Air Traffic Control

I spotted this old game in a Sheffield charity shop last year.  The combination of an Airfix logo and a price tag of £1.50 made it an irresistible buy!  Strangely I had never even heard of this game before but as it turns out it is quite enjoyable. 

We tried it out a few months ago - the occasion provided an opportunity for us to try out our best "This is your captain speaking..." voices as we piloted our small plastic '747s from London to New York.

The game seems to be reasonably complete, but sadly the details of the 'Win a flight' offer were missing....

Red Recce Report

This game, run by Martin, was our first of the year.  The delay in posting this report must be laid at the door of the Third Reich's censor.  The game used John's Platoon Commander's War rules and Martin's 15mm toys.  As usual I was typecast as the Germans while John led the vast hordes of Russians.

My force - an understrength platoon - was to defend this sector of the front (seen above looking towards the Soviet lines) and to prevent the capture of a signals detachment with a radio.  I places one section at each end of the centre trench line, with the radio at the left of the rear line.

John pointing at stuff with his special sectional pointy stick.  He had bought this at Triples last year and was so delighted with it that Martin and I had a secret pact to not run any games for the remainder of 2012 which would allow it's use.  We are his friends.  Really.

Soon it was evident that vast hordes of Russians were skulking in the woods.  They even had mortars.  What a rotten trick.

The Soviets threw wave after wave of infantry forward in an effort to overcome the brave defenders.

Eventually numbers and firepower overwhelmed one of my sections.

In one of the game's high points, some Russians went blundering into a building which my chaps had booby trapped.  Most of the casualties were due to hamster bedding inhalation...

Having dealt with my front line troops the Sovs pressed on and discovered the signals team.  After disabling the radio the heroic operator perished, Luger in hand, in a hail of bullets.

Big ol' jet airliner

Regular visitors to my blog will have noticed I went a bit quiet for a few days recently.  This was because we had a few days away in an hotel in Ripon, North Yorkshire.  There is really no touristy stuff to report as the whole point of the break was to have a bit of 'down time', and in that respect it was highly successful with much time being devoted to eating nice food and reading.  Even the journey was easy, being only an 80 mile drive.
We did have a wander round nearby Harrogate, Masham and Knaresborough and parts of Ripon itself. 
In a charity shop in Ripon I chanced upon the Revell kit photographed above.  I wasn't looking for a modern airliner and I don't actually need such a thing, but for £1.00 I was unable to resist.  (Normal retail for this kit is nearer £12....)  It appears to be complete and the battered box even contained three unopened tins of Humbrol enamel paint.  I only use acrylics so these will probably be heading to Wg Cdr Luddite. 
I'll think of a use for the Airbus eventually, but it rather worries me to think that the only 1/144 scale jet airliner I have previously tackled was an Airfix Trident.  In around 1976.
Sadly the decals are missing from the kit and I have nothing suitable in the spares box, so if anyone out there has an even vaguely suitable decal sheet to spare I'd be happy to offer it a home!

Given the post title the last words must go to Mr Miller: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGF_0AcHaGs

Lame Lancaster - part 2

Work on the mighty Lanc plods gently on.  Having spray painted the beast matt black I decided that the camo paintwork would not go at all well unless I used masking tape.  In the photo above you can see the initial masking.  This is Tamiya masking tape and almost certainly cost more than I paid for the model...

While all this jolliness was underway, the bomb and undercart doors which I had previously glued in the closed positions decided to fall off.  Bugger.  More tape was used to hold them in place while fresh glue - and plenty of it - dried.

Next it was time for some brush painting.  Being more used to rather smaller models I am still rather shocked by the amount of paint this model is using!