HMG is for Huge Mutha' of a Gun!

As flagged in the previous post, here's me'gun! Because I collect military railway stuff in HO/OO-compatible sizes, and because I knew they were out there, I just found myself a cheap one and got it, I didn't 'need' a blog post to tell me, although there had been plenty, mostly on the rail sites, but also here, prior to 2019!

Shot in the August heatwave of 2022, this is how the beast arrived, a large window box which puts the Duchess of Sutherland's box to shame, as a runt of a thing!

 

Gun depressed for travelling/loading

"I'm a useless gun, nobody likes me!"

(Wot? The oldies are the best!)

Full elevation, they would have fired from suitably angled lengths of track, with recoil partly taken-up by them running away for a few yards, and then being shunted back to their firing position, high spotters, maybe miles away, or even aircraft (?), would report on the fall of shots.

 

It's a strange mix of simplified model and fine detail.

I think this is a frame to cover with camouflage nets for the crew to operate under?

Non-working/non-firing, and both the footplates at the back-end were damaged by whoever shoved the model in its packaging, still, nothing a gentle bend didn't fix though, so all's good!

 

HMG Gladiator, which, if you followed the earlier link, you'll know was based at Martin Mill on the Dover/Deal line, and if I'd read it better I wouldn't have said they were never used in anger, as there was some limited use!

 

When you see the immense faff they went to with these guns, you realise how incredibly awesome battleships actually were, they had 6, 8, 12 or more of these and could fire them all at once, while a single one on a rail-carriage got land-lubbers so excited they gave them names!

The real disappointment with it, is the very obvious split-line down the centre of the barrel, and the lack of realistic breach-detail beyond the unlocking wheel, both of which give it a toy-like appearance, despite the finely detailed railings and cranes. And I think I'd rather have had the storage lockers (under the barrel) closed?

T is for Two - Show Reports - Oxford Die Cast Military Railways - 2019 and 2020!

When I posted the Timely Manner thing the other day, I was - of course - only throwing back at The Jabbering Fuck, that which he had thrown at me a few years ago, if only to highlight the hypocrisy of the turd. Obviously I don't really, and prior to his intervention, had never given cause for anyone to suppose I give a shit who posts what, when, or why, unless they are A) plagiarising me, B) competitively 'following' me or C) attacking me, then - of course - I take umbrage!

 

Although I notice he then stated "sorry for the slight delay in my report, but I had various other commitments that demanded my attention", what, like when I was saying goodbye to my ailing father, or a month or so later, burying him? Or more important than that, because he thought it was fine to attack me for not publishing 'in a timely manner' on that occasion, so whatever he was committed-to recently must have been really, really important for that excuse to be anything more than the pathetic whine of a self-justifying hypocrite!

 

No matter, I have the measure of the man, and to prove how little I give a shit about Timely Manners, here's two, part show-reports, from the London Toy fair from 2019, and 2020! Specifically the military train stuff, which I think we had already glanced at, and therefore flagged-up previously.

2019

The rail-gun which had previously been seen in a neutral greyish-green, was on display with a camouflage scheme and mock-up box, although we were told it might not get to the shops like that. In front was a military 0-6-0 saddle-tank locomotive in the colours of the Railway Operating Division (of the WWI-era Royal Engineers).

 

While the well-wagon with Sherman was back again, along with a weathered flat-wagon, suiable for stores or smaller/soft-skin vehicles. Both had only previously been seen as catalogue images.

 

2020

 

The final production version of the rail-gun, which - for a while - had looked like it might never happen was revealed, and while the same moulding as the WWI 'big push'14" howitzers, previously announced, was now going to be sold as a WWII-era, home-defence 13.5" gun, of which three were produced, and never [were] actually fired in anger!

The unweathered flat-wagon put in an appearance and I got to shoot the Sherman from different angles! And that was them, then, nothing time-sensitive about it, if you want the stuff, you go and buy it, if a Blogger doesn't cover it (and they can never, none of them, cover everything) you go to the company's website, I did, and we'll look at mine, shot in 2022, next!

 

It was pompous arseholery for TJF to bang-on about timely manners like a self-righteous, god-appointed guardian of the hobbies, in the way he did, when he did, and nobody cares (except apparently him) who posts what, when or why. Although other points have come to the light, so I shall be returning to his recent sojourn in the leafier suburbs of the post-industrial Ruhr, soon, but at a time of my choosing, which may or may not be timely!

F is for Follow-up - Model Power Train Sets

Another contribution from Brian, and another follow-up on a recent post here at Small Scale World, in this case the lose Model Power train set I purchased at a recent Sandown Park toy fair, and which has already had one follow-up!

Original article:

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2022/06/t-is-for-triffic-train-set-for-troops.html

First follow-up:

https://smallscaleworld.blogspot.com/2022/06/f-is-for-follow-up-khaki-runnings.html

The box is a bit shot Brian explains, but he managed to coble-up a couple of 'shop-stock' images which I've collaged into one. This is the other set I mentioned at the time, with the more modern looking diesel locomotive -  a Dial Drive GP9, a common design still in use but slowly being phased-out/coming to the end of their useful lives, despite many upgrades.

The contents, a larger version of the set (same product code - 1068) seems to come with buildings and stores/accessories. The other major difference with my lose set is that instead of a rocket-launching wagon, the rocket is on a six-legged (six-armed?) field-mounting . . . sextipod?

Brain also scanned the insert sheets, so here it is for people's archives;

If anyone has a spare launcher kicking around, with or without the rocket, I'd be interested. With many thanks to Brian again; another nice addition to the whole picture.

F is for Follow-up - Khaki Runnings!

I managed to grab the Battle Space, at the weekend after all, so managed a quick shoot of the closest Model Power  'twins' and took one of the military locomotive pool while I was at it!

Mobile missiles; both utilising their maker's flat-car, both spring-loaded and both having the large elevation tap-wheels, but otherwise quite different, the Model Power is err . . . underpowered, but as it's a polystyrene model, it would break quickly under the power of the Tri-Ang launcher which packs a serious, pre-H&S punch!

To which end, the Triang-Hornby missile is a rubber-tipped affair in softer polyethylene to take the strain, it also looks more like a Tallboy or Grand Slam (aerial bombs) than the Model Power's Honest John lines. "It'll 'av someone's eye out"!

Tank transporters; the earlier British one being a bogie well-wagon (that is a lower cargo 'well' between the raised twin-bogie (truck)-mountings) which reduces the height of the center of gravity, while Model Power utilise a clip-on set of chocks with a standard flat-car.

In fact, in the West, tanks are chained down with between four and eight chains which are screw-tightened, you only have to watch a few 'funny' tank-fail videos to understand the current Russian failings in Ukraine; while we winch-on and tie down, they rev-up and mount like dogs on heat and drive off, losing the thing at the next roundabout if it didn't fall-off on loading, or crush its own lorry!

Exploding cars; mechanisms were actually quite different (I didn't have time or space for more detailed shots this time, and while both have the look of North American 'reefer' wagons, Model Power go with a 50ft one, we Brits matched our road wagon limit with a  40-footer! Rememeber also HO is also scaled smaller (1:86/90) than OO (1:76/72), so the British model looks a bit 'chunkier'!

I have an old 1970's Walther's or two, and among the pages and pages of transfers for home-builders, mostly for reefers or passenger stock, are quite a few military ones, so you could with the two Q-Cars, this pair and a few kits, build a long, but visually rather boring (if more realistic) logistics train, but you'd need to glue these two shut first!

The loco's; we've seen the two main brands before, but of interest is the one down the front left, which is a clockwork 'cheapie' from Playcraft via Jouef of France. not specifically military, it happens to be the right colour, and adds variety to my fleet!

We loved our 'starter set' clockwork's when we were kids, and used to run them on a figure-eight inside our electrified double-oval, if we were quick we could get four trains moving at once without a crash . . . we weren't always lucky - figure-8's have a crossroad!

It's one of those quirks of toy history that at one point you had OO-guage train sets/lines from/branded-to Tri-Ang, Rovex and Mettoy Playcraft . . . all ultimately Lines Brothers! I should also mention the track, which happens to still be around despite having long lost its usefulness.

It's a sort of resinated or 'Bakelite' treated card (like the ties in old plugs which hold the cable tight), obviously for power-insulation, with the shiny (non-ferrous) rail fasteners (chairs or tie-plates) riveted through the card every forth sleeper (tie), I did have a brand name for it, well . . . it's somewhere in the archive, Hammant & Morgan maybe (our transformer was theirs), Hamblings, or early Hannants? One of the mail-order catalogues in the archive has/lists something which fits the description anyway!

It was the home-fitted rail on our train-set which was bought 2nd hand by Mum at Persons Auctions here in Fleet (long-gone, along with County Tractors and First Inertia), and somehow she managed to hide it (about 6ft x 8ft) from us until Christmas morning, I'm hoping, when I lift the boards in the loft, in the next few weeks, that I may find it's still there with its household gloss 'landscaping', but it may have gone years ago? It was old, crumbly, early (1960's) chipboard.

T is for Triffic' Train Set for the Troops!

Here's a book which needs to be written . . . a look at all the military train sets and the relationships between them? As we'll see, this set bears a lot in common with the old Tri-Ang/Hornby 'Battle Space' sets for instance, and while the modern Model Power branded, seems to be from older AHM tooling, so could be Japanese in origin as AHM worked with a lot of Japanese firms, or Rivarossi from Italy?

Anyway, I haven't got time to do it but I hope someone does, with the O-guage stuff as well as the HO/OO . . . but I might make a start in a while, after getting today's post's star!

I bought this HO rated set at Sandown Park for 30-quid which I thought was a bargain, and although I knew it was a modern (still in production?) set, I was right as Googling has revealed prices from $40-loose or incomplete to $250+ for sets, so £30 for a loose train, with no evilBay global rip-off charges, seems - indeed - to be a bargain.

The locomotive is what I - as a non American - consider to be a typical, even 'iconic' mid-late 20th century diesel unit and the caboose (brake van) is equally typical/iconic of its type, here marked-up as a troop carrier. We'll look at the other two in closer detail.

An Honest John lookie-likee, which rests on a launcher that bears a resemblance to the Tri-Ang one; but all in plastic and with a simpler push-&-click loading action. The real link is the winding wheel, which mirrors the Battle Space (and earlier non-Battle Space) Tri-Ang one.

A nice rendition of an M47 which apparently never saw combat service in US hands, but gave true birth to the M48/60 family, and here on a flat-car. The chocks are a clip-in single moulding, so could be put on civil-coloured (oxide-red) rolling stock, but it would probably have to be the same AHM/Model Power stuff?

In these though we get both closer to the older British models with an exploding box-car and further away with the huge rail-gun, while the one in the middle is a Q-car, hiding a nasty, if rather anachronistic surprise!

I think the mechanism is similar to the UK one, but mine are in storage, so I can't check them, but I'll try and dig them out over the weekend, if memory serves this is harder to get and keep together, but then it doesn't work when you trip the switch! Only falling apart when you pick it up to reset it . . . doh! And obviously because I only got the rolling stock, I don't have the track-side trigger, but the Tri-Ang trigger may work, or be made to work?

The 'Q-Car' has two Flak 18/36 German 88mm guns hidden it it! The Tri-Ang version had a twin rocket launcher, but employed the exploding car mechanism/body, while the Model Power one has simple (and preferable) click-shut, manually-operated, drop-down side panels.

While this beast has no comparison in the Battle Space range! It would benefit from a bit of detailing (stowed stores, hand-rails/guard rails, a breech of some sort, I've stuck a shell on the loading chute which was kicking around (Airfix or Lone Star SLR bullet?) in one shot. It could also use some more obvious support wagons than a cabose!

These are fun things and when I'm settled I'll try to track down some of the other obvious ones (Tyco, Bachmann, even Jakks Pacific) and we'll compare and contrast, one of them does a loaded Honest John on a articulated lorry trailer, there's a pricy three-coach Ambulance train from another and some more realistic ones from Lima, but they are top dollar!