B is for Big Box of Bounty - Ancient, Medieval, Historical & Ceremonial

Another interesting assortment of figures from Chris Smith's latest parcel, and it's all the other 'Toy Soldier' periods. I keep meaning to do a post on the classification of these things, as it's never an exact science, do you put Huns with ancient, or medieval periods, what about Aztecs, or Ninja/Samurai, when are ceremonials also soldiers (1850's say), or further afield; the whole sorting of civilians, is a nightmare!

 

So, I'll put the Asians first! The Budda votive statuette is a nice piece of scenery for HO/OO type figures, it can even be an objective for your ANZAC's on the war games table! The large figure is actually marked Marx, with the full Hong Kong disc-mark, and is from a set of tea premiums.

 

The guy carrying the straw bundles is from a Hong Kong rack toy called 'Villagers', which we have looked at here, and another of the Kinder Samurai archers, this one complete, will get the base off one of the damaged/painted ones, in my determination to have one of each, in all three (?) colours!

 

Three Ninja's, two from Hasbro, one painted, one in a clear, blue polymer, and the other, smaller one in the middle, from the Panosh set of Lucky Bag giveaways, and other sources? I have tried finding the Hasbro's, but with little success, and suspect they aren't actually Ninja or Samurai, but from something else entirely, Star Wars semi-deforms? Anyone know?

 

Two Crong medieval horses, sans riders, and there's a post in the queue on developments there, courtesy of a Loyal Reader, a Kinder musketeer, Hong Kong copy of Britain's Robin Hood, probably sold as a cake decoration, colours tie-in with things like the Britains arctic explorer piracies, and a contender for 'best in box'. A Hong Kong clone of the MPC small scale medieval knights, and one of the little Blue Box 'Hidden Adventures' castle figures.

 

The little blob in front, is the jester-puppet, from the tip of a jester's wand, as there are very few such figures in the entire canon of toy figures, I guess it must be Starlux, Mokarex or Café Storm? As they often break-off, it may prove to be a very useful spare, one day?

 

Two lead chaps who've lost their armies, on the right looks like he's probably Minifigs, the one on the left looks to be 'a cut above', and might be someone like Stadden or Suren? But I may just be being over-enamoured of his helmet! Equally, he has an interesting detail in the tin-can sword-fist thing, is he a known character from history?

 

Giant-like but no Giant, the reason I didn't attach two of the towers to the wall ends, is because the wall is from a different issuer and the locating studs don't match up with the holes in the towers! We looked at the different types here (https://butisitgiant.blogspot.com/2021/08/golden-trojans-non-giant-gold-plastic.html), but I didn't think to measure the holes/studs; next Time!

 

Three Euro-chaps, the one on the left, I think, is by the maker located in Monaco, and is a Crescent knock-off, the other two probably premiums, and possibly in JC Peiffret's book on the subject - Les Figurines Publicitaires.

 

The Imperial Guardsman has a furry plume, caused by the fraying of a layer of plastic, which cooled quicker than the core (cold tool?), and has lifted and frayed! I could probably restore it with a pass though a lighter flame, but think I'll leave it as it is, as a fortuity?

 

In a similar vein, these plug-ins are part of a series of similar French and Italian types, from the better known Texas, through to several premium issues, each with different bases, but many figures in common, one day I'll cover them properly, but I haven't the time to try and tie-down these, or the previous ones, right now!

 

A lovely Napoleon, possibly made of casein, and a real treat, as I know Chris has a sub-collection of such things, so this must be a duplicate he's kindly sent us, it did feature here in a question-time, and I think Chris is still looking for a formal ID on the figure.

 

The larger figure I think we've seen before and is a . . . no, it's gone, I'm sure he's been ID'd here, or had his ID told to me, by someone, at some point, but it's escaped me now! I thought he might be Tringa, but he's not in my flyer?

 

The big one is almost certainly missing a sand-timer, off the right-hand spigot, and utilises a Deetail figure, unusual as it's more often seen with Hong Kong Herald figures, but he's meant to be in there, he has a large hole in his posterior for the plastic spigot seen in the second image, which is pushed through from the back of the chalkware sentry-box.

 

To the left, one of the sucker blokes, he's in a bit of a state, but rather a sample, than no sample! The little chap looks like he was made yesterday, and is polystyrene, so he may be, as he's absolutely mint, possibly an accessory for a tourist die-cast vehicle set which has avoided me, or is he a doll's house toy, as in from the playroom of a doll's house? A lovely little chap in any event, but ID needed!

 

Uncivil war, with a marked ABC figure fighting slavery, and a small lead figure (Hinchliffe?) fighting the Norman landed-class for a smidgen of democracy - they went a bit over the top on protestant dourness though, they sort of banned Christmas for several years!

Crescent conversion OBE, and a figure which could be home-made, or one of those 'Oojah-Cum-Pivvy' figures imported by Shamus Wade from India, between them is what I believe is an ocean-washed, sand-ground, or smoothed, Deetail Arab horse rider!

 

Many thanks again to Chris, some interesting stuff here, and still at least three posts to come. 

T is for Two - Best of British Box Ticking

And 'seen elsewhere' too, so just a Picasa clearance really! But they are both rather nice and less common, while no one ever said you can't enjoy a bit of eye-candy occasionally!

Lone Star Zorro, and not the one Wotan gave me years ago, who is in storage, and who lacked a horse, although I think I may have found a horse for him at some point, which means I've got two, which is greedy, but I'm not going to apologise because I'm too old to be blackmailed by threats of Santa not coming, if I brag!

 

Crescent Sikh Infantry, not that rare, but hard to get with this quality of finish on, paint wise, so very pleased with them. I used to think these were better than the Atlantic ones, for having more 'realistic' turbans, but now realise the Atlantic ones are representing units in the East African campaign against Italy 1940-41, so now I just think these are better for not being oversized, dancing loons!

I is for I'm Not Going to Embarrass Myself . . .

. . . by pretending I know anything of import about Turbans, Pagris ("pugerees"), Khullas or the wearing of Shemagh/Keffiyeh's as full headdresses! So the best thing to do is consult this page if you want the full 'gen.

We're looking at my small collection of colonial troops wearing such headresses, and hopefully I've sped-read the link sufficiently to not make any big boo-boos!

From the left; A Gormasa-'Soldis' reissue of the old Reamsa Spanish Moroccan legionnaire, Franco found a use for them (right wing Fascists have no principles!), and bribed them with a new mosque, among other things! They still exist, but seem to be confined to the Ceuta enclave in Morocco (sort of like, err . . . Gibraltar, but not won in a war!), they now wear an Ottoman style Fez and the new Spanish Right don't like them as much as Franco did . . . fancy that!

Next to him is a French hollow-cast take on a British Indian Army soldier, presumably in France (WWI), and made by Xavier Raphanel (XR), the firm apparently ran between 1895-1935 (thanking the plagiarist 'GTO' for that), I really like him, his bayonet means business and could hurt! A quick Google search reveals the dark tunic is an XR invention, and he should be all-over khaki.

Then the Malleable Mouldings chap, taken from Comet/Authenticast metal moulds brought over from Comet-Gaeltec in the Republic of Ireland, there is some debate over who exactly made these soft polyethylene versions (Malleable used either a frangible phenolic or a 'styrene polymer for most of their non-metal production), but as no one seems to have a name for the person (or persons) unknown who may (or may not) have taken over the IP of Malleable, they might as well be called Malleable Mouldings until more information comes to light . . . must check my Chase files!

Finally the little chap on the end is from Swedish-African Engineers (SAE), and, like the previous figure is a Holgar Erikson sculpting. From the painting, I'm guessing a French Colonial soldier is being depicted, but I wouldn't like to say for certain what type, Moroccan Zouave, 1939'ish?

As we saw in the previous post, this chap came in a few months back, and note he is a third sculpt, a Sikh I think, with bloused-trousers and no apron/frock coat (or whatever it is, trying to pretend you know about colonial uniforms is a slippery slope!). Basic painting suggests boots not leggings, and the plastic colour could indicate Indian Air force, I don’t think it does but . . . ? Another might be/might not be Malleable Mouldings, and again in soft polyethylene.

Now I had hoped to have the Charbens-Cherilea-Crescent Indians here, but they haven't turned up? I thought they were in the 'big purchase' of 2010, but if they were they should have turned-up when I blogged the Russians a couple of years ago, and they didn't, so I must have imagined them. It's annoying as I have passed on some nice lots over the intervening years, but at some point I will have to bite the bullet and invest in decent sets of all three!

Here are three pretty scruffy Cherilea Bren-gunners who have trickled-in with mixed lots, the best is probably the middle one, and you can find them with yellow, white and pale-blue turbans (in the Sikh style?) I think, maybe a bright green too?

I do have a reasonable sample of the King's African Rifles, also Cherilea, although I need more of the OG uniform chaps (bottom left), these are pretty whacky poses, but not quite as lunatic as the UN set, I suspect the same sculptor, and he improved quickly from the UN set.

I shot another one! No paint to speak of!

I have some of the Marx marching bloke in tall fez (reissues in bright colours), but they are with all the jungle stuff as German East African's or Belgian native troops heading into the 'Heart of Darkness'! I ought to keep the Cherilea with them.

F is for Follow-up - Spojnia . . . or Hobby EME

When we looked at those Spojnia Kioskowce small-scale copies, from Maciej Jasinski's Poland, the other day, I mentioned that I still had to post some Napoleonics by the same maker - well that won't happen as you'll see in the next few posts, but I did find that I had a bunch of other Spójnia stuff, so we're going to work through it.

I also said I thought they ended-up being called Hobby EME, and here we see a set in that later (or just alternate?) branding, being copies of Esci-ERTL's WWII US Infantry, and all fifteen poses have been taken; to quite a high standard, albeit; not Ecsi's finest in the first place!

While here we see the Italian Mountain Troops taken from the same company, and again they've re-used all the poses, but this time there is a noticeable drop-off in quality/finish and if you didn't know better you might think them Spanish Sobres or even Hong Kong/China knock-off's . . . now you've seen them - you know better! And one of Esci's nicer sets, of a - then (mid/late 1980's) - unusual subject.

I also reacquainted myself with the fact I have the 'Hindu Brigade' set too, taken from Atalntic's Indian Brigade (as before - they are dressed as Sikhs, not Hindus!), which answered my question last time about the bladed weapons, they seem to have copied two (of the original Atlantic set's three), and while I have one each of the two users (the third figure to have a 'kukri' in the Atlantic set has his holed filled-in, in this clone-set); Maciej's set had pairs of each, in fact he had pairs of everything, I also only have one MG and gunner.

The other point to note (for packaging collectors) is that while mine (left) has the full Spojnia consumer-panel's info-text (in the yellow box, bottom right-hand corner), Mr. Jasinski's has a blank panel there (top right image) and may represent a crossover from Spójnia to Hobby EME, if the latter was actually later!

K is for Kioskowce II

Well, if TJF's gonna' copy my output I'll copy his! Only in nationality of subject though (and Morawski is in the queue!), it is amusing; he spent six days trying to think of something 'as good as' and ended up following my format but without the research, translations or links! We - loyal readers - are supposed to think this makes him a 'legend' and me the idiot!

Anyway; this isn't copying layout or anything, it's harking back to a previous post here at Small Scale World, when we looked at the 'Kioskowce' (tobacco kiosk's) production of Andrzej Kawecki, based in Lódź (thanks to Konrad Lesiek for the information on that occasion). Also this's been in the queue for five weeks and I said it would post in a day or two; those five weeks ago!

This time we're looking at very similar sets from another producer; Spójnia supplied by (and thanks to-) Maciej Jasinski who reports memories of these figures being produced in Poland between around 1985 and 1987. he's also sent very high-resolution imagery; so be sure to open them in a new tab or window to get the full effect.

Three sets today; each is in a little bag with a stiff card to pull everything together before sealing which has been done with a bread-bag heat-sealer. Card-art is of the same type as seen previously with these Kioskowce and figures are copies of Western makers' output.

This is lovely as it has a version of the Airfix 'Wagon Train' box art, but with contents taken from Atlantic 'The West' cowboy set's Life on the Ranch (larger figures and Longhorns) or Stampede (smaller figures and buffalo-bison) sets. The quality of these is better than some previously seen Kioskowce - check the coffee-pot and fire - and look as good as the original Atlantic product.

This is even more quirky, as the more original card-art suggests the 8th, slogging their way up the spine of Italy, while the contents are most of the poses from both Airfix's [2nd version] German Infantry AND Matchbox's rival set, and again quality is very good for such diminutive clones.

The final offering today is the 14th Army, or elements of it! Artwork and contents from Atlantic's stable and it looks like the collection of pirate cutlasses (in lieu of kukris) that came with the original were reproduced, but are equally easy to lose!

Maciej also scanned the cards separately at a higher resolution, so we'll look at them now in the same order as above;

While on one level Spójnia (also the name of a top (?) Polish football team!) is just a branding, translating it in Google lead to 'bond', 'connect' or 'couplings' so there's maybe a reference to kits or models within the brand-mark, or teamwork?

As well as the aforementioned Andrzej Kawecki post, I have put the Globus and Universal issued Kioskowce on the British Paratroopers page of the Airfix blog and reading the blurb on the Kawecki post, I still have Napoleonics from Spojnia to come . . . so - next time I pass that box I'll dig-it out!

They (Spójnia) were based in Gdansk (previously Danzig, home of Solidarity) and I believe were still going, also known as Hobby EME, as a more conventional kit-maker (aircraft and AFV's) into the late 1990's?

I will organise some of the images a different way for use on the Wagon Train and German Infantry pages of the Airfix Blog for completion, another day and - in the meantime - many thanks to Maciej Jasinski for today's new to hobby, new to Blog and new to Internet, little-treat!

C is for C&T Auctions - Forthcoming 12th December 'James Opie' Sale - Delhi Durbar

The third pracie on the forthcoming C&T Auction sales covers the second part of the collection of the late Pat Campbell, including or specifically the Delhi Durbar, C&T Auction Lots 261-299 inclusive.

Lot 272

Article: PAT CAMPBELL’S DELHI DURBAR

The Mughal term Durbar, translated as a Court, was adopted by the British Empire as an occasion marking the accession of a new British Emperor of India. There were only ever three of them under the British Raj, in 1877, 1903 and 1911. The initial occasion was to announce the culmination of the process whereby the British Crown, in the person of Queen Empress Victoria, took power over India from the East India Company after the Indian Mutiny. The 1911 Durbar was the only one attended by a reigning British monarch, George V. The 1903 Durbar, which it had been hoped that Edward VII would preside over, was instead guested by the king’s brother, the Duke of Connaught. It was arranged under the authority of the viceroy Lord Curzon, and was by some way the most spectacular occasion of the three, hence the favourite for depiction by modelers.

It could be described as a giant party for the Indian princes, and 1903 lays claim to it being the most bejeweled occasion that has ever taken place. Fifty state elephants were scheduled to take part, although only forty-eight were fit to participate on the day of the grand procession. The world’s press descended in force, including one journalist intent on using a new process to take photographs  in colour. Mortimer Menpes took three photographs of each subject through colour filters, processing them into full colour images using a pioneering photographic colour printing process that he had co-developed with Carl Hentschel.

The resulting book, published by A & C Black in 1903 with a hundred full colour photographs, was printed in a de luxe edition of 1,000 copies. An example of this is one of the highlights of the Pat Campbell Replica Durbar Collection, part of C & T Auction’s 12 December sale of toy soldiers.

As the book shows, there is no better subject for toy soldiers. Probably the most comprehensive (and expensive) series of models is by the Argentinian maker Beau Geste. Marlborough also was famous for an extensive series in their own distinctive style. The models of Bill Cranston and Pat Campbell (Replica) seem much more akin to Britains hollowcast and Toy Soldier Collection, while the fairly limited Durbar selection issued by Britains rather later, while suitably spectacular, does not actually fit in with earlier Britains so well.

Now that so many collectors are switching to spectacle rather than collecting by set numbers, adding Durbar figures to British Indian Army displays seems more and more the natural thing to do. Certainly, this was the late Pat Campbell’s favourite, and the impact of his Durbar display on opening the door to his Garden Shed number One was considerable. 800 figures massed in front of 22 feet of background buildings and more than 100 spectators made an indelible impression. Not since the days of George Palmer’s Durbar Collection, sold at Phillips in 1992 has such a unique extravaganza been on offer, not least because nearly all of them are Pat’s own creations for his own pleasure, never duplicated for anyone else.

My own interest in India has always been enhanced by the service given to the Empire by my grandmother and grandfather, as private secretary to Lady Brabourne, the wife of the Governor of Bombay, and Medical Aide de Camp to the Governor himself.

Pat Campbell, with his Replica brand producing both closish copies of famous figures and original designs of his own, was for many years the go to man for castings and commissions for everyone in the British Model Soldier Society. The good news is that Andrew Stevenson has decided, with Pat’s widow Margaret’s blessing, to take on the masters and machinery of Replica. He intends to follow in Pat’s footsteps. He has already made a superb set of four Governor of Bombay’s dismounted Bodyguards for the family tribute group in my collection.

James Opie

More details on the lots available, including nearly all the pictures, at www.the-saleroom.com. They are also hoping to offer (being completed at time of press-release) an online ‘flick-through’ version of the catalogue on the C & T website www.candtauctions.co.uk.

Other Highlights

Thanks to Mr Opie

for article and images.

C is for Charmingly Cheerfull Chaps Choon'ing

Although I had to pass-up the French terracotta figures I showed the other day, I will always obtain the more esoteric figures when I see them at an affordable price, and these are a case in point coming-in at 50p (less than a single Euro or Dollar) each from a charity shop the other day.

Despite Googling every possible combination of India-Indian-Pakistani-Pakistan-military-Army-Navy-Air Force-uniform-turban-headdress-ceremonial-red and blue-band-Bandsman and music-musician I can find no hint to the regiment or unit here represented, any ideas?

There is among the higher echelons of the collecting fraternity a chap who - a decade or so ago - imported lots of lovely little sets of Indian Army bands, each of about 8 musician figures in a soft pink terracotta/clay materiel and while he's been pointed out to me at the odd show, I'm ashamed to say I can't remember his name*. Anyway, I was always taken by the sets - which often still turn up either as the original trayed, boxed sets, or as a handful of rather dusty 'casualties' - but they were smaller (around 45/50mm) than these, which stand 70-75-odd millimetres with their heavy bases.

*Shamus Wade 'Ooja-cun-pivvy'!

There is a requirement for a new hand, and there will have to be some careful straightening of the brass-wire instruments at some point, but given the nature of the material and the fact that they've become divorced from their original packaging, they are in remarkably good-nick.

Close-ups of the instruments, quite crude, but they do the job, and have that 'craft' charm you don't get with say the Airfix Afrika Korps, which are lovely but commercially finished 'Models', while these are very much 'Collectable Figurines' (away from India), yet 'Toy Soldiers in the slums and villages where they are probably sold for about the same as I paid for them!

Lovely little doll-like faces only add to the charm, a couple of them seems to be reading the music of the chap next to them! And how they are seeming to be enjoying the playing!!

As the Indian Army do have some very fancy ceremonial or 'dress' uniforms, I am assuming this is the No.2 or 'undress' uniform with it's majority Khaki? Again anyone who can identify the unit please drop us a comment. I don't think it's a UN turban, they tend to be all blue. The small figures I mentioned come in very smart dress uniforms, but I'm not sure they were all military, or even representing actual units, yet these seem to be trying to represent a real unit...cavalry perhaps?

D is for Delhi Durbar

A lot of Hollow-cast and 'New Metal' collectors have a bit of a thing for the Durbars that were held in India in 1877, 1903 and 1911, and one of the new metal producers has a whole range dedicated to those spectacles, that were such a display of Imperial power and prestige. If you are active on the Treefrog forum, you might like to bring this to the attention of those aficionado's...

This is the layout map of the various camps and compounds of the visitors and units involved in the Coronation Durbar of 1911, the last as it happens, the abdication putting off the next and WWII/Independence putting paid to what would - almost certainly (with hindsight) - have been the last if it had gone ahead.

In order to make it readable I've photographed each of the three folds separately and stitched them back together as a Picasa collage, and clicking on the image and clicking again should get the image about 6 screens big! As the book is 30 years out of copyright I can hardly claim copyright for the image either, so I suggest anyone wanting a decent printout;

Right click "Save Image to..." - Desktop, then cut or copy to disc or data-stick and take it to a reputable high-street print shop and get a high resolution print on an A3 or A2 sheet and trim the margins.

Elephants next.

[Well - it only enlarges to twice screen size, so may print A4 only anyway...if there is a demand for a larger image perhaps someone with better knowledge of imaging on PC's/for the Internet can suggest a way of improving the presented article!]

News Views Etc...Bits and Bobs

His Majesty's Imperial Cadet Corps
Mustering sometime in 1911 in the run-up to the Delhi Coronation Durbar

First I'd like to thank all the new followers to this blog, all traffic greatly appreciated and my hits have doubled since October, indeed my stat's make interesting reading and I may do a blog on them soon.

Some of you may have noticed I've added a lot of new links in the last few days and there are more to come, basically I've lost so many useful bookmarks in the various crashes on the old laptop, that I felt it was easier to get all the bookmarks I still have on it, this new one and the PC placed here where A) everyone can use them and B) I can't lose them (or can rant like crazy if Blogger loses them!).

On the subject of Blogger; Quite apart from all the other problems;
* Deleting and adding blog links.
* An apparent 300 blog link limit.
* Lots of "received invalid response" messages, causing loss of work.
* Lots of "Blog Not Found" messages, causing loss of work.
* The layout reset to one post per page the other week (I'm still not back-up to my 15 posts per page, despite saving it as a change to 20 - twice!).
* Problems with three-column blogs and the right-had widgets moving over the central column images last Wednesday evening.
* Some people having trouble uploading images from their PC and having to use Picasa.
* Some people having trouble uploading images from Picasa and being limited to their PC!
* "Memcache value is null for Form Restoration" messages when trying to comment from Wordpress....

...and adding all the problems with layout (automatic Div's and Para's in the coding leaving great gaps, and the problems I had on the Airfix page with the 'updated blogger interface') back in the summer, this all adds-up to a failure by Blogger to understand the philosophy "If it ain't broke, don't fix it"...

...there is also the new limit on Tags/Labels, which has been set at 20 words per post OR 200 characters in total, whichever is reached soonest. This limit is farcical....while I can understand the overall limit of 5000 words per Blog (if anything - over-generous?), the post limit means that some of my past posts have already 'gone over' the new limit meaning that I will never be able to edit or update them again as they will not save without me taking out labels that have been there quite happily for years!

Now while I realise that a lot of the problems listed above are due to the increasing complexity of the Internet, the introduction of another coding language and the fact that it's all being written (the coding) for three new operating systems as all this mobile technology speeds and spreads causing compatibility problems for all users, it is equally true that the post limit is down to Blogger and no one else.

If people have been taking the piss out of tags, shut them down or warn them or something, don't hit the rest of us. 30 words would be a far better limit, a lot of people don't even use their tag list, or produce minimal labels that don't help at all. This is a problem caused by the commercial guys using Blogger templates on their own-hosted web-pages, who are using as many words as possible to drive traffic to their clearance white-goods or whatever.

I sometime produce posts in which the products of several companies from several countries in several materials and scales appear together, and collectors following me need to find those figures under any of those headings (maker, nationality of maker, scale, material), along with nationality and era of the figures shown (or whether they are infantry, cavalry or sailors etc...) meaning a 20 word/200 character limit necessitates leaving out a load of valid tags.

So - if you go on the Blogger Forums, please fight for an increase to 30 tags or 300 characters - whichever is the larger, and better policing of the piss-takers.

The feeling is that Blogger provide for free and we should live with it, well yes...but they also make a fortune from the Adsence carried by some blogs, which is one reason I've dropped mine, why should Google (who own Blogger - and "will never do anything bad") and Blogger take two cuts while never actually sending me a penny? And if they didn't provide - someone else would.

The rant sort of over; I tried to re-tag the first month of my blogging the other night and ran into horrendous problems with the new limit (and once you've reached the limit on one post you can no longer edit all the posts with that tag, as the changes won't save!), and can see that I'm going to have to re-do the tags on 460-odd posts, taking out all plurals, extraneous (to Blogger) words and using abbreviated forms wherever I can. This will take a month or two, but should be worth the effort in the long run as it will be easier to find past posts on a given subject or theme.

So; some days that will keep me away from posting, however; coming in the next few days are American GI's in larger scales (already started) and Giant Napoleonics continuing from this odd box I've got. We'll also look at the Elephant pictures in the 101 year-old report into the Delhi Durbar from which the above image was taken and there will be more art links involving toy/model soldiers and things.

I also want to close down the 'Other collectables' blog and transfer the posts to this blog, I don't know how to do that so that they appear when they were originally published, so you may find, one day, four pages of shite from over there...over here!! But I'll soon bury them with new soldier posts! I will also ask blogger if there is a way round it using the 'Import Blog' feature I now can't find but which used to be there somewhere! I may also Bring the Airfix page over here as well...but don't know yet?

Thanks for popping-by, do keep checking back when you have the time, try requests - I may be able to help, do report dead-links and please comment or correct, it all adds to the bigger picture.

Hugh.