News, Views Etc . . . more Giant and 6H-4!

I've posted a quickie over on the 'But is it Giant' Blog, not quite as complete as I'd like, as I've mislaid one of the samples! However, with a few links to previous posts here at Small Scale World, I've cobbled-together a post on  . . .

. . . the defence works of Giant, with the closer copies - there's tons else in other scales!

As there is an additional (to the above screencap) mention of Dragons' Teeth at the end of the post, I've used it as a thin excuse for a barley credible segue to another of Hugh's Handy Helpful Home Hobby Hints - No.4 no less!

Dragons' Teeth

Needed:

• ·         1x diamond-corrugated meat (or fish) pack from your local supermarket, corner shop, convenience store or Eastern import emporium!
• ·         1x washing-up liquid
• ·         1x washing-up brush
• ·         1x burst of elbow-grease
• ·         A pair of scissors or a craft-knife 

Instructions:

• ·         Eat, or otherwise dispose of the meat . . . or fish!
• ·         Clean the packaging
• ·         Dry the packaging
• ·         Cut the diamond-corrugated section away from the rest of the packaging
• ·         Et viola!

Obviously you can then cut them into blocks or strips, or to fit round the corners of bunkers or ends of bridges &etc. I weight mine with blobs of Plasticine in the hollow underside before painting, but two-part epoxy might work, or basing will keep them firmer, you might also use the sheet to mass-produce plaster versions?

The example above produces slightly short, flat Dragons' Teeth (but big enough to 'ground' AFV's in 20mm, 1:76^th, 1:72^nd and 28mm war-gaming scales/sizes), but different food packers use different designs so there are others out there, these were found in a Polish/Turkish deli' (yes - of course Brwreakshit was a nonsense, but we're stuck with its bigotry for a while now!) a month or so ago, but I first made some in around 1980, which look almost the same!

G is for Giant, Tanks and S.P.G.

I've published too much AFV stuff in recent weeks and must get back to figures, but wanted to post these as Wotan and the Philosophic Toad were taken with the Jean tanks the other day, and these are quite similar in design/construction.

Funny company - Giant, they are no more than an American (New York) import company for Hong Kong products, similar to Woolbro, Gordy or others, but they hold a semi-mythical status among some collectors. The main reason being they seem to have had a close relationship with one or two of these HK producers only and therefore carried a few half-unique items over the years such as these.

However their products were issued outside the States by other companies, or in non-'Giant' packaging, and most of their products were copied, also some of theirs weren't that good, so no different to the range of HK stuff in general, or any given rivals oeuvre. Because they hold this unearned status, dealers are happy to charge extra, or even pass-off non-'Giant' as Giant, particularly the Cowboys & Indians, so buyer beware and wait for the bargains!

As you can see, these have the same M26/46-47 Pershing/Patton hull of so many H0/00 vehicles of the time (EKO, Aurora, Ingap, Blue Box......Roco - the model for all the others!) but with totally fantasy superstructures. Also the wheel/track arrangement is all Jean and that's got to be a laser-ray gun on the tank, hasn't it?

B is for Beachead - Hong Kong Style, Part 2 - Beach Head Invasion etc...

Continuing where I left off above and starting with a comparison shot between the set they were all pretending to be (Airfix Beach-Head Invasion Set) and the various pretenders.

The reason the big Airfix sets are so uncommon is twofold, first; big ticket items don't last, they get caught up in house fires and clear-outs in a way little carded stocking-fillers left at the back of the 'secret' drawer don't (the water marks on this one are from the summer floods of 2007, not some calamity of the 1960's), the other reason is simply that not many sell to begin with, if you're a parent sent - by Santa - to purchase "...a big landing set like Timmy down the road." are you going to spend 2 pounds, thirteen shillings and sixpence on the Airfix set...or...2/11d on one of the carded Hong Kong sets?
Contents are similar to the earlier 'Assault' sets, but title differs and graphics are all new. However we are back to the H0/00 reasonable quality copies of Britains Lilliput only. The bunker is the most accurate copy of the Marx original having only two slits and the protected doorway (usually filled in, or no more than a bump on these HK copies).

The Jungle set is clearly from the same series as the above, set in Vietnam and selling for 3/11d in 1967. A fine example of why you should leave cities for idiots to live in...it's a whole shilling more than the Byra set was selling for in Andover the same year!!

This set was bought in Chelsea, the same year, also for 3/11d, at least you get more with this set! The barbed-wire is marked "GIANT (P) HONG KONG" yet this is clearly not from the Giant stable, only helping to muddy the water if you study Giant! Compare the bunker here with the previous sets, three slits (one designed for archers!) and no doorway.

An attempt at the earlier artworks, this is a late 1960's set with poor copies of the Blue Box and/or Triang Space Commando figures.