An all-contribution post now with two AFV's
from Adrian and Brian, we'll start with the newer, as it's so whacky it almost
got its own post, but I remembered the other one was sat in the big folder from
last September, so it became a 'T is for Two...' trope post instead!
Now, I'm not stretching the hyperbole to
state WTF? here, am I? What The-very-actual Flipp'in Ada is going on here!??
I think it's a
junior-school-gymnasium-type-piece-of-padded-play-equipment-type-thing? Anyway;
whatever it is, it's hanging from a building in downtown Philadelphia! Uptown?
Pennsylvania? Brian will correct me!
Now, I was taken by the fact that once you
get over a large padded, vinyl tank - which looks like it should be in The
Beatle's Yellow Submarine - hanging
from the side of a building, you realise you are in a street of timeless
quaintness. The sort of mews or side street you might find in London,
Birmingham (that's Birbig'um, Ingerland; not Burmin'um, Alerbammy) or even
Amsterdam? . . . or, maybe, even Birmingham, Alabama?
And while - if it were a mews in London -
you'd expect it to be grade-II listed, the fact that the shackles are in the
woodwork of the windows rather than the masonry, suggests a similar protection
order? Altogether a fascinating and amusing couple of pictures - Thanks to Mr
Berke for spotting it, and sending them to the Blog. Apart from the brightly
coloured tank, it looks like a film set!
Brian suggested it no longer fit the 'small
scale world', but it's small enough!
I shot this on Adrian's Mercator Trading stand at
the September Sandown Park show, you often see these about at shows, but usually
in a plain paint scheme, this one was leery enough to be worth shooting.
I'm guessing French, although I think Johillco had a couple of few in their
inter-war catalogues and lots of other people had a go; in real life it was the
first major volume-production Tank, sold whole, as kits, hulls &
running-gear only or simply licensed to armies all over the world for many
years, and there's a whole toy collection to be had just in model Renault F17's and the many
variants/derivatives!
Again I'm only guessing, but are the tracks
replacements from Meccano? Usually
when you see these (in green, more commonly grey, or a three-colour 'blob'
camouflage) they are either trackless or tentatively holding-on to blobs of
semi-melted, semi-cracked India-rubber or leather of some kind, but these look
a tad too well preserved? Still it's a good way of replacing the missing
originals and that form of Meccano
track is probably contemporary with the model.
