M is for Mohawk and More Military Miniatures

At the recent Sandown Park show I picked up a parcel from our roving reporter in New York, Brian Berke, which was very useful, as while I've mentioned them once or twice over the years, I've never encountered the sample while transferring things between different places, so they've remained rather absent from the Blog, but we can now tick that box - Mohawk's mini 'dimestore dreams'.

 

The one on the right is the colour of all my sample, so the pale herb-green ones, to the left, which made-up the bulk of Brian's donation were new to me, and this is a slightly larger version of the jeep we've seen before here more than once.

 

Brian also included a few marked-Lido mini's, so we can compare the two mouldings, as a full-stop to this original post, here, which compared the other three contenders for who's the pirate, who's the licensee, and who did the first version!

 

So that's six (Kleeware, Lido x2, Merit, Pyro and Mohawk) in total now, with the soft plastic Hong Kong version, Lido seem to have sanctioned themselves, toward the end!

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2018/08/l-is-for-lido-not-load-of-limp.html 

 

The lorry on the left, a sort of 1950's pantechnicon, is also a homage to other mini 'readymades' of the era (the Pyro 'artic'), and also scaled-up, while the Ambulance is a more original moulding. I know I have a tanker, to look at another day, but I think I was missing the pantechnicon, so lovely to get both colours.

 

The car is also based on another model, and while less obvious, joins the Empire-Ideal-Kleeware-Lido-Pyro (2 sculpts)-Wyandotte family of small post-war family saloons, for an eight-count! While Brian himself sent us the Carzol coloured versions of the Tank not that long ago;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2023/07/n-is-for-new-stuff-from-new-york.html

 

Lido on the left, Mohawk on the right and there's more on the cars here;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2013/03/s-is-for-siblings-take-2.html

 

Among the Lido's was a lovely bronzed version of the 'StuG III' which was new to me, and while rather washed-out by camera-flash in this shot (left-hand tank), is - in daylight - a distinctive goldish-bronze colour plastic, like some of the Captain Video figures!

 

At the same show Adrian had a few dime-store's saved for me, both of which are useful, having seen marked tractors and or guns from Banner, Bell and Merit, I'm not sure who issued this unbranded pair (left, the tractor has a 'Made in England' which I'll compare to others in the collection at a later date), but in a batch of British stuff, Kleeware, Tudor Rose or Merit (licensed or copy) are in the frame, and with the wreaker-truck a marked Kleeware copy/mould-swap of the Pyro, the clever money goes on Kleeware?

 

As with the Jeeps and 'Staff Cars', we've looked at many versions of the gun here at Small Scale World, already, but getting two new versions in one show is a feather in the collection's cap, with the unmarked green one, and a full-sized Hong Kong copy, in silver polymer, with eye-damaging ammunition!

 

There were a couple of more conventional/less contentious British 'Dime Store' AFV's from Tudor Rose, not copied by five other people, or licensed to anyone, the rather good Churchill IV, and the more dodgy armoured car.

Many thanks to Brian and Adrian, it’s all a dimestoretastic show-plunder and donations post, folks!

F is for Follow-up - Vehicular Plunder Post

A bitty post, but I'm trying to do a follow-up to each of Chris's donation posts, if only to clear some crud out of Picasa, but also to add to the previous, or illustrate a point made, with this one it's the landing-craft 'thing'!

 

Here it is, on a generic 'U.N. Army Set', and you can see what I meant about all the plug-in holes, there are at least six, but nothing plugged into them! I've never understood what the section of Bailey Bridge is for either, half unsuccessful WWI tank's steering mechanism / half bridge-support?

 

I think it's meant to be a depth-charge launcher, as there's a double row of blobs immediately in front of it? But for Old School war-gaming a'la the Terry Wise school of doing things, it could be used as one of the fire-support rocket launchers, from D-Day!

 

Further to the aircraft shot in that pervious post, the Stuka here is also ex-MPC 'Mini', but i don't think the other two are, however there's a chap on eBay at the moment selling a bucket-load of them in 20's, there are several more sculpts, another of which might be ex-MPC, the others like these two more chunky chaps! The Stuka is a fourth or fifth generation copy, with a large allied star added to the wing, as ahve the others!

 

And, another 'executive jet' pressed into service as a warplane, but the real interest here is the peculiar AA-gun, on a tripod mount, which isn't terribly clear in this shot, but the blue rendition on the card is an accurate likeness.

 

I've picked up several loose ones over the years, and was struggling to work out from none-too-clean samples, which small-scale (or other) figures they went with, but you can see here, there are no figures, just a dodgy pair of knock-off Action Man binoculars . . . You are the spotter AND the gunner!

B is for Back to London, July, 1 of 2

Lunch was moved from Islington to Essex, and we got there via a van driven by none-other than Micheal Mordant-Smith (thoughts with him, as he goes through what I've just been through), and a boy's day-out ensued, with toys, dinosaurs and all-sorts. But, a bag of Carbooty had come as part of the package, courtesy of Peter Evans, and that's what we're looking at here.

 

Rack toy air-forces, I love the little helicopter, I think I remember them coming in Christmas crackers, while the larger version (both loosely Sea Knights, rather than Chinooks?) has its stickers. I used to chuck this stuff, now I keep it, to check against a 'master sample', so I - hopefully - have one of each in the end.

 

Matchbox, just coming-in as we got out of such toys, and the ferret erroneously described as a fictional Weasel, when it is really a Ferret, a Big-Wheeled Ferret (FV711) at that! Along with two of the recoilless-rifle armed Jeeps and the toylike matchstick-firing gun, it did come with blunt-ended 'slugs' but they soon vanished and a resupply of matchsticks was called-forwards!

 

The Jeeps, interestingly, have different body mouldings, with one having a catch-plate over the hook, to hold the towed gun on, while the (older?) one has the better registered sticker on the bonnet, but it has discoloured, possibly due to something in its own glue?

 

Also interesting, because while I think I have both already, on cards, coming loose, together like this, sort of confirms the tank is Rado Industries as well, because the Armoured Car is marked Ri-Toys on the base, with the tree-logo.

 

More rack-toy plunder, again, it will all be compared and sorted with existing samples, and where possible ID'd to sets or catalogue imagery. We have looked at the smaller tanks, in some depth, and, I think, the recently mentioned Hans Postler was one of the issuers?

 

From the left, a Hong Kong copy of the Crescent Roman, being shot, a nice Lone Star spearman, with spear intact and the Crescent knight, unchewed, but tatty paint!

 

There were fascinateing, they are the Hilco sculpts, decorated as you'ed expect to find the Hilco's, but the HILCO mark itself, has clearly been removed in the factory, on the whole sample, so I must assume they are Phoenix, or Cherilea-for-Phoenix production, but useing the Hilco outpainters?

 

Army-men! The larger 45/50mm French (copies of Airfix WWI troops), being particularly welcome, I have lots of the HO-OO copies, but a very small sample of the larger versions. Behind, in the bags are various US Infantry and Paratroops, mostly Airfix clones, to be checked against existing samples.

 

More of the same stuff, the pink one is fun! Russians in red are probably Ri-Toys, the bag in the middle are Hong Kong knock-off's of Ideal GI's, and two bags of Airfix clones finish the line-up.

 

Current Hing Fat, French Infantry attacking a German who seems wholly unconcerned by the imbalance of forces! Indeed, he's not paying any attention to his imminent demise!

 

A pair of paratroopers, both the Rosebud sculpt (although I've found an equally good one with an American branding, so there may be a mould swap in there somewhere), both sub-piracies, one better than the other . . . sort of third- and fifth-generation copies.

 

Three more recognisable - Airfix, Cherilea and Britians.

 

Smallies, a couple of Airfix, the Matchbox pair which accompanied the guns above and some hollow-horsed Hong Kong Cowboys & Indians - a relatively clean, if small sample of Wavymane type two, I think. I did do the Intro to 'Wavymane' (ex-Crescent sculpt) on the But is it Giant Blog, but I haven't got any further with it, the posts are in the queue . . . maybe over Christmas, between railway posts!

 

Two Manurba clones, one better than the other, an Airfix copy cowboy, in the middle, and one each of the protagonists in the Condor game The Blues and the Grey at the far ends.

 

The Thomas-Poplar-Tudor Rose-Quaker Wild West.

 

Culpitt's Wild West, also AHM, Injectaplastic and Jouets Super Plastic, although only handled by the latter trio if with the separate bases, of which there is only one here, the Indian with the green base. I have a good sample of these, and we have looked at them in some detail in the past, but always worth a check against the master tub, to find the odd colour variations, orange-for-red being one.

 

Many thanks to Peter Evans again, and animals, civilians and space next time. 

T is for Two - Green Machines

Dropped into Blue Cross, the animal charity the other day, to drop-off some stuff for them, and managed to walk away with some stuff for me! Neither is that exciting, but we'll have a look at them anyway!

 

Timpo Bren-gun Carrier, nice and clean, with two, apparently unbrittle, crew, but needing a Bren and a set of wheels, I'm pretty sure the former is in a bag of spares somewhere, the latter may be found under a tatty one, at some later date!

 

Not so clean, but otherwise complete, a generic (for now?) Hong Kong tank, in the style of those which are usually die-cast (Zee), with the black-plastic plug-ins, for aerial and MG, but is, in fact, actually all-plastic, and recognisably a Panzer IV, albeit, 'only just! The barrel looks damaged, but in the flesh, seems fine, just a little loose. And it's not far of HO-OO 'readymade' carpet-toy scale!

O is for Once Upon a Time, in June! Miliflats AVF's

Google AI, is not happy, not only is it not happy, it tries to hide the frustration that's angered it, by bullshitting for England! Just because everyone's talking about AI, just because the stocks are high (Larry Ellison has just knocked Elon Fuckwit off the top spot of the who-can-solve-most-of-the-world's-problems-with-their-small-change-but-isn't-going-to list), don't for one moment think it's any better than it was when I was getting fuck-all useful, out of ChatGPT a while ago!

 

The question was - Miliflats Plastic Flat Military Vehicle Models?

 

The Answer was -

 

" "Miliflats" is not a known type of military vehicle or a widely recognized term in the context of military vehicles; however, it may be a misspelling or misunderstanding, as the results instead point to well-known manufacturers of military vehicle model kits, such as Trumpeter, Italeri, Takom, Airfix, Zvezda, and Revell. These companies produce scale model kits of various military vehicles, including tanks, trucks, armored personnel carriers, and more.

 

If you are looking for specific military vehicles, you may want to search for the types listed by these manufacturers, such as: 

• Tanks: M1A2 Abrams, M4A3E8 Sherman Tank
• Trucks: GAZ-66, Oshkosh JLTV, Airfix WWII British Army 30-cwt 4x2 GS Truck
• Armored Vehicles: Sd.Kfz. 251/22 Pakwagen, M2A3 Bradley
• Other: BAE Systems Amphibious Combat Vehicle, Universal Carrier Mk.I"

Absolute garbage, 'Takom'? BAESystems? Heeheehee! And - in fact - there ARE a few mentions of Miliflats on a couple of forums, but Google doesn't care, because with or without AI, Google is shit now, and it has been for quite a while! Anyway, the few mentions I could find were basically asking the same question and not getting much in response!

 

So, rather new to Blog and Internet, but shouldn't be new to Hobby, as they were advertised and reviewed in the modelling press when they were issued (1979/80/81'ish?), by Inkpen Art Productions (MIke Conniford), who also produced the independent rivals to the Bellona and Profile AFV drawings, for modellers, converters and scratch-builders in 1:76th, but I can't remember what they were called.

 

If I recall correctly, he made a few poured-resin, or whitemetal (?) solids - 3D models -  as 'Inkpen', which presumably didn't do that well, then announced Miliflats, the flat alternative to army building for war gamers. It's all in the archives, so it'll be right on the A-Z pages, if nobody puts us right here! But, for those looking, here at least is an illustrated guide to Miliflats Flats!

 

 *****     ****    ***   **  *  **   ***    ****     *****

 

Among my first acquisitions on the day (Plastic Warrior magazine's toy soldier show in June), because Adrian had kept them to one side for me, were these, and after the rant against the machine and potted-history (which may be inaccurate) above, I'll keep the blurb light!

 

Poorest image first, but I think this is a Canadian Ram Tank, and the only Canadian subject seen in this lot, which is probably not complete, but other than a Skink tracked AA vehicle (?) what other Canadian stuff might be there? There are a few CMP types further down under WWII/Commonwealth!

 

American subjects (there's another 6x6 further down!) include an M8 Armoured Car, what is probably a Studebaker 6x6 Truck and a Priest (which might be a defrocked British Sexton!).

 

The Germans get a Panther and a Kubelwagen!

 

Allied transport, I'll try not to make a fool of myself trying to ID these, but CMP type cab, front-left, while back-left may be a post war/Cold War Guy or AEC (Militant?), Bedford Q-something front-right, and back right is a mystery, I'd expect a Bedford O-bonnet, or a Diamond-T, not that stumpy thing . . . is it American, FWD? Gantry-crane I think, field-engineering!

 

Smaller soft-skins, mostly painted for the Western Desert, and two more possible Canadian patterns. Clockwise; Austin Ambulance, one of the Quad artillery tractor designs, Bedford MW and a question-mark!

 

Commonwealth Recce vehicles, with an AEC A/Car, a Home Guard 'Beverette' of some kind and something South African, I think?

 

Post-war Panhard is the only French subject?

 

While West Germany gets two Unimogs, 

but the British Berlin Brigade can have them too!

 

Instrument of Genocide

It fires down at women & children, farmers and olive-trees.

 

The Soviets get three - BTR60, or 60BP, the tank may be the T72, or relatively unsuccessful T80? While the other one is a BTR-50 variant, I think?

 

Bedford MK's, office, GS and GS with water bowser.

The bowser tanks weren't painted and should be all-over black.

 

The earlier Bedford RL's, from the front Wreaker/Tow Truck, Office, Radio-shack, GS, GS with trailer and GS with water bowser.

 

US, Cold War, M151 'Mutt' at the front, M113 APCs in the middle, GS, M106 Mortar Carrier and M577 Command Post, with a truck behind which could be one of several WWII or post war 'Duce-and-a-half' trucks, I have no idea which, but suspect it should be up with the WWII stuff as a GMC or Chevrolet?

 

The models are a simple sheet of poured-resin, probably pulled/smoothed into a rubber mould, the resin seems to be undercoated a basic charcoal colour, and military paint is then applied to the sculptural side. Most of the labels have fallen off, as the glue dries out, and while some are obvious, and others have catalogue codes, some, like this one are more cryptic!

 

Land Rovers, Series 3 LWB's; ambulance, GS soft-top and hard-top and Lightwieght's, soft and hard, with and without trailers. several models were broken, but this was the only one I couldn't encourage to stand up, and the Bedford RL pick-up truck, was being held-together with saliva!

 

Seems to be an early Challenger (or Shir I/II?) and BARV

 

Missing are Spartan APC, Scorpion and Scimitar CVR-T's, which should leave . . . anti-clockwise - Samaritan ambulance, Striker ATGW's, Samson (recovery/engineering) and Sultan (command)?

 

Clockwise from front-right - Saracen, Humber 'Pig', Ferret, turreted Ferret and Fox

 

This is interesting, as I think it's a short-lived gap-filler between the Bedford MK's and today's 'NATO' MAN trucks, and could be a militarised late Bedford, Iveco or LDV? Answers on a postcard - or in the comments!

 

Like the people looking for info' on the forums, I had been after these for years, even decades, and it's nice to now have such an eclectic sample, many thanks to Adrian Little for thinking of me when he saw them.

 

And the real annoyance - in a few years time, maybe in only months, despite my keeping the text down, Google AI will have a full, and reasonably accurate answer to the original question, without crediting me or the Blog, or paying for the lifted data. If anyone happens to have a bookmarked site with decent info' on these, let us know, and I'll put the links here.