N is for Not So Free French Forces!

I allowed myself a couple of small purchases on evilBay after all the maths was done last month, and this was one of those buys, I felt a bit guilty as the underbidder had been winning for days, when I spotted the lot went slightly over with my bid, and won it, but to be fair, or honest, he dodged a bullet . . . 

 . . . as they arrived stuffed in a tube with a bit of packing rammed-in at one end, and in more pieces than I had bid on! Now, I haven't negatively fed-back, there's no point, the chap (or chapess)'s other listing revealed they didn't know what they had, its relative age or likelihood of damage, equally, neutral feedback wouldn't be fair either, so no feedback means if they ever ask, I can try and explain politely, I leave the lecturing to less salubrious characters! "Wel done on ebay “corrector” " chimes-in the lick-spittle phuq-monkey!

 

Anyway, a bit of superglue (the front bumper on this was hanging-together) got them presentable enough for this post, and now I know they exist I'll look out for better ones. They are - of course - if you recognised the truck in the previous post, the Noreda 'readymades' from France, already an eclectic mix last time we looked at them, although not as eclectic as the Injectaplastic set.

Actually quite a nice M3 half-track for a simple pocket-money toy, possibly a little bigger than the Blue Box one, and it's soft-plastic clones, but certainly a further source of them and ten-times more accurate than Marx's effort!

 

This is interesting, as there was already a jeep in the line, we've looked at it here already, while this is part Dodge 'Beep' and part Willy's Jeep, longer than the real jeep I think it is the Dodge 'weapons carrier' that is being attempted.

 

Seems to be missing a pintle-mounted MG behind the seats, and while the other holes could be for passengers, so far I've only found the strips of four, and they are two long, and would need another hole at the other end? The figures in this post are two strips of four who have been separated.

This is also interesting, as I think what we have here is an attempt at a Conqueror, the heavy tank designed to face-off against JS III's, and it would make it the fifth ready-to-run Conqueror after the Lipkin, Lucky, Rocco and Triang ones. Albeit, this one having certain elements of Centurion - as the real Conqueror did - and even, in the turret (and probably more accidental), shades of early M60's.

Before and after cleaning!

And then it gets even better, with a slightly crude King Tiger II! Added to the Atlantic and Airfix Tiger I's and Airfix's Elephant/Ferdinand, and that family is wrapped up, as far as wargaming readymade's goes, not to forget the Tiger I and Stürmtiger which some Chinese rack-toy maker gave us in the last few years . . . it's all on the Blog, just got to use those Tags!

They were filthy, this was a cursory cleaning of the Tiger II, and I wondered if one of the factors in brittleness of polyethylene might be connected to cigarette- or other-smoke deposits? It's worth the museum curators looking into, as there may be a chemical process happening at the surface of the polymer which causes, or triggers the leaching of the free-radicals?

B is for Before & After - Cleaning!

Quick one from the photo-archive, the Auburn Rubber half-track, before and after cleaning, the lighting also changed slightly, but I think the job still shows itself to have been a good-un!

Not terribly realistic/true-to-life, but better than Marx's efforts, and around 1:48th scale? Manufactured from a synthetic PVC-rubber, rather than the earlier vulcanised tapped-rubber, of which Auburn had done a few military vehicles, but not a half-track, I think Sun Rubber did a very crude vulcanised half-track?

 

I put a little touch of WD40 on the axles too (hidden carpet-wheels behind the track-units), just to stop them getting any worse, after I'd given them a wet-polish with a bit of wire-wool, while it was in the sink for its once-in-a-blue-moon valet!

H is for Homemade Halftrack

This is a bit of fun which came-in with a mixed lot of AFV's from off of that evilBay, I was bidding on the lot for something else, but this was with them . . . 

 

. . . recognisably the old Airfix Sd.Kfz 7 tractor for the 88mm Gun, it's been quite neatly converted into a GS-wagon/workshop bodied version, just needs some markings, although it's going to need rear wheels and some paint to stop the melting! If you recognise the work, why did you let it go? OBE, box-ticked!

D is for Double-Deckers! 1 - Blue Box

Not the best images I'm afraid, so I'll chuck them up here with a few nots and post something else later tonight or close-after midnight, so this can begin its slide down the page, with slight embarrassment at its paucity!

Yeah! Bright sunlight! Great!

 

Useful information for some!

 

Welp! It's better than the shot I took! This is a 'large scale' set, as far as the figures go, and there's still no room for 'that' artillery piece!

A is for Ackerman

I bought the first two of these four sets (both contract manufactured by Pioneer) from the same shop at different times, when passing, but they had both spent some time in direct sunlight so suffer bleaching on the faces, I've tried to adjust the colour in Picasa but with limited success! The card backs, however, are true colour.

The first is the nicer play-value wise, if you consider three simplified sandbag walls an improvement over none! And you'll recognise the 'airport fire tender' VAB with twin foam-generators and 6x6 truck from the big overview I did on these back in RTM 2017, which was when it became clear how many of these cheapie die-casts are out of Pioneer's factory/ies.

Again we've seen various paint-schemes on the Hummer and like the previous set this is branded to Ackerman Group here in the UK (previously seen importing Supreme output) but will have been other brands or brand marks (phantom brands) elsewhere, such as Realtoy - all three of these models are to be seen in their sets.

A few more shots, again (thinking back over past musings on this subject) the little walls are a useful clue (like the street furniture) as to who was being supplied by Pioneer and who was ripping them off!

The 6x6 truck has a less common short tilt, no troop-carrier this one; cargo-carrying in inclement weather! The Hummer's markings have it looking a bit Chinese . . . have they copied it? Oh yes! The Dongfeng EQ2050!

Another set which I shot as one before breaking them down into the thematic tubs this stuff goes to now and probably from a minor maker rather than Pioneer; one of their copyists! King Tiger has banana-barrel; a line you probably never thought you'd read here or anywhere else!

Again, these came 'clean' from a charity shop in the last year or two and are clearly painted to type and belong together, actually quite nice; scale's not so shot-to bits, as it often is with these 'matchox' scaled sets, coming-in at around 1:90th? But an interesting choice of subjects which include a Sherman Firefly (or even an Israeli 'Super-Sherman?), late war German SWS (Schwerer Wehrmachtschlepper - Heavy Military Tractor) 3.7cm 'flak-wagon' and an American M20 scout-car.

B is for "But is it Giant?" . . . Yes!

The long neglected 'Giant or what? page has got some copy, and it's the first piece which does actually look at some Giant output, and not something I'd got around to in the One Inch Warrior magazine series (a few back orders may still be available from Paul at PW?), so if you want to see the AFV's from the WWII range . . . 

. . . head over there; http://butisitgiant.blogspot.com/2021/06/giant-landing-craft-crew-and-wwii-afvs.html

K-WHW Das DRK is for All Sorts of Things!

This set used to be so simple . . .

"Seen this before?"

"Yeah, WHW that is, dead-rare, the first plastic toys ever made..."

 . . . would say the wise cove from the 'old guard' over yer' young-pup's shoulder.

But actually, it's all more complicated than that, and several people seem to have done plastic toys or novelties before them (the Nazi's), not least Bergan Toys (Beton) in the US. But back to the title first; Kriegs-Wintershilfswerk für das Deutsche Rote Kreuz, or wartime winter-relief by the German Red Cross, it's all a bit of a mouthful, and - as we shall see - a moveable feast.

 We did look at these a while ago to almost the same level as this post (not quite a complete set . . . or sets!?), but I've got my Plastic Warrior magazine issue 84 (1995) out of storage, and it's worth having yours (if you've got one) to hand for this post; pp's-22/23.

It's also a late addition to today's line-up which was going to be the next two posts, only, but I picked-up two more ships and colour variant Panzer III's from Mr Little (Mercator Trading, who still has a few) at the recent PW show in Whitton/Twicker's*, so I've re-written the second post in order to simplify it, and will explain the multi-set stuff here.

*I picked up four more two weeks later and took some shots which are near the end of the post.

Paratrooper, field telephone, range-finder (or dodgy mortar sculpt?) and a 'panzer' grenadier! Some people think it's a mortar, due to the lack of a base-plate I suspect they are setting-up an artillery rangefinder, but the sculpt isn't clear, so it's the owner's call and today that means it's a range-finder!

I first came across the ID for these on-line where an apparently knowledgeable German site back in the day had them as definitely (or definitively) a 1941 issue, specifically: March 1941, where they were titled 'Darstellungen der Wehrmacht' which as a direct translation gives Representations of the Armed Forces, or more properly as Examples of the Armed Forces, and was a German Red Cross collection, the DRK having been Nazified in the same way all the non-governmental 'organs of state' in Iraq were Baath'ified.

Spandau MG42 on a low-recoil sustained-fire mounting, set low, a mounted wiring-party and a dispatch rider. The pair of animals and rider in the wiring party seem to have been based on the single figure (rather than the other way round, the lone get-up is a slightly better quality sculpt), with horse-leg perspective reversed. While the MG depicted seems to be the '42 model (then brand new), but with an anachronistic pipe for a water-cooled weapon; when both the MG38 and '42 were air-cooled with changeable barrel-housings.

In the PW magazine there were two sets shown, one submitted by Michael Mordant-Smith, and believed to be a shop/window display, was self-described Kriegs-WHW 1940/41 Tag der Deutschen Wehrmacht, which - later portion - translates directly as Day of The German Forces, or more fluidly as The German Forces Today (or 'now'). This suggests - from the dates - the set was available (or being 'hawked') through the whole winter.

But also in that issue; 84, was a presentation book/box with a  pull-ribbon which enabled several of the models to stand-up when the cover was open, submitted by Brian Shorthouse, it was dated to 1940 only and titled Kreigshilfswerk für das Deuschen Rote Kreuz (war relief from the German Red Cross).

So you can have Winter Relief, War Winter-relief or plain [honest] War Relief! It's all (the money) going to the Nazi's! But . . . is no different to our flag-days or sponsor a tank/Spitfire type single-village, school, factory or WI (&etc.) fund-raisers, nor any different to the US flat we saw a while back courtesy of Chris Smith. Incidentally; a polystyrene flat, dating from the same era!

The point I'm getting to is that this set, which in the past when I've posted it I've always referred to with the 'March '41' info., was clearly available over some time from 1940 to 1941, and seems to have had several issues, as possibly evidenced here by the difference in plastic colour between a near silver/bare-metal vehicle on the left, and a mid-grey tank on the right.

In the magazine the 1940/41 sample seems to be toward the grey, the book display looking toward the silver?

While I don't have all the Naval or Luftwaffe elements of the set/s (see below), I do have all the army elements now - I think? Not unsurprisingly, given the various dates, all the equipment shown - where service date is applicable - is early war stuff, when this set was issued Russia was still 'on board' and the French/Low Countries and Norway campaigns were fresh in the minds of the populace.

This also points to extra-issues; there were two versions of this little anti-tank gun, and there may well be solid versions of other two-part scupts turn-up?** Hard to know which came first, but as with the riders; there is slightly more finesse to the glued-together example, so I imagine it was the earlier version. The solid also carries a numeral '2', probably a mould-tool/cavity number? My 'kit' has a damaged barrel.

** They have, see late shots below.

Highlighted in the past posts on the subject, and also pointing to numerous issues, the '88 on the left in both shots is both a finer-detailed sculpt and over-painted flat or 'satin' silver on a black-plastic base material; another clue to multiple issues.

Heavies; I haven't researched the right-hand piece, but it looks a bit WWI to me! I guess it's a brigade or divisional level heavy howitzer for sieges or barrages . . . is it what was hidden in a Brumbar?! And; I'm not that sure about the left-hand one being an sFH.18, but it's similar!

My Navy; the original cause of this post! They definitely aren't to scale, and I seem to be missing four two of a possible seven. The one I'd like to find is the three-mast training/cadet vessel with 22 sheets to the wind, it's a fine little model of a clipper-ship, looking very much like later, post-war margarine premiums!

Titles are purely guesswork, but it seems to be two smaller warships and a pair of biggies, with the sub' (and the motor launch and sailing ship), but as you can see the largest model isn't the recognisable large ship to its right, also it (the left hand one) is a single shot moulding and seems too often have the slight cooling-distortion/bend in it seen here.

It should be noted that the largest vessel (top left) is subject to losing its front, upper tower (as mine has), it should sit on the little nipple at the back of the box behind the turret, and which gives it quite a different look; for some time I was looking for an eighth ship!

My air-force is also at half-strength***, with an absent ME109 (early version) and a twin-engined bomber/fighter-bomber also missing. The Messerschmitt is a single-piece moulding, while the others have glued-on propellers; my Henkel's weren't glued on very well and have been flung-off upon starting without damaging the locating shafts.

*** Now both presented below with damage.

Images courtesy of Mercator Trading

A further complication in trying to ascribe these to each of the known or reported issues is that there are as many as three variations of some (or all?) of the individual mouldings. This may be something as simple as several factories being required to handle the masters in order to manufacture separate tools, so that for the period of the 'promotion' the millions of products needed - in a short space of time - were ready.

But . . . it could also point to either simplification of manufacture (in which case the solid versions of the two-part sculpts would likely be the latter ones) to reduce costs/time to the manufacturer, or an austerity measure, sent down from central government, to reduce vital war material use (the plastic); in which case the hollow, two-part ones might be the later sculpts?

As far as the grenade-thrower above is concerned, the first scenario would leave all three versions contemporaneous, while in the case of the economic theories, the former would leave the left hand figure as probably the last to be issued, the latter might have the middle figure as the final version!

A graphic of the data to-date, from my examples, I hope it will change over time, does anyone else know of single-moulding versions of the two-part sculpts, or any other over-painted examples?

Of note is that the two sets shown by Plastic Warrior all those years ago manage to ignore the range-finder ['mortar'] and split the rest of the set between them; twelve-each and with one duplicate? Oh; and of all the WHW's out there, these are about the least-rare; another sign of multiple issues.

Late additions; The  'Corvette' (with heavy flash/gate-mark on the bow), the two missing 'planes (both with damaged propellers) and a silver-on-black plastic version of the field-telephone vignette (also with better etching than the unpainted issues).

I think I'm only looking for the motor boat and the sailing ship to complete the samples, but if I'm still looking for up to four versions of each (solid, two-part, two-part hollow, and finer, over-painted) - I have a long, long way to go yet!

T is for Toy Fair 2019 Reports - Amerang - Solido

Slowly getting through the London Toy Fair reports, and still with Amerang, another offering from who (whom, which?) was a rather interesting development, if now getting a bit boring . . . having previously be issued as partworks under various brands in the former Soviet Bloc & Europe (and Australasia - I think?) as well as being 'cleared' through The Works a few years ago!

Clearly not cleared thoroughly enough . . .

. . . as they are now appearing under Solido's banner, shipped-in to the UK by Amerang, good news if you like AFV's, excellent news is you're building war-gaming armies and feel you don't have the prerequisite modelling skills?

On display was a selection of WWII AFV's and aircraft, along with a nice Korean War Patton I and Vietnam-era Huey 'Slick'. The full range (as seen before) has more modern-era stuff in the line-up, but then the aircraft are from a previously different/separate part work series (currently still running in the UK I believe (forthcoming post - if I ever find time!)), so I'm guessing Solido have chosen the more popular subjects from both ranges to maximise sales and minimise further 'clearance'!

Basically - some manufacturer in China has developed exquisite ranges of AFV's and aircraft in a constant 1:72nd scale, with fine plastic detailing on die-cast bodies - which rival the best Corgi has to offer, and they are selling them (as contract-manufacture) to anyone who wants them, and about six brands/publishers, so far, have taken-up that opportunity. Except . . . of cource . . . it's at least two factories; as we saw here.

Consequently they are not rare, and those eBay bottom feeders who bulk-purchased at 2 or 3-quid from The Works and them put them on the feebleBay for 6, 8, or 10-smackers-a-pop, should be taken outside and shot for the black-marketeers they are! [Not so 'far left' now, am I James? Seems I can be as right wing as you and your Mosque floor-plan researching, gun-loving bred'rin!]

Panther 'Coelian', an experimental vehicle which saw little or no service, hence the unpainted, surface-rusted turret. Like Flak-panzer IV 'Kugelblitzen', 'Maus'es' (mice? Misen? Misen to picen!) and E100's, there are X¹⁰-many more in war games armies than ever left the factories it's all a bit silly, really! Wouldn't stop me buying one though - ah, yes; the hypocrisy of the pink monkeys!

Safer ground with a Patton tank - painted by Dr. No's henchmen it seems! Didn't save the Gloster's did it . . . fussa-russa!

But a nice model of a machine which - where previously issued in this size - has always been highly inaccurate, whether Japanese pull-back or clockwork's imported by Riko or the Airfix 'readymade' which couldn't decide if it was an M '46, '47 or '48 or what it's turret should look like (despite trying two designs!) in the 1960's or later Hong Kong stuff based on Blue Box's effort copied by Rado, et al in the 1970/80's . . . hell - they still turn-up; horrible little squat-lumps of wasted polyethylene!

Lovely! What can you say, better that Airfix, Hasegawa or Fujimi, that's for sure, and the fact that the anhanger (trailer) tractor behind has a different camouflage and no tilt, while the gun-tractor has a full tilt (apparently in two parts), suggests multiple purchases could be cross pollinated to quickly produce a fleet of (6?) different-looking vehicles.

Hugh's Aircraft Corporation Utility Helicopter 1 . . . B! I think this is actually painted-up as a South Vietnamese airframe of the type thrown into the sea in large numbers at the end, as US Aircraft Carriers and amphibious assault ship's decks filled with the fleeing regime's hardware? Loving the tiger-stripes!

In the background is an AMX, is it painted for Chad or South Africa or somewhere like that? And if you're thinking it has limited use on the war game's table, I can assure you the 3rd Fantasian Motor Rifle Division had a heavy reconnaissance regiment requiring 9 of them on the table!

A couple more in the box, I NEED a Protz! I think the Flak-panzer IV 'Wirblewind' is the same model Matchbox branded about 15 years ago, which would make them the first to carry these models (albeit as a small and hard to find range), long before Altaya (or was it Eaglemoss?!) et al, and further suggest that at least one of the contract manufacturer's may be (or have been) part of the Universal Group?

War Master from Solido via Amerang, ex-everybodyelse! Get 'em when you see 'em or you'll be paying double on evilBay in a few years time! Or - as they aren't that cheap anyway - wait and see if they are churned through The Works or TKMaxx in a year or two - somewhere in the Far East, there's a warehouse the size of an aircraft-hanger (or two); full of 'em!!

A is for Archive Material

I had a fancy a while ago (26-years ago according to the drawing) to send some stuff to the readers hints page of a modelling magazine, and knocked this up as a first attempt! Needless to say I never sent it - application is not an aspergics' strong point, we're good at ideas, not so good at applying them!

I drew it on blue graph paper as blue used to be lost in the reproduction process for plans and drawings, although; why I thought a modelling magazine would have thermal blue-print equipment is anyone's guess, but as technology has - in any event - moved-on somewhat, it's now stuck with the hundreds of blue lines being read digitally, although I'm pleased to see most of the Tippex (another near-dead tech'!) seems to have faded-out in the scanning, so you win some - you lose some!

Also it's not so much a conversion or modelling-tip, as a graphic explanation of a bodge! It used to wind me up, just putting the tracks on a new kit was often enough to snap the drive-sprocket or idler-wheel (or both!) cleeean-orrff! So I got to the point where I was doing this with new kits as I constructed them from the box. I don't know if it was my imagination, but I seem to recall Airfix was the worst offender, with Esci a close second!

For the replacement axle in part 4 I used sections of plastic tooth-pick, it was stronger than Evergreen or similar polystyrene strips/'polyrods' Also; see, I used to use the term 'sprue' for runners!

This Russian KV 'Heavy' from Esci (a nice, neat, clean little kit) needed the rod-trick on the rear sprockets (and I should have done the front at the same time!) but because it was done before the deck went on for the last time, you'd never know it.

I notice it's lost an MG in the move, there is quite a bit of damage in the kit cabinet, one of the guys helping me tipped it on its back (because he'd seen the danger of the drawers falling out) and all the whitemetal and resin kits rather crushed the plastic ones as they shot back! I have a few nights gluing in my immediate future!

I also did this to explain the way I made the spare magazines for my quadruple flak, another project which hasn't progressed beyond the state it was in when I shoved it on the Blog! But I do now have two of those Frozen sleighs to add to the final diorama - if I ever go back to it?

Just use a set of dividers to score-out a circular strip, but before you cut through the two outer rings do some shallower ones inside them, which will pick-up paint and look like the reinforcing stampings on the originals. To fit them into the kits magazine-slots you have to remove the two shaded areas.

If they are going in the racks at the base of the gun, paint the top ends brass (for ready ammo'), if they are being littered about on the ground paint one end black (for an 'empty' shadow).

On the left are seen the commercial magazines on an Esci Flakpanzer kit, on the right homemade ones on an AHM (Hasegawa) half-track, they are not brilliant, I wasn't doing any measuring, it was all rather 'by eye', but you get the idea!