M is for Matchbox Kit Figures

I have in the collection two boxes in the 'Unknown Dept.' containing kit figures, one has all the large scale (40, 50 and 60+mm) GI's from the whole gamut of early era kit makers (Pyro, Revell, Renwall, Monogram, Snap, UPC et al), most of which I do have a clue to, but because they all seem to have copied/licensed/borrowed to and from each other I can't give any of them a definitive place. The other box has all the small scale stuff, including bags and bags of pilots left off 'plane-kits and a few AFV crew.

Despite Matchbox being relatively easy to identify, there were two of these in that box for a number of years!

Allies - The French and Americans don't get many...one kit each! The gunner from the quad.50cal half-track is taken from the commander figure in the turrets of some of the Battle Kings AFV's. The Russians only get one figure, but he's a corker! A pity they never did sets of Russian and French in the figure range as they would have been good. The rest are British or Commonwealth, including the 4 casually dressed chaps from the SAS/LRDG set.

And then there are the figures from the Flower Class Corvette model - I don't actually know how many figures come with that huge 1:72 scale vessel-kit, nor do I know how many poses there where/are (Revell is re-issuing it sporadically).

The Axis; all Germans (we have to look to Esci for Italian kit figures), but some could be painted-up as allied troops. Top right are some conversions that have come my way in mixed lots. The three-figure seated vignette from the Sd.Kfz.11 half-track can be separated easily to help spread them about a bit.

The two main types of boxing during the flourishing of the Matchbox kit period. In this case a Sd.Kfz. 234/2 'Puma' armoured car. There are minor variations beyond these two, and now there are various Matchbox/Revell and Revell/Matchbox boxing's.

One of the minor variations is the 'free' glue offer from C.B. Baggs, as it was a sticker on the cellophane it's quite a rarity now. This was the kit that offered-up my 'unknowns' as the two gun-crew looked more like Hasegawa than Matchbox!

Top left - The only other attempt at a hard-styrene palm-tree I can think of is the Aurora Rat Patrol ones. Although a bit of thought later - actually there's the Marx Miniature Masterpiece ones as well - factory painted, and some jungle/dinosaur scene ones...also Aurora?

Top right - My Sherman Firefly hiding behind a farmhouse (by Pola - I think?), I added a wire aerial and some sandbags from grey Humbrol filler, it's my preferred filler, the green Revell stuff comes out a bit soft and crusts too slowly while the Testors stuff is like working with gritty-snot! Or - it used to be; I never used it again and was turned-off it about 20 years ago! 

The Humbrol grey filler on the other hand can be run-out in a tube and left for five minutes to crust, then it can be cut into 1cm sections, left for another couple of minutes to crust again and then the 'bags' can be formed in the fingers and squidged together on the vehicle just like the real thing. The fumes will glue them to the hull and a rat-tailed file rolled over them will leave a hessian (burlap) patten in the filler which will dry-brush/highlight beautifully.

Bottom left - if you have a good pose, use, use and use again! From the left; Battle King, US kit figure, US Infantry figure set, German Infantry figure set and German kit figure, the pantographing of the pose again and again reducing the German kit figure to HO gauge!! there are some rather good Hong Kong piracies of these figures that take this pose even smaller!

P is for Posing

I've been without Internet for a couple of days, and spent the time trying to get my Picasa folders sorted out, and dump a lot of electronic junk, and came across these which I had a play with a couple of years ago. I was trying to get scenic backgrounds that looked at least half-real!

It's not that easy, you have to keep an eye on the lighting in the picture, the lighting in the room, any light coming through windows, any shadows cast by you - hovering over the 'studio' and the camera's flash!

A couple of Matchbox kits sat on the edge of the great Sand Sea, looking for the reconnaissance oppo's of the wily Desert Fox; Rommel. It's interesting how the contrast camouflage some vehicles used in the Western Desert are quite effective with the sharp shadows cast at dusk and dawn. Here a faint reflection of the vehicles on the glossy paper is the 'fail'!

Airfix ready-made begins the assault on some mountain pass in the Balkans, on a search-and-destroy against Tito's Partisans. Another thing you need to watch is the scale of the background, and really, the marker-posts in the middle distance are a little big for this toy, a 1:48 or '35th scale AFV might have looked a little better?

Esci armoured ambulance heading out in the evening, after the battle to good good deeds for either side, the war in Libya and Tunisia was not the apocalyptic blood-fest of the Eastern Front, nor the dogged-slog from D-Day to Berlin, having many a gentleman's agreement and moment of decency. In this shot I could never get the perspective right, despite propping the half-track on a lump of blue-tac and moving the picture around.

This is a (Humber?) command car in white metal, I can't remember the maker - possibly Skytrex? It's a lump, and worked quite well with a crop that leaves a lot of the background...Monte Cassino perhaps or Malta?!

M is for Morris by Matchbox

Further to the Matador below, this is a similar exercise in 'slight enhancement'...I'm no great modeller, but it's always nice to give your kit a little bit of individuality, even if you intend to drown it in a too-heavy dry-brushing! Matchbox 17lbr A/T gun and Morris tractor;

The only changes to the kit were the canvas flap on the tilt-rear which was made from some textured tissue I had lying around on the work-bench, I also added similar 'doors' from the tissue to replace the rolled-up ones in the kit, however I don't know if this is how they looked as you only ever see them rolled-up or missing in photographs!

Should have done something with the breech, should have used a dark wash rather than a pale dry-brushing, should have...! The figure is from the Airfix Airfield control tower.