B is for Bag'O Bundesbahn Bits

Clumsey image, but it's been in Picasa for so long I'm just glad to see the back of it!, It'll benefit from enlarging with a right click if you're interested. The only surviving piece of the packaging was a scrap of paper 'header' attached to one of the bag's staples, so I de-bagged it.

I suspect these might be Siku, but can't be sure as the Flats book is in storage.They were almost certainly issued singly as premiums at some point, but here were being sold as a bagged set 'rack toy'.

The scrap says 20 pieces however there are 18 items (in a sealed bags); 10 white and 8 red. I'm guessing that someone put an extra telegraph pole in the bag? If you removed one and then assumed the figures count four, you'd have the 20, but really it's just an mental-exercise for moments of boredom!

The street light is similar to the Airfix platform lights from their railway range, but several others of the period are too, so I think that's down to the equipment in use in 'real life' at that time - 1950's. I particularly like the signal box, as it resembles the little die-cast one from Lone Star's range of Treble-O-Trains.

M is for Men in Black

Returning to the conflict zone that is modern Ukraine, we're taking a look at Special Forces troops of the Ukrainian Border Guard.

Equipped with Land Rover Defenders, and a boarder marker/post, we've known since the Iranian Embassy seige back-here in London that you mess with the Men in Black at your peril!

The Land Rover has a rather snazzy paint-job which reminds me of some of the old West German vehicles, although they went with a more apple-green and white.

When we (the Glosters) were in Berlin we took delivery of some of the first Defenders used by the British army (paid for by the Berlin Senate; they were purchased outside MOD's procurement channels) and managed - within weeks - to identify several faults which were subsequently fixed before UKLF and BAOR started getting theirs. Not being particularly auto-minded, I can't recall the specifics but seem to remember split engine-cases and broken/overheating drive shafts as the main problems?

Bagged set had five figures, the vehicle and a marker-post. The header-card's artwork suggests they also used something equally big, but Japanese (?) as well.

F is for Four Flat Fellows

Another Picasa-clearer today so not the best images; ex-photographs, scanned, but worth a punt and new'ish to the blog, although I think they may have appeared in 1"Warrior magazine a dozen or so years ago?

Then they were all 'unknown', now only two of them are still to be pinned-down.

Clockwise from the top left we have a Winterhilfswerke (WHW) flat from the Gau of Berlin depicting a mounted traffic-cop, essentially of the pre-Nazi era, although I'm sure the uniform was probably Nazified with new badges and buttons?

To his right in another of the Mokarex missing from the post we had back in the spring, a line infantryman of the French-Indian wars period - I'm no expert in the Era, and I suspect with paint he can be made to fit anywhere between Marlborough and the 1790's? Maybe the high, tight, multi-buttoned gaiters limit him to the later period?

The two lower figures remain unattributed to nation, era or maker with a small (20mm) cuirassier type, who could be Napoleonic from the 1810's or Imperial German/European colonial from the 1890's - and might be Italian or Polish in origin, or even South American and dates from the 1950's?
Finally - a rather nice flat of a trumpeter, who looks to be maybe one of those inter-war Balkan nations? Or a Ghurkha?

Both the latter two are soft ethylene, the former pair: hard styrene polymers. Three are premiums of some type (question-mark over the trumpeter), while the small cavalryman was probably from a bag of 'toy' soldiers.

S is for Surgical Solids . . . Euwe!

or...W is for Ward 10

When we looked at the tin-plate ambulance the other day I mentioned that it would fit well with the Hospital, forgetting that I had this languishing in 'edit' from the bulk upload in January (there's still 23 posts back there/then!), and following a spike in traffic the other day realised that the other two are vaguely get-at'able (see last image) so let's have a shuftie . . .

This was described as the 'surgical set', and came from PW's show in 2012, I've seen the hospital (Emergency Ward 10) a few times on feebleBay, in various states, and I suppose the instructions divide the contents into 'groups' as the accessories are different colours, but it may just be how the seller sold them to me?

As befitting a surgery, everything is sanitised in white; with a surgeon and several nursing staff, a patient and various pieces of equipment. I don't think it's complete, as there should- presumably - be stands or trolleys of some kind for the gas/air tanks, and I've previously seen a drip-line and bottle hanging-off the stand, that is present.

The operating table/autopsy slab is fully adjustable in three planes; tipping back-to-front, revolving and capable of raising and lowering, here shown at full extent.

A close-up with the winding mechanism closed-down.

The figures: the surgeon is baseless and I think he's meant to lean over the patient but I can't seem to get him to stand up; he look's as if he's falling backwards out of the window!

None of these are named, but there was a small boxed set (also by Mettoy) of painted figures from Emergency Ward 10 with names on each plinth-like base for four characters, a stethoscope and a bed with patient; covered in Plastic Warrior a while ago now, it also turns-up on feeBay occasionally

The accessories: the light-fitting has a sucker to be attached to the tin-plate roof of the surgery, the bucket has a moving handle. Note the trolley-table is marked Hong Kong as are some other pieces, which helps explain the difference in sculpting between this set and the not shown characters who are visibly 'early British' in the platicity!

 

I'd bought two other 'sets' at the previous autumn's Birmingham show (2011) from the same seller, but they went straight into storage, so we'll have to look at them properly another time, but you can see the ward set comes with red accessories, the maternity set having pale blue pieces, but both also have white things and the wheelchair is pink, hence my suspicion that they aren't necessarily specific (or complete) sets.

Other accessories were in green and there were red nylon scraps for blankets, while more pink items exist - sinks/wash basins.

K is for Conker?

Do people play conkers elsewhere in the world or is it a peculiarly British thing? No matter - the second half of the post dictates that the post shall exist, so further assuming that at least some visitors to the blog may be interested, I will introduce you to the world of conkers!

We've had a bumper crop of conkers this autumn, although if harvesting them while they are dropping; the American 'fall' is probably more apt!

The conker is the fruiting body/seed-container (a nut) of the Horse Chestnut tree, and it comes packed in a spiked, hard-foam, shell which you don't want dropping on your head! You can also see clearly where the colour 'chestnut brown' comes from, although they lose the shine after a day or two.

My mother believes they keep spiders out of the house so my Brother or I dully get dispatched to collect enough for a small tray in every room! Whispers: It doesn't work - the fault of all belief systems!

Since god knows when, they have provided the oldest form of toy - the homemade, handmade, look-around-you toy! Using a skewer to pierce a hole, the conker is threaded with a piece of string, and these are then used to play 'conkers', a typically violent and sometimes painful game which teaches young Brit's about gain . . . and loss! Attachment . . . and loss, winning . . . and losing.

In the best traditions of modern sport - think: English football, World cycling or Russian athletics, cheating has reared its ugly head, with people found artificially hardening their conkers in a low-heat oven (which actually make them brittle), or applying various unguents and potions, oils or secret preparations handed down the generations by word of mouth; to hopefully extend the life of the conker.

Once you are happy with your conker, you take it out and challenge other conker-owners to a game which basically aims to destroy at least one of the conkers, by bashing them, with each other, until one fails! 'Accidentally' catching the opponent's knuckles, is not only accepted, but actively encouraged in some quarters.

Rules vary in different regions, with some having a turn-for-turn play, some having three shots in a row each, while others play hit gets another shot, miss passes the turn to the opponent.

The receiving conker is held at arm's-length, and arm/hand movement is hawkishly looked-out for (lower left pose). The hitter being flicked downward (lower right pose), the string tensed over the thumb for 'aiming' - one-eyed, binocular and temper-tantrum techniques are all employed!

Victorious conkers accrue points (again in some parts of the country this is made more rewarding by adding any points the conquered conker [there's a lot of wordplay in this post?] possessed to the winner's total), and the trick is to retire a beloved favorite conker before it is smashed to smithereens.

Some aficionados favour larger size; some believe in lumpy, misshapen conkers, while others - smooth, rounded ones; some think a small one is better . . . I chose a nice round one for the photo-session!

But why wait until the autumn? I give you (courtesy of Brian Berke) the Eagle Konka! See what they did there . . . with the spelling . . . very droll! In the 1950's polymers were going to take us to the next level of anthropological development; hover-boards, flying cars, interstellar space travel and year-round conker . . . sorry 'konka' tournaments!

Those familiar with British slang will realise there's a second play on words going-on here as another name for the nose is a conk, and the Konka, has a 'nose' as its primary mechanism.

A very solid lump of relatively indestructible plastic is actually almost a jig-toy, with an added spring release that's triggered by the hitting of the red conk, by the opposing Konka. Unlike conkers, where the aim is to get a solid top-hit; cracking the conker out from the string-hole, this design requires a glancing-blow to the side, which - if successful - presumably led to the blue 'hat' shooting up the string!

I've never seen these in action (although a vague memory of the odd one kicking around mate's houses when we were young was triggered by Brian's sending the shots), however, I see a built in flaw, if both conks come into contact with speed and vigor; then surly both Konka's will explode, releasing all accrued points from both Konkas to the realms of ghosts and the mythical 'ether'?

Presumably a mail-away offer/premium from Eagle comic or Eagle annual, and marked to an Eagle, so possibly connected to the whole Eagalwall thing in Dorking, Surrey? The red-yellow-blue thing, while being a common combination of primary colours is also similar to the Eaglewall Dan Dare figure packaging, ship kits and Design-a-plane set.

I wonder if the design isn't actually/originally from someone like Potter's Bar's Merit? I can't search the patent databases at the moment, but if someone would like to? Meanwhile; many thanks again to Brian for contributing another classic old toy to the blog.

Of course you need more - Wikipedia!

K is for Kool Kraz Krushes Kremlin's Kronies!

Continuing our look at the output of Ukrainians' Collectable Paper Soldiers, we arrive at the mighty Kraz troop-carrier/GS truck, which came with some Field Operation special troops on parade, but this was no Monday morning OC's Muster Parade, rather they were having a last-minute kit-check before heading-off on operations.

With at least five pose variations they made a decent line-up, dwarfed by their waiting limousine, and clearly in summer uniform or 'shirt-sleeve order', they carry all the paraphernalia (or full 'panoply'!) of modern internal security (IS) forces.

Contemplating 'the ride' . . .

"Big wheels!"

"Yehp!"

"Big cab!"

"Yehp!"

"Nice little window!"

"Hmmmmm . . . "

Each set came with an instruction sheet that - while fully annotated - had such clear graphics the blurb was all but unnecessary.

L is for Lundby . . . not Lunby!

I have mentioned them once or twice over the years in passing, invariably dropping the d I fear and writing them 'Lunby', and a real departure for the blog, but I saw this in a charity shop (Age UK, here in Fleet) the other day, and the lady kindly let me photograph it for the blog.

Lundby were a Scandinavian doll's house manufacturer best known for these 'post modern' chalet houses and for buying-out the British maker of dolls furniture/accessories - Barton, who had similar designs in their range.

My interest comes via the Motoplay series from Barton, elements of which were carried/copied by both Blue Box and Lucky (among others) and are still available via Hobbys/Hobbies Annual, as they were always HK imports - you'll know the die-cast petrol pumps as they turn-up all the time in job-lots.

Barton were also makers of wooden farm buildings and such like, but today we're looking at something I know little about - so it's either enjoy the pictures or come back tomorrow and hope there's something a little more war-like for you!

Top floor of the main building, configured as a sort of open-plan master bedroom and a kids room/nursery I think.

What is conventionally the ground floor with a kitchen, living area and study, here being used as a rather Spartan music room?

If Mummy and Daddy were feeling flush, they could purchase an extension, which is placed below the ground-floor! It rather mucks up the conventional layout, but provides two extra rooms, which is two extra levels of play-value I guess. Although there's no stairs to the upper floors, there are windows, so ruling out an imaginary basement!

Close-ups of some of the smaller pieces, it's a very odd mix of traditional and 'groovy' modernist 'Clockwork Orange' accessories. The fireplace is very Scandinavian though, and power was available throughout the dwelling via hidden wiring in the walls and little two-pin plugs - which look like they might be compatible with some model railway accessories - running your level-crossing off your sister's dolls house?

The same odd juxtaposition of styles is found in the kitchen units, where a modern design, finely modeled in plastics is placed next to quite chunky wooden components, but the whole must have looked lovely when brand-new and complete.

My favourite piece, a polar-bear rug made from real fake polar-bear fur! And - it has to be said, not far off 54mm compatible . . . I imagine it on the floor of an Officers Mess, you know: the sort of thing BMSS guys were doing in the 1970's; box diorama, couple of Lady Butler's or Cuneo prints on the wall, a fan of claymores round a targe over the fireplace and a bunch of Yeomanry officers circa 1910, standing around in Mess Dress!

Although . . . it would look good in a throne-room with a bunch of Vikings eating meat off the bone and drunkenly spilling mead - "Oi, watch the bearskin Olaf, it stains easy!"

K is for Kit Figures

There are actually three sets in this 'line' of kit/play sets along the lines of the old Aurora Anzio Beach or Rat Patrol,, the third though (a Hoth diorama) contains micro-figures, which aren't worth looking at, so we will look at those useful for adding to Micro Machine or Action Fleet armies!

Cantina - I've painted most of them (long before the internet), but couldn't find decent colour references to the four characters to the right. Since the advent of the Wibbly Wobby Way, I've tracked down decent imagery (and titles!), so one day they will get a session under the brush!

Generally these are much better sculpts than the Jabba's Throne Room set (below), but the Wookie is a bit shite really, clearly been underfed for some time!

Jabba's Throne Room - This gives us a much larger mix of characters and again I painted those I knew or could find in various Star Wars books, and again I've found all the missing figures now on-line, so will be able to finish the project at some point - if I ever get glasses!

Loose-ends - I assume the [earlier?] brown mouldings are AMT/Ertl and the [later?] grey ones are MPC/Airfix, but I don't know? The fat lady in brown was in an 'unknown' box for years (as a possible circus cake-decoration - bearded lady, hairy lady, multi-tit'ed lady, I wasn't sure!) before I got the re-issues in the 1990's, so I know brown issues have some age.

 

The Gamorran Guard is one of a few who come in more than one part, requiring gluing. I can't - however - remember if you get 1 or 2 of them per set, if you get two, I guess I painted them both to look different, if you get one, I suspect the left-hand example is an OBE (other bugger's effort), it was about 20 years ago I painted these (1997'ish?) and I honestly can't remember!

 

I was particularly pleased with the R2 unit!

 

Given the number of musicians from Galoob and the number you could prize out of play-sets with a sharp screwdriver, I now have enough for a Long, Long Ago, Far, Far Away 'Battle of the Bands' or a bloody good rave!

News, Views Etc...Plastic Warrior No.164

On top of it - two issues in a row; I'm on a roll! Issue 164 of 164 includes . . .

News and Views and other stuff

* Introduction
* News of James Opie's new written work
* Eurofigurines and Constant Scale received
* Feedback on previous What The !&*$?

Articles

* The issue begins with a three-pager on Timpo solid knights by Ashley Needham which also covers the fort by Pagett Brothers
* Peter Watson takes an in-depth look at Replicants various Robin Hood character figures
* Barney Brown looks at some near mint Baronial Knights from Cherilea (the ones I was thinking-of when I got it so wrong the other day!)
* There are memories of Starlux medievals from Daniel Morgan with a lovely scratch-built gothic 'yard'.
* Marx cowboys part two from Debbie Stevens looks at the 'Warriors of the World' poses.
* Converters Corner takes Armies In Plastic's Arabs and has them converted to Peninsular Spanish allies by Les White who then takes a Reamsa monk and reduces him in stature to match!
* Centre Spread is more memories of plastic warrior'ing over the years, shared by Alwyn Brice, Philip Hamilton, Mark Higginbotham, and John Murry

Regular Features

* What The !&*$? this month asks for help on:

• §  Guards from hollow-cast moulds
• §  A mounted six-shooter
• §  The weirdest swoppet you ever saw, who looks remarkably Cherilea, remarkably Kinder and remarkably Italian all at the same time, yours for the ID'ing
• §  A pair of Tiraillers who look French but might be British (lovely tassels on their fezzes

* 'Readers Letters' is a busy one starting with the editor, Paul Morehead correcting himself on combat dogs with the help of Kent Sprecher! Also corresponding are . . .

• §  Eric Keggans - Tri-ang Forts and Galt Toys
• §  Peter Cole - also Galt
• §  Yours Truly - following-up on issue 163's What The !&*$?
• §  Peter Watson - PW's May show feedback and memories of George Hill
• §  Joe Bellis - Crescent knights

* 'What's New' covers recent releases from:

• §  Expeditionary Force - Zulus (fantastic heads/faces, really superb)
• §  Replicants - all sorts
• §  Paragon Scenics - ACW (firing line)
• §  Nicholas Kent - resin accessories (introduced/revued by Colin Penn)

Plus all the usual small-ads
Front Cover shows the painted Timpo Knights
Back Cover has a close-up of Cherilea's 'Baronial Knight'

Don't forget: for subscription details or to re-subscribe, or for letters, queries or contributions, Plastic Warrior is now on-line via various portals:

Facebook

Blogger

eMail; pw.editor@ntlworld.com

And they are on Paypal.

NB - The old website is to be run-down/retired.

B is for Biggles in the Drink!

I loved Biggles . . . to begin with . . . no, I was always a fan, but having found him in WWI with his mates Algy and Ginger (there was another one wasn't there? I've forgotten him!), flying string-bags over the trenches of Flanders, I did get a bit annoyed to find him apparently the same age in South America fighting Luftwaffe Condor's operated by some despotic mate of Batista, like, err . . .Tin-Tin, and then again, a few years later, still the same age in WWII!

But this isn't about me, Brian Berke was also a fan of Biggles, and his abiding fandom gave rise to the mini-diorama we looked at a while ago, to which this is a follow-up, to give an idea of how it was built. I'm also hoping to post a video, which will be a first for the Blog, as I'm editing this at home the day before, if there's no video, it didn't work!

Groundwork/formwork for the volcanic atoll/caldera is first built-up from layers of expanded polystyrene packing material.

Test-placing elements, an Airfix kit and a rubber squid (or is it a cuttlefish - they're real mean fuckers, they really are, barbed-torpedo for a tongue which fires-out like a chameleon's!) take centre-stage in the lower depths of the cone.

While up above the railway buildings went through a generation or two before Brian was happy with them, and I think the final hut was a better choice visually than the Nissen hut, although those Hong Kong Nissen huts have their uses and this is the first I've seen with window-stickers.

The pirate ship actually belongs to the vinyl villain with the vast vat of vino we saw here on the 19th of the month and you can see how the trees were sparser at one point.

Coming together now, and that's not three 'explorers', it's Biggles, Ginger and Algy! Brian forgot the other one too, clearly he wasn't very memorable . .  probably wore a red pajama top!

M is for Mobile Reconnaissance

Continuing our look at the products of Ukrainian Collectable Paper Soldiers, and today it's the turn of the mobile reconnaissance groupp/element of the Border Guards, you will find by the time we have looked at the whole range it's mostly Boarder Guards of one kind or another, the regular army having been run-down by a crooked President who felt he needed to spend the money on a mansion, with zoo, and park, and fairground and full size pirate ship! Further split by the loss of Crimea, the weight of the incursions in east Ukraine seem to have fallen more heavily on the Border Guards.

These guys are like the Border Guard Special Forces, using 'Technicals' made by bolting a heavy-machine gun into the pick-up bed of a VW-Amarok truck, they look pretty badass to me!

They are facing to the East in all the pictures, because they'd be no good facing West would they? The Donbas is to the East, the insurgents are to the East, the not gay, oh no, absolutely, definitely, not gay, bear-wrestling, real man (did I say not gay?) Putin is to the East, the pirate-ship building ex-President is to the East, to the West - lies hope!

Each set comes with little scenic pieces, and this one as well as the trees has a road-sign . . . pointing to the East!

What I like about these is the almost South Park quality of the artwork, without the jokey side of things; these guys mean business.

L is for Loose-ends in Liberation Land

Yes, we're back to the Men of '76; for the third time? But Brian Berke sent me two sets of the figures in his last (previous - another's turned-up!) donation to the Blog, which answers a few of the questions raised in the previous posts and turns up a couple of new things worth mentioning.

The first is that the header card artwork is - of course - the 'Spirit of '76' vignette we looked at the other day, both this artwork and the figures being taken from the famous eponymous painting by Archibald Willard.

The two sets Brian sent, the second (Cornwallis) had been de-carded in the past, so after I took these shots, I re-liberated them, but of immediate interest is that the two cards are of different sizes, and with no reason, as the 'extra' is added top and bottom of the white header, with similar margin extensions on the back. The 'meat and two veg' being the same on both cards. The other thing to note is that the card backs do differ from set to set, the Assembly Instructions are the same, but the blurb is card-specific.

Off the card, and glossy with the signs of the passing of the forty years between issue and release lost in the protection the blister gave them, that's a couple of scarlet jackets or my name's Marion! Sorry Mr Wayne!

Comparison between the details of 'officer' and 'trooper', two items of interest here: Firstly; the painted helmet-plate (forerunner of the cap badge) on the officers Busby has developed verdigris under some past damp conditions, suggesting a high content of real copper in the paint, but of far more interest is the sword . . .

. . . Correct me if I'm wrong, but that looks like the Officer's Katana from the Britains Deetail Japanese Infantry set (or copy of it!)? A set which although having the 1971 stamp on the - generic-to-the-range - base, Britains didn't actually catalogue until 1973. It would appear that the piracy reached the 'high street' at least a year BEFORE the original!

That was the problem with 'joining them' (by transferring production to Hong Kong), rather than beating them! Someone had filched a sword and run it down the road to Innovative's contract manufacturer (cooperative production partner, now OEM), who ran-up a copy, before Britains were anywhere near ready to add the Japs (and Brits) to the Deetail range.

Brian also sent the leaflet that came bagged and stapled to some sets, it doesn't add much to the posts, other than that there are only the 8 sets listed - from 1972 - in a 1973/75 reprint; however I will (eventually) scan it and add it to the A-Z post. As always; thank you very much Brian Berke.

Also worth noting that in the sham battle arranged at the top of the back page, all the Native American Indians have joined the forces of the legitimate government, a force of 25 which has flanked the 18 Rebels, who are short of gunners . . . Fort Ticonderoga might have been a push-over, but I suspect Fort Innovative will prove a tougher nut to crack!

Later the same year (Nov 22nd) . . . I'd forgotten that Basil Duke had Blogged these ages ago on his Fort Apache Supersized Blog, follow the link to find good images of the fort and larger grouops/formations of loose figures.

S is for Shite!

The Matchbox 'Heroic Rescue' vehicle Attack Track . . . 'cos you can heroically rescue loads of things with a tactical battlefield missile, loads of souls can be rescued by Beelzebub for a start!

It has the front-end/cab of a Soviet/Russian wheeled carrier, the tracks of a construction vehicle and a missile previously used by a Dong, as a nose! Jack Odell and the Smiths must be spinning in their graves . . . it's NOT Matchbox, it's Hong Kong shite! Poundland, one pound, now.

A is for Airfix Addicts Aided by Atomic Rocket Gun

It's been a while since I fed the Airfix habit, then this turned-up! How cool is this, too cool for Space-school, that's how!

The instructions seem to refer to double-point targets - missing from the board, so the blurb may have been copied verbatim from another game in [what would then begin to look like] the range; the 'W' suffix to the pattern number suggesting a similar situation - more than one in a 'range'?

A bit of reflection I'm afraid, but that's the downside of photographing stuff at a show! Very colourful and unusual in that it has an open front, most sets of this age/type (I'm reminded of our own childhood Marx Robin Hood set) were fully enclosed, with a spring-loaded firing stick and marbles which couldn't get lost.

This has a spring-plate firing mechanism (like the S-Boot we looked at ages ago), so the finger needs to enter the 'playing area'! There seems to be an incentive to cheat built into this set, shocking!

The bag of bits seems to have been mucked-about with, containing both composition and glass marbles in several sizes, I suspect the three white glass 'chinas' are the originals, with the composition balls added by the owner.

However; you can also see the clip-in stands which have to be removed to get the board back in its box, so something that might reasonably have been expected to have been lost (or broken) years ago.

N is for Ninja Turtles - Ukraine Style!

This is the lead-in to several posts on the products of this Ukrainian company, eponymously titled 'Ukraine'! The full title is (or was) Ukrainian Collectible Paper Soldiers but I will tag them Ukraine.

Firstly a disclaimer; normally I don't cover new production from that part of the world, it invariably gets announced by the PSTSM as 'unknown Russian', then gets named, then turns out (99% of the time) to actually have a Ukrainian address, before being - sometimes - legitimised with an owner's interview in Plastic Warrior magazine.

Why don't I cover it? By the time it's been ID'd properly and/or legitimised it has also been covered-the-heck-out-of on Treefrog in Plastic Warrior magazine and on Stads,. Also; the bulk of the product will be sold to collectors, so is never going to have or hold either the rarity of vintage plastic, or the ephemeral quality of the rack-toy/99p stuff.

Whilst; before it's been legitimised, there remains a chance it may well be an exercise in raising hard cash for who knows what organisation in a place where people's grannies are regularly shelled in villages they've survived-in since the Panzers rolled. Not something I want on my conscience.

However, A) these have come from the owner, who assures me the very turbulence I refer to above has curtailed their production and B) they are not plastic, so Treefrog and PW are unlikely to cover them!

The first of several posts finds us looking at the least 'conventional' of the various items in the range, a range which I like the look of - and those who found the Blog early enough will know I do like paper-flats!

These are apparently affectionately known as 'Ninja Turtles', and are expediency-produced ('ersatz' if you like!) AFV's on a UAZ van/lorry chassis. Used by first line boarder troops in the early phases of the 2014/15 conflict as a stop-gap with both fire-power and personal-protection from fragments. The models are scaled to between 54 and 60mm

As I understand it the vehicles were produced by pro-government/pro-Independent Ukraine (pro-democracy - if you like!) factories or workshops with the technical know-how and/or tools/materials and were paid for by ordinary citizens, following the flight of the puppet President and the Putin-inspired insurgencies in Crimea and the Donbas. [Perhaps my blog will now be hacked by Little/Big Bear and the resulting 'secrets' sent to Trumptonville!]

Well . . . you're not going to escape politics on this one, and the sets wear their hearts on their sleeve! It’s a blue and yellow one.

It's ironic, that with all the hi-tech weaponry swilling around in a world knee-deep in such stuff, these would be recognised by the anti-Fascists of 1920's Ireland (oh yes we were - read-up on the Black'n'Tans!), 1930's Spain, 1940's Warsaw or 1950's Cuba (oh yes you were, mafia-sponsored regime - to a man - Fulgencio Batista!) all of whom produced AFV's from steel-plate, as did the Home Guard and - of course; famously - Clint Eastwood! Or for that matter, Ned Kelly, but his didn't have wheels!

Thanks to Mark Sergeyev at Ukrainian for the pictures.