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.

Pelusium 525BC

I found these photos of a Command & Colours game played in late 2017.  The Persians under Cambyses II (right) took on Egyptians led by Psamtik III.

Aeronavale Corsair part 3

I finally remembered to take some photos of the finished Corsair.  The yellow and black 'Suez stripes' are a bit ropey close up, as indeed are the hand painted tail stripes but the overall effect is quite striking.  Now I'd better write to game it's intended for....