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.

TITM is for Toys in the Media - Preiserlike Persons

I've been saving these up for a while now, and had so many they'll need breaking down into separate posts, and this one deals with the popular trope of using model railway figures to help sell us stuff. We've seen plenty of artists using these figures to great effect, but here it's all about promoting other things, although some are simply illustrating articles with a view to gabbing our attention with an eye-catching image.

IFLScience (formerly 'I fucking Love Science' . . . the conformist cowards!) start us with their group of people hanging around illustrating the header for a hot-linked article on Faceplant about a psychological disorder involving seeing little people who aren't there.

Me? I see idiots, everywhere, selfish, stupid, climate-change denying, nationalistic idiots but I don't believe I'm imagining them as part of a delusional condition, I just see selfish, stupid, climate-change denying, nationalistic idiots everywhere!

IFLScience is behind the upper image here too, while The Conversation also carried it, so not only is it clearly a stock image, it's one of the ones which comes-up first in search results for such things! Neither credits the agency/library, so I don't know who's behind it.

Both stories deal with ageing AND the negative benefits of doing so, one more generally, the other specific to those who have had a severe dose of Covid-18 (SARS-Cov2), or who are suffering from Long-Covid.

A British policeman surveys a keyboard, I imagine a story about computer crime or on-line fraud? I didn't take a note on this one and there not much of a clue in the title, also; the figure seems to have a squared-off base, so not sure of the origin of this one, but about 1:72nd scale?

The uniform is somewhat archaic now, officers on the beat haven't dressed like this since the 1980's, but I believe it remains their academy/parade/disciplinary appointment uniform, and is the one still popularised in tourist trinkets and post-cards, while some strategically placed officers in tourist hot-spots may dress like this to feed the need of the tourists to see a 'British Bobby' on the beat!

Very skinny looking, I think the image has been pulled on the North/South axis? The note with this one (which we may have seen before in a past 'News, Views Etc'?) says "Organisational Structures and Resourcing Hero Image" which I'm sure has you riveted to the point of searching for what must be a world-changing article! I'll move swiftly on . . . (whispers . . . I must have read it to have found it!)

Another common trope with these (we have seen several here in the past) is money and/or financial articles, some have the figures, some have small change, the ones we're most interested in have both!

Upper shot seems to be showing Euros and Euro-cents and was from an article entitled "As part of the Unequal Democracies project", the lower image has pounds and pence Stirling, and is an Ian Johnston shot for Shutterstock, used here for research purposes

This was an article on weight-loss drugs, I don't tend to read such money-grubbing/emotional garbage, so it must have been an add' in my feed? The purple ones might be the Wonka Works Blueberry Pie meal-in-a-pill-deal!

This one's a bit sad! I think he may be Merit, although Preiser did do some chunky sculpts in the 1970's, all those track-gang and construction worker sets were heavier sculpting? Anyway, I suspect one of the artists who set these out in the environment (we've seen a few here already and there's more to come) didn't look after his and it got painted over. Indeed the paint may be partly the cause of the heaviness?

Because a freshly painted wall is to graffiti artists what a fresh dog-shit is to flies, it's since attracted a half-dozen or so re-paintings (original caption says seven layers), in a  rather bland pink (inner-city pub?) and will soon be no more than a blob or pimple on the wall!

F is for Follow-up - Marx Romans

Regular contributor and Loyal Reader Brian Berke from the Big Apple over there, sent this as a memory trigger (just as real life was getting frisky again here), off the back of the recent Marx Romans post, so here - in his own words - is that story, illustrated by Brian, by way of a follow-up!

"A few years ago I contacted Paul Morehead [Editor of Plastic Warrior magazine] with a sketch of a pose that I remembered from the 50's.

It was of a figure that was sold in Woolworth for 3d unpainted as part of their Romans. Back in 1957/58 I had converted with craft knife and Plasticine this figure into the character 'Wulf the Briton' then appearing in Express Weekly comic. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Express_Weekly]

Paul identified it from a Marx catalogue and I found it reissued in Russia in a set of Romans [by DZI or now; Ark Models]. Luckily for me it was a few years ago as now I avoid anything Russian.

Attached is the figure in contest with a Roman recreating the scene from 1958, this time using modelling putty not Plasticine."

Many thnaks to Brian for sending this; the figure works well and  that hair is rebelliously distinctive!

I don't remember Wulf the Briton at all, yet it's drawn by one of my favorite commercial artists; Ron Embleton, of Fleetway's famous Trigan Empire strip, so I will try to catch-up, now - Google informs me - the stories have been reissued in bound volumes. I've bought the bound Trigan Empire, a present to myself with a small portion of my father's legacy a while back.

And I should note that there is no consistency throughout the blog with my choosing of colours, fonts or size of text when trying to differentiate or highlight other people's contributions or quotes!

C is for Cool Colonial Carriers!

Those of you who follow the shenanigans of WWII, will be aware as the conflict gathered momentum through the early belligerence's of the 1930's, through the 1940 invasion of France/The Low Countries campaign and into the Japanese attacks of 1941, that many nations around the world were equipped with variants of three staples . . .  

. . . the US 'Christie Suspension' fast 'cruiser' tanks, with designs from America, Russia and the Czechs, secondly, many variations and developments of the old French WWI Renault F17 infantry support tank, and thirdly; so many variations, versions and derivatives; commercial, limited-run and volume production, with one-offs/prototypes and locally produced conversions of the Vickers/Carden-Lloyd Light armoured vehicle range/s, it's impossible to count them all.

And it's two of the latter we're having a quick look at now, we've actually visited the TAT branded early version Bren-Gun carrier before here, more than once, and the TAT tag will provide with additional civilian models, and I think in the transferring of everything over the last year I saw another in the collection, so we may return to these one day, maybe as a posed 'wargame' post in the garden/environment, a carrier 'squad attack' type thing!

The real development, both from the vehicles point of view, and in the researching of old plastic toys, is a turreted version of the TAT carrier, this one branded to EM, previously thought of as another brand, but as evidenced here, it must now be considered to be connected to TAT whether as supplied-to, subsidiary of or phantom-brand from- remains the mystery.

Although looking the same with a turret glued on (firmly, although it may have been meant to rotate?), it is actually a reworking of, or duplicate tool with all new features and a new rear-deck.

Other differences reveal the base-plate has been redesigned to accommodate the new superstructure, the rubber tyres are a new-tread design and the marking is for the same EM (Empire Made?) similar to some of those micro-ship Minic copies (which are marked 'E' only, for Empire Toys (?) and seem to be connected to Lucky) - these carriers being based on the old Britains slush-cast lead one. But the crew-figures, push-and-go kinetic-motor (and housing) and plastic colours tie both models firmly together.

The actual turreted versions of these light-tanks didn't have open compartments at the front and usually had an extra, forth road-wheel, so it retains its fictional toy heritage, and the turret is a common re-reappearing from Hong Kong (in various sizes) on other toys and is taken from the Lone Star AFV series I think?

But if you're garden-gaming the fall of Belgium or the Japanese invasion of the Dutch East Indies, finding a couple of these will definitely enhance the defenders forces . . . more quality TAT from Small Scale World!

A is for Another Petition . . .

I think actually it's my third! The first was silly and came to nothing, my second had a few thousand signings before I told everyone to go to a duplicate which was a day or two older and much bigger, but I've checked and there's nothing like this up, so hopefully it might gain some traction.

Listening to Boris in his committee hearing this afternoon, it became clear he's as nuts as Trump, something I've hinted at before, and while all petitions are political in one way or another, I've tried keeping this one as neutral as I can, calling only for a coalition government to be formed - by the powers that be - without actually knowing if they can; within the rules, which are vague, given our lack of a formal written constitution.

Now, I need five signatures for Change.org to publish the 'public' version, so if any of you are wondering WTF's going on, chuck a signature on the link below . . . please!

I can't see a leader in the pack of self-servative dogs surrounding Boris, nor in Keir who I suspect would struggle to find his way out of a wet paper bag if you gave him a fire axe and a flamethrower, but something needs to 'give'.

And if you think it stands a chance, or is just a good message to sent to the 'Establishment', share it on your feeds too? Cheers.

https://www.change.org/p/form-a-coalition-government

Full text of the petition reads;

"Given the mess we seem to be in;

We the below signed believe the Speaker of the House of Commons, representatives of the House of Lords and the Monarch should find a mechanism to organise and create a Coalition Administration, and request they do so forthwith.

The coalition to sit for five years with the aims of recovering from Brexit and Covid-19, dealing with the on-going matters arising from Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine, the 'Cost of Living' crisis, emerging Monkey Pox, industrial unrest, the Gig economy and the mess the current administration are creating through apparently corrupt practice, dogmatic intransigence, dishonest obfuscation and fiscal mismanagement.

Suggestions for the interim/temporary leader/holder of the Prime ministerial position, pending a more formal leadership election might include Caroline Lucas (Green Party), Kenneth Clark (Conservative, House of Lords) or Angela Rainer (Labour Party)."

As mentioned above I've started the petition because I can't see a single leader among the dogs sniffing round Boris Johnson, while I don't believe Keir Starmer is even made of leadership material. With both the main parties internally riven with internecine squabbling and the Liberals not fully recovered from their last drubbing, a coalition seems the best hope for what will become a wartime economy if things get much worse, both on the Ukraine front and the global inflation/recession crisis and ongoing food supply problems.

M is for Memories of a Misspent Youth!

The reconnaissance platoon of the Ist Fantasian Motor-Rifle Corps, Putlos, Schleswig-Holstein, 1986!

We made the red stars from an old fertilizer sack we found in the barn we were billeted in, while providing 'Enemy Force' for the rest of the battalion!

Left to right; top; Steve B, 'Solid', 'Beano', Stu' M,
bottom; Alan 'Muscles' G and yours truly!

They gave us a LWB Land Rover, but no tilt, so we fashioned one from three groundsheets and some broom-handles (also liberated from the barn! And returned!), however six-guys full kit doesn't leave much room for passengers, so it was interesting in the back. Stu' and Beano (IC) were alright; they were up-front - with a heater . . . of sorts!

We'd be tasked with an all-night OP or a snap VCP, or sometimes just a drive-through (so someone else in an OP could report our movements), then back to the barn and some of the best cooks in Berlin Brigade who had two catering trailers for about 30 of us, we lived like kings and it was a pretty 'cabby' week! Bloody wet though; anyone in the UK who's ever bemoaned the weather, has never been to the Jutland Peninsula in October!

It was in this Lanny we all nearly died, when we came round a corner in the middle of nowhere and found two old ladies walking down the centre of the country-lane. Stu' managed to avoid them but we ended-up careering down a ditch at 45°'s while the windscreen and driver's door (LHD) got smashed-in by a line of cut-off tree stumps!

By the time we'd all clambered out of the half-waterlogged wreckage, the two old ladies has just wandered off round the corner (don't think they even broke step or stopped chatting to look over their shoulders!) and were nowhere to be seen! We tried pulling, we tried pushing, we stuffed logs under it, but in the end a passing German farmer pulled it out with his tractor and we limped-home to a late breakfast!

He hadn't seen the old ladies either and he'd come from where they'd gone (which we'd just driven - flat fields for miles) so we wondered if they hadn't been visiting from the twilight-zone as payback for some RAF bombing raid (Oldenburg escaped the worst, but nearby Kiel was heavily bombed) in the 1940's!

You can only get away with that shit when you're young . . . and . . . those 'Deputy Dog' hats though!

T is for Thought For The Day, Being This Day, The 4th of July!

It struck me that just as Brwreakshit gave succor to the Scot's new push for Indy-Ref' II, so the language of the Declaration of Independence of a certain bunch of armed terrorist insurgents (for that is what we call them when we think we are the 'good-guys') could give succor to those States which want nothing of the new, post-Trump, pro-gun, anti-healthcare, Church-driven America with its new, all-political Supreme Court?

"When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation."

Seems clear to me . . . if you don't like the politics you've got, go and do something else - with the blessing of the 'Founding Fathers'!

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for fair-minded, liberal states to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with a Federal shitfest and neo-Nazi neighbors, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes (fascism, sexism, racism, 3rd-world penitentiaries and a para-military police) which impel them to the separation.

You see, while certain Morlocks and Yahoos pay so much heed to the original constitutional document (or a certain later amendment to it), a document which had nothing for, nor mention of; women, children, slaves or the natives, they don't seem to want any other amendments which might better reflect modern life!

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On the subject of Scotland, apart from the likes of Tuvalu and the Falklands, Gibraltar and the Channel islands, it's only the other three members of the Union still in the rump of blood-soaked Empire, high-time they had their independence and us arrogant English were given the final lesson in humility, after all; the numerous previous lessons (Hong Kong the most recent - if you ignore Brwreakshit) haven't worn our sharp-edges down yet!

I've said it before and I'll say it again - Mercedes, Pepsi, Disney, Craft or Unilever don't care where the boarders are, what colour you flag is, or who claims control over either, they will still get their products to the local stores. Anyone who wants Independence should have it, including the Basques, Catalonia, Walloonia or the Pirate's Republic of Kernow!