S is for So . . .

. . . the weekend's here; what are you thinking of doing tomorrow? Washing the car? Yeah, 'cos they need washing, all that rain-water needs to be removed with some proper water huh?

Mowing the lawn? Good idea, 'cos once it's done, it's done, isn't it? No fear that it'll need doing again in a fortnight or three weeks, nah, a good job done for the summer; mowing the lawn.

Taking the kids to where? Thorp dark? Never 'erd of it, sounds expensive, I'd get back to washing the lawn if I were you . . .

. . . the rest of us are going up (or down!) to Whitton near 'Twickers' where we are going to wallow in plastic toy figures for the day and pick up our freshly minted copy of the Plastic Warrior magazine Tintin in Plastic 'special' publication!

This one's penned by Colin err... Penn! And it's a lovely look at the figures of seventeen different sets by almost as many makers, ancient and modern, in all scales. I can't add much to that without giving the game away, but if you've bought previous 'single subject' or thematic specials from PW, you'll know what to expect and we're going to love reading it, while you're parking that lawn.

I can add that the boffins at PW Towers have come up with a second volume for those of us who aren't planning on washing the mower tomorrow; The Plastic Warrior magazine Off With Their Heads special! Being a complete update of the previous, similarly titled volume by the same publisher!

Now, this one I can wax more lyrical about without giving away too much; thereby encouraging you to drop the kids in the washer and head to South-west London's more salubrious outskirts as soon as the sun rises on the 'morrow.

Don't let the Black &White on the front cover fool you; the contents of this guide to modeling and converting plastic figures have been completely updated for the Elizabethan-era with colourful plates of technihued lithography throughout.

Sections on plastic types and British makers, scales, glues and gluing, paint types, tools and converting techniques lead-on to various examples of other people's work, with a very useful section on flag-making.

Erik Kemp's conversions of Culloden Highlanders (wonderful tartans) are worth the cover price by themselves, although I was quite taken by the simple head swapping of Lone Star and Timpo desert troops by Peter Evans, while Matt Thair's Napoleonic troops are lovely.

So leave the mower in the kid's parcour, quickly wash the cat and get the car to Twickenham (plenty of parking) with you in it, as soon as you can - 10.30am tomorrow at the latest - s'my advice - best show in the world!

Apologies to Colin for the wholly-predictable scribe-related pun.