E is for Empirical Evidence!

Many thanks to Gisby for these, he probably sent them over a year ago, I really can't remember, what with the passing of Mum, Covid-19 and everything associated with both horrors it's all got a bit hectic in Hugh World and time is running to its own tune here at the moment.

But I've a few hours to spare over the next few days, and while I should be in the garden or taking stuff to storage/charity/clothes banks, it's too bloody hot, so I'll try and get some stuff up on the blog, and try to make it all contributions as it's unfair to the contributors to have ALL their stuff pile up with mine . . . SOME will, inevitably, but not all!

I posted these as part of a Toy Fair revue thing a while ago here, on Padgett A-Z, and said at the time "... if you do manage to track them down, do try to send the Blog a picky or two of the runner/contents..." to which call, Gisby answered in full!

Further comments I made about possible motors and potentially simplistic design were both out, as you can see from this StuG IV (with StuG III undercarriage - on the artwork!), the kits are well executed, dense PVC clip-together 'puzzle-toys' seemingly from the same stable as those I purchased in  . . . . The Works (?), ages ago . . . "Yes, The Works!" he says after finding the requisite link, but branded 'Build & Play' not 4D and a better scale.

The Sturmtiger, I said last time that it could be a useful conversion platform, but in this material that's not so likely, PVC chunks can turn a blade quite easily, while sawing will render it a rather furry material! However, plumber's pipe-weld will glue it solid for all time, so construct; then cut-up?

Not seen but mentioned last time -
Pz.Kfw IV -Tiger 1E

Not sure about the green of these, yes, it's a shade of 'feldtgrau', but their vehicles tended to grey or yellow as a base coat, however, looking at the stuff on Blogs and in the modelling press these days, there seems to have been an 'acceptability slip' on late-war colours and I don't know if that's just fashion (like heavy towers on Elephants, parade finery at Waterloo or using shoulders as firing-rests for machine-guns!), or more empirically-based; on the stuff being pulled - almost daily - from Eastern/Central European bogs, lakes and rivers these days?

This does look like it might be better than the Airfix Panther (less 'hybridisation'!), but hard to tell with the pieces face down, however we will have a follow-up as I've just helped myself to 12 of them, not twelve Panther's, 12 AFV's!

OK, here's a fun thing that just happened while writing this up . . . I went and looked for them on feebleBay, and found that prices vary from a little (£3/4 each) to a lot (12-quid+, each) for these four, but that there are another eight! They also vary equally with some price-scalping the arse off them and others being quite reasonable!

Best for the eight (very cheap) is

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/324451888581?hash=item4b8ad6edc5:g:~X4AAOSwPZhfocYK

While this guy has the four @4.49 each, some of the eight (similarly priced), and other nice things!

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/aha21/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_ipg=&_from=

As I say; we'll return to these one day to look at the whole fleet, iron-out any construction issues and compare with the slightly sub-scale 4D's!

Bought this the other day going cheap, intending to put it on the Airfix Astronauts page, but realised it could go here first! I 'de-bagged' it 'cos it's a modern thing, and found it hard to put together once I'd chucked all the pieces in a pile, even though about ten of them were already assembled/part assembled!

But, it IS a puzzle, and with the photo of the finished thing (the exploded drawing is less than useful) found that constructing the three main sections (landing-plate and legs, engine-box and recovery module) and then lining them up together and adding the four fiddly bits made sense.

Things I learnt about the Apollo landing module: 1. More than half of it gets left on the moon. 2. The whole thing is bigger than I thought and 3. The recovery section is tiny!

Also I would note - if you're minded to seek it out - the four little frame pieces (retro-rocket deflectors) are very fragile, but if you line them up with their little holes they do go home firm.

Branded to Fame Master Entertainment Ltd., imported by Quay Imports and carrying the 4D trope - 3D + details! A second iteration in which the main sections are completed in the packaging is also available under the 4D Master labeling.

And thanks again to Gisby for the tanks!

4D is for Famemaster

Just a quick one from the full-scale world, it looked better in the 'flesh' as it were; I promise, the colours were richer and worth getting the camera out for!

We have reached the point where more than half the leaves still on the trees becomes more than half the leaves on the ground, and the switching between rain and frost over this weekend will do for autumn and it'll be winter for a while.

I shot the 1st picture above on a trip to Basingrad to pick-up stollen-bites from Lidl last Thursday! They are much nicer than stollen-loaf or stollen-roll both of which are too bready and too marzipany for me, but Lidl's stollen-bites are biscuity yet soft . . . like little spiced rock-cakes; excellent. Four packs in the stash . . . well three-and-a-bit packs, I opened one on the way home!

I popped into the charity shops while I was walking through town and picked this up for 45p! It's by 4D Master who made the puzzle Tiger (tank) we looked at over seven years ago (link), and this is really quite exquisite; 22 pre-decorated pieces which have to be assembled.

Undergoing construction, it was relatively easy for me but then I'm over the hill; it should be; a younger person would get more fun from it, but the finished product is worth the effort whatever your skill level.

Normally I wouldn't buy stuff like this and they haven't featured in The Works as far as I know (as the tanks did), but when it's in a Charity shop for pennies; it's a must and something different for the Blog.

A very fine model of a Red Kangaroo, certainly giving Mr. William Britains' old grey model a run for its money, both heads turn and while the Joey can be removed you only have his upper-half and a square, peg hole scar in Mum's pouch.

Without the packaging I'm assuming (again!) it's supposed to be a red kangaroo as . . . err . . . it's not grey! But I know there are lots of kangaroos, including Giant ones, while nobody's explained Wallabies to me, are they somehow different in shape; or just small kangaroos?

And if they are just small kangaroos, how come the giant kangaroo hasn't got its own name like 'wallaby', but suggesting largeness as opposed to smallness . . . this stuff should keep you awake at night; we've put men on the moon, but the jumping-mice are all mix-named!

He's definitely a giant, red or not! A few I had near to hand as a comparison, obviously the larger you get the better the detail and the more accurate the sculpt ought to be (tell that to Cherilea's UN forces!), and the puzzle joins don't detract too much from the whole; although the camera-flash helped with this shot - compare with the four-angle above...

As I was putting away the previous lot I remembered I had more Hong Kong produced generics, so a panic shot, posed on the bottom of the box ensued!

R is for Recent Aquisitions

Various bits and pieces that have come into the collection in the last few months, other than all the loose stuff that is!

Three Imai caricatures based on Star Wars, or at least using the coat-tails of the Lucas cash cow to 'fly'! A robot 'walker' from Bandai, this is apparently 1:144, but as it's a lot bigger than the Takara 1:144 robots I covered back at the start of this blog, there's a lot of flexibility as to what scale it - or any large robot - actually is. With some being manned, and others autonomous, and with most either imaginary or based on TV cartoons on the other side of the world, you can make them any size you want. I'll probably make these up as they're all pretty modern.

Finally a nice early pattern StuG in resin and white metal from Alemany, not a bad kit but the tracks are quite poorly moulded, and as the cheapest item in the kit, could have been replaced at source.

Dkwookie on the HaT forum brought these to our attention the other week and I managed to pick some up that weekend, still available from 'The Works' discount book/craft shops here in the UK, at 1:90 they are passable for war-games in 15/20mm.

They also do three different M1 Abrams paint variants and some helicopters or aircraft.

The LCF train set came from Peter Evans, one of the founders of Plastic Warrior, who knows the eclectic, completest nature of my collecting well enough to buy a piece of Hong Kong tat - so bad it's good - whenever he sees it!! It also arrived a week before he said he'd send it, thanks Peter!

I've already put a battery in it and rolled it round the floor a few times. There are now 4 or 5 of these in the collection, mostly civilian (plus a Skooby-Doo tie-in), and another only adds to the whole! [That's two mentions for Skooby-Doo in two days?......spooky!]

The HK 'Cattle', copies of the Airfix farm were an eBay purchase a while ago, but as they were still sitting on the 'still to be sorted' table, I took them for the photo-shoot.

Finally, this came from Mercator Trading (link to right), I sometimes help out on his stall at shows, and had watched it not sell for a couple of outings, but people did keep looking at it, so in the end I coughed up and will cover it fully in a day or two. A whole box of Dregeno wooden tractors from the former East Germany...Bargain!