H is for How They Come In - June 2021 - 2 - Three Days in June

Toward the end of May last year I went a little mad on evilBay, call it shopping therapy, call it depression, call it extravagance . . . it wasn't a good time, there were no shows, lock-down was into its 26^th month and it's comforting to go and buy shit, however transitory the feeling it brings, so that's what I did! And I like to think I have a good eye, so it's all worth a look, these are some shots I took not long after the Postman had been!

Tuesday 8^th June - Parcels from the four corners of the world here, almost, with packages from Amazon, the USA, Ukraine and Greece all arriving together! From the latter came the Louizos Toys Wild West set, which I hope contains cowboys around 50/54mm and probably of the Solpa type, but I don't know as it's sealed, and having never seen one before I thought I'd better keep it sealed for now!

Below the unknown cowpokes we have a set of Teenage Mutant Ninja Hero Turtle Anthropomorphic knock-offs from the former Soviet Union, and bunch of Japanese glico-style spaceships and UFO's, but from the 'States, and a rather nice magnetic bottle-opener which was one of two I got in the last 18 months or so, I thought it looked like a Matchbox GI-copy, but it's closer to the Marx 60mm sculpt.

This single parcel arriving the next day was several lots from the same seller (Tony; a friend of the Blog), and contained all sorts of nice things, starting in the top left-hand corner, and moving vaguely clockwise - several swoppet knights, some Elastolin 54mm and some Hong Kong copies of Britains mounted Swoppets.

Below which is a handful of the RP issue of Co-Ma's Roman sculpts, with enough duplicates for me to send the five I hadn't previously been able to, to Peter, small thanks for all he sends to the blog, and who I'd originally sent my only one, we now both have a full set!

An empty swoppet box I can fill at some point! Two empty Airfix boxes and a bunch of loose Airfix figures, two of the new 1:144 war-gaming AFV's which have become popular, literally over the lifetime of the Blog! Below them are two Roskopf blisters, which are nice as I previously only had them loose, or in the small tan boxes, while in the bottom corner two sets of the Roco-Minitanks 'Artillery Group' (copies of Tamiya's 1:35th scale desert-attired 25lbr crew), so I will - at some point - make one up.

The 'box-square' of figures to their left are more modern HK/China (Rado) & Caesar and older Roco and Eidai figures in various amounts with a Japanese officer from Marx Miniature Masterpiece's lines.

To their left a mix of larger figures and above them smaller Giant, post-Giant and Montaplex, other HK figures of interest and a 45mm Ri-Toys (a.k.a. Rado) French soldier taken from Airfix. In the centre we have an Airfix boxed 6x6 truck, a post-Giant two-horsed, articulated chariot, Eidai FlaK's (one mounted on a  half-track) and Roco SPG.

While the 11^th brought a very eclectic mix, which I thought to shoot, but not the best photograph of the three, nevertheless full of nice things!

In the distance, lined-up on the laptop is some Comansi Wild West, but not just any-old Wild West, they are the five character sculpts (husband, wife, two kids and uncle) from the High Chaparral, in front of them some cake-decorations (I can't even remember - one looks Chinese?), a 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea . . . heehee!) diver from Remco, another PVC bird from that set we looked at the other day and some Toy Major knights.

We saw the two Soviet-era AFV's back in the summer or autumn, the V2 will be made up at some point, I intend to compare all three - Condor, Eidai and Revell! While I'd forgotten the two Hong Kong AFV's, they are the same maker as the one we looked at the other day, so I'll be able to cannibalise one of the Dingo's to give the Humber it's missing set of wheels.

Other AFV's include two guns and the weird six-wheeled AMX30! Three swans (?) a bag of ? (something), and finally; a set of Supreme Saracen/Livonian type knights made up an eclectic list of arrivals. Most got sorted away quite quickly and sent up to the storage unit, some just packed in 'To be Sorted' boxes, so I will have the fun of discovering them all again at some point!

N is for New Finds, Pt.5 - Kit Lot

At Sandown Park the other week I encountered a chap who had a stack of kit boxes, mostly AFV's but a few aircraft and a ship or two. Checking a couple of boxes it was clear they were not what one might call mint! The seller leaned over and said "They've been given a good seeing-to, make me an offer!"

Well, I started sorting them into stacks of 'apparently mint' and 'buggered about with' and asked him what he wanted for the buggered-about stuff, which included a couple of bags of bits and all the either empty boxes, or boxes with signs of tampering, plus an envelope of header cards and transfers. A deal was done...

Top image is how they came home, the lower image is sorting in progress. It turned out to be a reasonable spares purchase, not least than because there was a complete Airfix Matilda and Bren/6lbr in their bags, five Midori squeezed into one box with the wheels, tyres and gear-cogs in the other box...no casings for the pull-back motors though, just loose cogs!

The header cards will have to be checked against the collection as there are two distinct printings of the 2nd type 'full-artwork' cards. The early 1:50 Tamiya Crusader was pretty much absent, but the box is good and all three instruction sheets, the parts for wiring-up the motor and the plastic motor-housing were present along with the transfer sheet, so I may get something back on evilBay one day for that?

Further investigation revealed that the little tin of bits for a Cole's Crane suspension (and front mudguard) was from another kit, and this one is complete on the runner, so I feel a couple of conversions coming-on there, one day! The bags of bits contained the missing turrets for the Midori tanks and most of the 'medium sized' parts for most of the kits in the Airfix inventory (no JS.III or modern armour), along with a complete Bloodhound, launcher and transport trailer.

But...no AFV hulls or running gear (clearly in another bag, 'bagged' earlier in the day) and few wheels. The wheels aren't a big problem I have a lot in the spares dept., but turrets without hulls are a bit of a pain! There were also several floor-plates for the 5.5in Gun Paul posted on Mystery Model Monday, but a week when I wasn't on-line, typical!!

There's something very reassuring about a well stocked spares dept. no?

S is for Still Sitting There

Reconnaissance is supposed to lead from the front, these have all been left behind!

I've posted these before, on my imageshack, but to prove how bad I am here they are again a year later - no change! Some may end up in the sleigh diorama, piling up in a ditch and leaping over the bank to look for partisans? Mostly HaT with Airfix horse and bicycle

One of my favorites, the Matchbox Sd.Kfz.232 Armoured Radio Car. I built the kit (radio) version of this years ago and fancied a GS version, so filled the holes in the roof, added the MG/grab-rail and some more stowage boxes, covered the spare wheel and...er...I've sorted out some transfers! Although one of them is an Afrika Korps palm tree and they never had these, Doh!

Italeri have brought out a kit of this vehicle and while I haven't managed to compare them yet, there were several body-types in real life so one day I might try the same thing with the new kit, then I'll have three unfinished 6-rads on the table at once!

Like artillery and trailers, small 'jeep' types seem to breed on the work bench while your backs turned, there are two Eidai ones somewhere and an unmade Renown metal kit from Phoenix.

P is for Pending

Also on the worktop are a number of artillery projects, I seem to have more guns than a greedy person, but they do tend to accompany large lots, usually in a beat-up state, hence the first pic...

Bags of guns, trailers and limbers waiting for the day they see a fresh coat of paint or replacement draw-bar, or get re-acquainted with their own wheels! Somewhere (bottom centre) is the US 105 M'whatever that came with the Aurora Skycrane, it ONLY needs painting!

Er...does this need a comment, representing as it does both greed (4 x 88's?) and tardiness (all still in pieces 15 years after they came into the fold...). Not to mention the fact that a set of wheels have been stolen for an overworked Opel's trailer!

This was (is still to be?) a BMSS entry, I built the sled in a one-evening burst about 4 years ago, while under the effects of a flash of inspiration brought on by a third reading of The Forgotten Soldier by Guy Sejure, and his description of a 'left-behind' ad-hoc battle group, during the retreat from Russia. Slowed a bit after hand carving the horse trace spacers (what are they called???!) and having to actually ORDER two suitable horses (Hinchliffe I think...I sanded the bases!) and then put it on the medium back-burner.

Super-detailing the Esci Flak.36 came in another flurry, the same night I made all the magazines for this and a half-track project (lost somewhere, but visible - damaged - in some of the Tudor Rose/Spencer Smith posts), after which; Nothing. Well I've thrown the odd figure in the bag from time to time and a horse who's not got a job to do yet, nor a rider!

The plan is to have this one side of a frozen muddy road with the guys all looking up at the guy thumbing his helmet ring (ooh, matron!) in the Sd.Kfz 250 I shot in the snow last winter (see posts passim) as he whizzes past to safety, leaving this lot jammed in the wreckage of defeat, the other horse pulling a small sled with casualties, lots of dead horses, frozen bodies, empty ammo boxes, shell cases etc. Problem being...if I'm going to do lots of snow-stuff why don't I finish my Battle Of Hoth project...8 years and counting...haven't finished cutting it out yet... AAAAHHHHHHHHH!

U is for Unfinished

I have loads of unfinished truck and soft-skin vehicle projects, and here are a few, in no particular order...

From the sublime to the ridiculous, or; David and Goliath! The white metal French carrier is by, er...um...who? (probably Skytrex?), while the 'Airfix' Thornycroft is actually an early MPC licenced product, made in a very peculier waxy-soft styrene which was also hopelessly miss registered re. the two halves of the mould, as a result I've had to pare-down or scrape all the pieces until some don't fit or others; look right!

My first Opel Blitz, made in about '79/1980? needs to be overhauled and will be given a nice load of oil-drums. The Matchbox early war command caravan was nearly finished when I discovered Cooper Craft (grey lump to rear of photo) and reckoned that if I swapped bodies I'd have two convincing vehicles for the fall of France, so the well-glued backs have GOT to come off...ouch!

Leaving to the left; An Esci Gun Motor Carriage with the gun left off to make a GS 'Beep' (I've never liked this kit, it seems far too big and the suspension is far two high, no?), and to the front another Cooper Craft, this time a Bedford which will join the 8th Army before I'm finished with it...compare with photo below.

These are all on the final strait, the Blitz (Esci) is getting a Cooper Craft trailer with Eidai wheels (Kfz.11 at the front and 88mm Flak.18 Anhanger 'duals' at the back), the trailer will be painted to match the truck and get a loan of crates.

The Steel bodied Bedford OYD is based on old Military Modelling or Airfix Magazine drawings, and was inspired by the pictures on page's 21 & 36 of Almark's Focus On Armour No. 2 (ISBN; 0 85524 279 2), and is a scratch build body on the Airfix fire tender with a widened bonnet (hood). To the right is a similar kit bash on the Airfix ambulance, a downed Luftwaffe pilot chats to an equally wingless commonwealth sky-Jockey while a grim looking Scot holds a bayonet on him! Both need weathering, with a figure painting session.

Ignore the skype thing, it is the ISBN No.

P is for Projects

I have so much stuff in the unfinished/to do pile I thought I'd share some of them with you, if only to justify their existence!! One theme that that made itself apparent as I was taking photos was that despite all the new production out there I seem determined to force old Eidai kits 'up to the mark'!

This is the Eidai Sd.Kfz.11 half-track which I intend to finish one day, the front mudguards needed re-sculpting and I intend to hide the rest of the non-existent bumper/front end with a roll of barbed wire and a bundle of logs. Sides have a lot of work still to do but the crew are mostly selected and posed (actually, looking at the photo again they're selected and posed for another unfinished model - the Hasegawa/AHM Quadruple Flack.36 I posted some time ago!!). The trailer is from the elusive French company Alby, while the gun has been rebuilt from the ground up as a totally different mark/model.

Two Eidai Stug.IV's, from the box with new side skirts and minor detail differences (roof and spare wheel bin). The scratch built trailer is the one I again mentioned some time ago, from a photo, it was pulled by a Pz.I and seems to be a field modification carrying two standard German oil-drums.

One of my favorites; Krupp Protze, cross country artillery tractor/GS truck, the bonnet (hood) will never be right but I've built-up the exhaust bulges from the engine bay to the wheel arches and put something equating to the distinctive bulge seen on the radiators, width markers from an Esci Kfz.11 and a new steering wheel, just visible are the canvas 'doors' which came from the Matchbox Morris.

This will be my third, it's the 2nd Kfz.69 I've done, the previous being the Eidai bodywork on a Matchbox chassis, and a Matchbox strait from the box. I hope to put the alternative Eidai body (Kfz.70 troop carrier) on a Matchbox chassis one day and have it tow my other Nebelwerfer, this one will join my Pak.36 unit.

The weird angled 'axle' at right will be the spare wheel once I've worked out how to fix it on and trimmed it to fit!

M is still for Motorcycles

These next three are all by or connected to Eidai also marketed as Grip, all are also German army, WWII.

This first shot is of the first version motorcycle and side-car, the nearest is strait from the box, the second is after a bit of a clean-up, extra tyre and a new head, the third has been given the head treatment and will be left without side-car...if it's ever finished!

This is the second version by the same company, it comes with the MG, and a proper helmet on the rider, but he still has semi-flat arms and the spare-tyre has a mudguard?

Finally - This is a cardboard flat I made by cutting the - in scale - artwork off the side of the box the above came in.