Tankette MkII

Following on from my post on the MkI tankette, behold the much (well, slightly) improved MkII version

As well as providing rather more spacious accommodation for the crew, some of it under rakishly-sloped balsa armour, the MkII carries two machine guns.

 Construction underway at the Peoples' Tankette Factory No.1.

The balsa was given a coat of a random paint to seal it.

  Scary, eh?

Basically better Buccaneer build - part 1

As an antidote to the ghastly Canberra I cracked open this elderly Matchbox Buccaneer, expecting it to be a rather higher quality kit.

I wasn't disappointed - the crisp moulding and fine parts fit was every bit as good as I remember from the late 1970s.  Not that I could ever afford this kit back then!  I never quite understood Matchbox's 'innovation' of moulding their kits in 2-3 colours but paint will cover the ensemble anyway.

Speaking of paint, that's next on the agenda.

Holiday shopping 2

While I was in buying bridges, in the same Dutch model shop I spotted a pile of cheap-ish kits. So of course I dived in for a rummage!  The ancient Heller set above was a good buy as Hotchkiss MGs can be difficult to find in this (1/35) scale. €3.99. 

Another useful set, I bought this set of Japs ‘cos it was cheap. Who knows what they’ll end up as?  Not me.

I’ve always rather liked the idea of this set of Generals and at this price it was irresistible. 

I don’t recall having seen this set before but a better informed (and clearly richer) friend tells me this sprue was included with the LandRover Ambulance set he had in the 1970s.

Calamitously crappy Commie Canberra - part 1

They say you should never judge a book by it's cover.  The same rule should apply to kits and their boxes, but sometimes a crappy box is simply a warning of what is to follow.  So it was with this horrid cheap Eastern-bloc cardboard box.

The contents  - in  garish yellow plastic...

...and the instructions, printed on what felt like recycled loo roll.  I believe this is another reworking of the old FROG kit.

The parts didn't look too bad - until I tried fitting them together.  At this point, considerable quantities of masking tape and blu-tac were deployed to hold the parts - if not in place then at least in loose formation.

This much yellow plastic is quite hard on the old eyes!  And you could fly a Hunter through those panel gaps.  Paint coming next.  Lots of it.