R is for Recent Events

Had a mare of a day yesterday (Thursday), although it wasn't as bad as it could have been, and I managed to get back to Waterloo OK, despite the impending strike by tube workers, and some bus staff! The main event being the picking-up of a lovely lot of loot from Peter Evans.

 

I had a better Saturday last, attending the BMSS show in Reading, where among other things I picked up the above ephemera, all relatively useful, especially the colour facsimile of a Lineol catalogue. I may already have some of it, particularly the Corgi checklist/customer leaflet, but if so, it'll make a useful spare to swap for something!

 

The Hausser farm and zoo flyer is an original, and there's some German language stuff which seems to be either a dealers lists, or trade orders of some kind, and which may or may not have future use. The V&A monograph is a bit of fun for the library, and a picture of a diner from Route 66 heralds a parcel from Brian, which I'll hopefully post in the next few days, while Steve Vickers gave me both his cards!

 

Two Elastolin facsimiles got left out of the other shot, and I won two items on the raffle this year, the Land Rover kit has no figures (shock horror!), so I may just make them up 'as is', and photograph them against future Land Rover posts, in their neutral . . . gray - I just (a while ago) remembered I had to go to the bank, so shot off, forgetting I'd been doing this, then thought I'd go for a walk, it's a nice day, or it was, it's dark now! And actually wrote 'neutral' about ten hours ago!

 

As well as show plunder, which needs photographing, and the box from Mr Burke, which has been shot, I also picked up a big lot from Chris, which also needs photographing, but I have sorted it, and there are some interesting bits winging their way to these pages!

 

When I was on Faceplant, I'd thank Chris when a parcel arrived, with the Collected Paratroopers image, a few days or a week or so before they got posted here, but, as I'm not on Faceplant at the moment, here it is! The red one is actually a stand-alone figure from Processed Plastics, but he made the line-up neater, and was needed in the flyboy zone!

 

And while I'd happily draw a veil over yesterday's shenanigans, as I said, I did manage to get to Peter's and pick up a collected bunch of donations and car-booty, which is also in the queue to be photographed, along with some charity shop stuff I picked-up this afternoon, next to the bank!

 

Given that I haven't cleared any of the stuff I was intending to clear, back in January, because I've had a month off, like a lazy fuck, there's no shortage of stuff to post, and I fear the capsule-toy mini-season may join the HO railway outstanding's in the never-never section of the short queue! We'll see, what will be, will be!

 

The next event will be the London Toy Soldier Show, on the 9th of May, with a Sandown the next weekend (16th of May), so it's lucky PW has moved to June really!

F is for Follow Up . . . From Ages Ago!

Do you remember when we looked at the Nazi board game Friegur;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2012/05/f-is-for-friegurwhatever-that-means.html 

 

Well, I managed to pick up a few of the pieces at the BMSS show last weekend, they weren't cheap, but well worth it, to add them to the stash, and they also add something to that previous post, being unmarked and introducing a new colour, useful, as the link to the Leipzig set found by Paul at the time is now dead?

 

A full squad of twelve infantry, with the standard-bearer.

One each of the German Army's poses, the officer has lost his hand, maybe his Mauser exploded! And we can see the oxblood red of the mounted figure (in German helmet . . . ish) must be from another set, as we saw with the whole game, last time, each army is one colour.

 

Likewise, there are 'Frenchies' from two sets, but there were only three items, two foot officers and one mounted, again in the oxblood red.

Comparison between the not very German helmet (the foot figure's helmets are a better shape, as can be seen in the previous images), and the more obvious Adrian helmet of the 'French' side, and a difference of base design, one's thicker too. So we have examples from at least two sets, possibly three, and none of these were marked, whereas there were clear base-marks last time we looked at them.

 

I'm guessing here, but I suspect the different tech' involved in producing Bakelite mouldings, over the later petrochemical-polymer injection processes, might have led to larger tools or bolsters, for oven finishing of whole 'sides', with all the pieces required of a game, being made in one colour batch, then another, and the two opposite sides swapped for contrasting colours, at the packing stage?

 

Certainly the larger components made in the phenolic material for the electrical industry would suggest such large tools/components were not rare, although nowadays, Bakelite is, or can be injected, in quite small moulding machines, so I guess it's a moot point!

Howitzer, trench mortar and the 'lozenge' tank, as seen last time.

 

Notice on all these, the uneven finishing/sanding of the bases, as opposed to the marked set we saw last time, where they were all clearly ground level, in a uniform fashion, here they've just been touched to the sanding belt, to remove high-spots. It would be interesting to know if these are earlier or later production, I suspect the latter, maybe licensed to another maker, the Leipzig connection from last time? Although I've tagged them Denkmeier and Fischer to keep them together with the previous post.

 

The cockpitless Messerschmitt Me.109 'drone'!

 

So, marked or unmarked, in black, khaki or oxblood, I still have a few to find before I'm happy with the sample, given that an actual game will stay well outside my budget parameters! But this is a nice start! 

C is for Catalogue Cluster

Variously taken from the 1972, 3 and '75-79 catalogue scans the other day, they are sort of eye-candy, but mostly low-res, or not that clear, so to draw the curtain on the recent miniseries, and to get them off Picasa, here they are with a few notes, and in no particular order!

 

Larger playsets.

 

1st version Americans, with 2nd version in the boat, but they seem to have been given 1st version German helmets! I refer you to my previous comments on art-departments m'lud - muppets!

 

Ist version in the box, 2nd version outside the box! Americans again. It's not clear what the Bren-carrier crew have on their heads, but I think it is British helmets.

 

This shot was reversed in the 1976 catalogue, obvious from the red beret!

 

Window boxes.

 

Big beast, post-war British Chieftain Tank it was also issued in German grey, along with this one in a big-box play set, it's expensive when you find it, and rarely complete!

 

More art-department shenanigans here, some of the bases are wrong!

 

A bit silly, the Centurion turret is underscale and won't go through tunnels!

 

More art-department shenanigans here, some of the bases are wrong!

Have I already said that?

 

I think this is a mock-up too, the kneeling guy doesn't look right in the card-art, or in the blister?

 

That's it, I could have done a few more, but the effort of cropping them all was a faff!

 

 =============================================

 

Later the same day - 

 

I've added the Timpo paratroopers to the Parachute toy page, which you can find here;

 

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/p/blog-page_14.html

G is for Gigantics - Giant Monster Insects

Except, it can be argued Spiders and Scorpions are not technically insects, but they meant well! Originally issued by Fundimentions, (Miner Industries/MPC) when General Mills became involved they were re-branded AMT/Ertl, but MPC and Airfix boxes can be found, although these (below) are the common iteration; certainly in the UK.

 

I got mine out and shot the boxes a few years ago, and then scanned them, a while later, I didn't shoot the kits, as they were unmade, but as they are quite simple, I hope to do them as future modelling projects, with posts on them, here, then.

 

There was originally a fourth model, a Giant Wasp, but it was only issued in the early days, and I won't speculate on the reasons for its lack of re-issue, nor will I 'research' it by nicking other people's stuff, one day, hopefully, I'll just get one! 

 

July 2022, and the lawn's looking a little better than in did the previous summer when I shot the board-game .gif's! I think I got two of these from Modellers Loft, one at the old site off the M25 (Coulsdon Road/Brighton Road?), the other at the Croydon Road shop (I believe they're now based in Bournemouth?), with the slightly crushed Scorpion box, being a Car Booty prize!

 

 

The original reason for my interest in them was the HO/OO-gauge-compatible figures, and while the Giant Wasp isn't listed here, it seems to have had the same figure-count/pose distribution as the 17-figure Giant Scorpion set.

 

Each kit contains, in addition to the monster insect, and figures, a few scenic items, in mixed scales, and card 'corner' to make a display for your kit. And - if I work this out right, below this post you'll find three image-dumps, of the scans I took a week or so later, one for each of the three sets.

 

Other people's research;

 

Blog overview;

https://parlorofhorror.wordpress.com/2013/08/16/model-kits-amt-gigantics-1975-1979/ 

 

And he did a Wasp video! 'Funland' has never been less fun!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwMOp306rDg 

 

Gigantic Wasp on Scalemates;

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/fundimensions-1-0503-gigantic-wasp--605514

 

There were also flyers for a magazine included in two of the kits;

 

Giant Tarantula

 

Giant Scorpion

It seems to have been a very short-lived enterprise?

G is for Gigantic Spider

Yeah! . . . The worst nightmare! Not carried by Airfix, but as common as the two below (if I've posted them right!), although it only got a few figures (eight), and not all the poses. I think I did start to make this one at some point, so may already have a complete Tarantula!

 

Box.

 

This is clever, and the other kits would have benefited from something similar, it's a rest made from a copy of a section of the tool, so the body (thorax and abdomen) rests on it while the leg-glue sets, ensuring they are all positioned correctly and are flat to the ground.

 

Instruction sheet.

 

There was an additional French instruction sheet.

 

Printed card backdrop.

G is for Gigantic Mantis

The first of the two carried by Airfix, for a while, and I guess, being cut in half by a giant Prying Mantis would be a quick and relatively painless end, if accompanied by a deal of sheer terror! This kit got a full complement of the vaguely HO-gauge compatible figures, but only one of each. And - apparently, a male, due to the presence of wings.

 

Box

 

Instruction sheet

 

HO figures, N-gauge tunnels, micro-amour buildings . . . Forced perspective!