands).

The city names seem a bit random to me as well, and IMO don't mesh with the rest of the country. The nation itself is named "Denton" (a thoroughly English name), but there are only a few "English"-sounding cities (Halifax, Sterling, Douglas, McKinney (presumably named for the Dallas suburb?), Raleigh, Madison, Westminster Bay) mixed in with quite a few Germanic names (Suddland, Braunschweig, Leipzig, Innsbruck, etc). This is also mixed in with French names (Lyons, Bordeaux, Cologne) in no meaningful pattern. If you are trying to mix ethnicities, you should give them specific enclaves. Say the Germans settled the north, the French the west, and the British the south. Either do that, or pick two and leave it at that - having this strange mix of recycled European names is a bit odd.

Also - I think if this were a real South Pacific island, you would not have an area of gently-rolling plains just east of large volcanic escarpments. Most of those islands were formed by volcanic action and then slowly subsided into the sea, so to me it would only make sense if the entire island was cut through by mountain ranges, like most of the larger Pacific islands. It's either that or it has to become a coral atoll and I don't think that makes sense given this AU.

A location of Denton on the world map would be a useful reference to have.

@Kilomuse: Thank you! I will add some smaller islands around the main ones.

@Eswube: Thank you!

@Colo:
Thank you for your input Colo.
First off, the 'bathymetric' view is on the list, and I will get that down as soon as I finish the railway and road maps. Concerning the rivers, that is a good point and I did not think about that. I will work on that.

Second, the names. Let me show the history:

THE EARLIEST SETTLERS
The Denton Islands were first settled by the Polynesian people, around 1200-1400 CE, who first migrated from the Cook Islands. Around 1300-1500 CE, the Māori of New Zealand settled Denton alongside the Cook Island Māori.

THE BEGINNINGS
-In 1762, a British explorer by the name of John H. Denton explored the the islands. Upon reaching what is now St. Catherine, he ran aground, and his ship's foremast had snapped. After spending several weeks fixing the mast, Denton is preparing to leave as a feud breaks out between his crew and the Maori. Denton was among 4 of the crew members killed, and the rest of his crew sailed home.
-In 1773 and 1777, Captain James Cook, landed on the islands and claimed them for Britain. He also mapped the islands and named after John H. Denton.
-In 1792, the first British colonial settlers arrive on the Eastern island and create the town of Bristol. Later settlers come in 1798, 1801, and 1804 and create the towns Lock Haven, St. Catherine and Scipio Bay. Unfortuantely, not a whole lot of interest is given to the colonies so only a small number of colonists settle the islands, opting for the Eastern Island as their main island.

REVOLUTION
-In 1857, the settlers of Denton fight the British. They amassed enough help from the Maori and called upon the French to help. Due to the British involvement in the Indian Uprising, the Dentonites were able to defeat the British and declared independence December 14th of 1858.

THE GOLDEN AGE
-In 1856, the first constitution was drafted and a new government established, formally as the Republic of Denton.
-From 1861 to 1914, the Denton government offered land grants to anyone who would settle the country. German, Irish, French, Polish and immigrants from other European countries took up the offer, settling mainly on the sparsely populated Western Island, with Germans forming the cities of Komorn, Saalfeld, Crassna (later Fort Crassna) and Saarbrucken, the Poles creating the cities of Piaski, Susz and Lublin, the French creating the towns of Strasbourg, Lyons and Rhone (yes, named after the river) and the Irish creating the towns of Carrick and Castlebar. Surprisingly a large number of British came to settle as opposed to 70 years back, and formed the towns of Concord, Port Douglas, Port Sterling, Ellesmere, Westminster Bay and more.
-In 1910, Denton's second constitution was written up, and was basically an extension of the original consitution first drafted in 1856. This included the abolishment of the land grant, as the country had grown to nearly 14 million people, and the addition of immigration laws, created to keep the islands from overpopulating too quickly.

And here is the demographics:

Demographics
European - 87.5%
30% - German
20% - British
15% - Irish
10% - Polish
5% - French
2.5% - Czech
2.5% - Croatian
2.5% - Russian
Indigenious - 5%
5% - Maori
Other - 7.5%
7.5% - Other Nationalities

So basically that should give an idea on what the population comes from. Put simply, the land grants, much like what America did, is what attracted so many different nationalities.
Yes, McKinney is named for the suburb north of Dallas, and the country itself is named after my hometown of Denton.
I would also like to point out, that Innsbruck is Austrian and Cologne is actually German (original spelling Koln).

http://www.majhost.com/gallery/ezgo394/ ... ocales.bmp
The link will show where I plan on putting the island (at least for geographical reasons) due in part to the 'crunch' being formed by the S.E. Indian Ocean Ridge.
The red outline is around where the island is located. I am partially handwaving the location because I want to have the Maori (from Cook Islands and New Zealand) as the indigenous group, but I don't want to have mainly volcanic land (as I would in the South Pacific). I would rather have the islands be formed by plate tectonics.

The geography of the island, is nearly too perfect I agree (and that's what worried me), but I am thinking that the plate could push up on the West and Eastern sides of the island 'ridge', and slightly push on the center, giving it that large hump (which really goes from 0ft- 4500ft)(and remember that the terrain is set in 1500ft increments, so I cant model every little valley and hill).

I think that covers it..
Thanks for your input!
-Ethan

EDIT: Also, I would like to add that at the time Westminster Bay, Hythe Bay, and St. Catherine were the main Immigration gateways (not many people went through St. Catherine).

_________________
Salide - Denton - The Interrealms

I am not very active on the forums anymore, but work is still being done on my AUs. Visit the Salidan Altiverse Page on the SB Wiki for more information. All current work is being done on Google Docs.
If anyone wishes for their nations to interact with the countries of the Salidan Altiverse, please send me a PM, after which we can further discuss through email.

Looking very interesting, I like watching this AU develop. Quick question though, what did the British do to cause the settlers to fight their 'homeland' within 65 years of arriving? Especially considering you said that not a whole lot of interest is given to the colonies - not criticising, just curious (maybe because there isn't much interest the settlers feel they would do better with independence?). The French connection and Maori support for the settlers is also interesting, perhaps you could humour me with some more background?

It would appear also that the Republic of Denton and my Commonwealth of Recherche would be close neighbours if you stay with the red outline - my AU is located just north of the 'Indian Ocean' text on that map

Anyway it is coming along nicely

Ah... it's much larger than I thought it was. I was picturing something on the scale of Fiji or New Caledonia. I think given that information my concerns re: town placement and geography are probably unfounded.

@Rowdy36:
Ok, I did have some ideas. I have never fully thought it out, though, to reduce the likelihood of coming up with something completely unrealistic. That's why I have a basic history. Basically, my ideas revolves around the British not seeing the islands as profitable and basically ignoring it on that realization.
The Maori and the British settlers would not have had any feuds breaking out and would have lived together with few problems and well the French? Ehh no idea

Geographically we are neighbors, but historically Denton is in the Pacific

(because how would the Maori 'sail' across Australia?

)

Thank you

. I keep changing my mind all the damn time, so it's nice to finally get something consistent for once

.

@Colo: Yeah, the West Island is about 920 miles across, and the Eastern Island is about 400 miles. The overall square mileage is around 250,000, and a population of 35 million.
Thank you for your questions though, I like being challenged every now and then

Ok, I am trying to get back into drawing my FD scale vehicles.
I am going to start with an addition/revision of my HT-86 and HT-158 trucks. I added 1 more 8x8 variant and a tarp top, provided a front/rear view to emphasize the dual rear wheels, made subtle changes to the dual rear wheels, and added 2 roof hatches much like on the Tatra 813/815.
[ img ]

While these cabs that are portrayed here are 8 person cabs, should I/would it be useful/worthwhile to have smaller cabs that can hold 6 and 4 people? I see them on a lot of military trucks, but I don't really know if I should utilize that configuration. Thoughts?

And as for new projects, my work on the towed artillery has hit a snag. So with that, I decided to work on some jeeps. I am not sure about their service years, but I think mid cold war to modern day (2003) would make sense.
[ img ]

Any comments on the jeeps?

Question: Would modern vehicles that follow the role of the DUKW or BAZ-485 be useful in today's world? (2003)

And one last question, does anyone know why 22.093 pixels = 1 meter was chosen for FD scale?

Thanks
-EZ

Very nice work!

"Mid cold war" service years for that jeep seems reasonable - after all it looks so similar to UAZ-469.

I see no reason why modern equivalent of DUKW or ZIS/ZIL-485 BAV shouldn't be useful today. Actually, they are useful.
Like PTS, LARC-V, Stalwart or Fiat 6640A.

I'm not sure (I wasn't here yet back then) and my knowledge is based only on what's written in the old forum, but FD scale is bit "accidential" - somebody has made some drawings in that randomly-chosen scale on some other forum, they got popular, and later some folks started to post their drawings in that scale on shipbucket, giving start to their current popularity.

Thank you

Yeah, the UAZ-469 is the main inspiration. I know that some UAZ-469s are in service with some countries today, but with Denton's military expenditure being in the Top 15, would it make sense to keep them in service or to upgrade to a newer vehicle?

Ok. That's good. I've been wanting to draw an amphibian.

I did not know it was accidental. I do know that FD originated on another forum, but have never heard the origin of the 22.093.

Thank you!
-EZ

UAZ-469 is still in production (since early 1970s). British Land Rover is in production since 1948. Of course, they underwent more (LR) or less (UAZ) modernizations, but still they have significantly long design heritage.

Well, "accidental" is rather my interpretation of what I read. I don't know all the details.

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