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Greetings!

'A gaping silken dragon,/Puffed by the wind, suffices us for God./We, not the City, are the Empire's soul:/A rotten tree lives only in its rind.'

Wednesday 29 August 2012

Zimmerit...

After a day in the office characterised by confusing brain work, I was more than happy to return home to some soothing work on the Revell Tiger 1 ausf E. From a quick check through a few books on mid to late war German armour (particularly William Auerbach's Last of the Panzers (1984)), it was clear that the very nice Revell offering might well be improved by some field-applied zimmerit. So, armed with some past its use by date green stuff and a bit of sprue, I began the task:


I'm not entirely sure how this will work out, but I do have Tiger II somewhere that I made in 1984 and used polyfilla in the same fashion. 

The Tiger I will eventually join my existing mid/late war Germans, some of which are below:



The Jagdtiger is an Italeri build from the mid-1980s, and, despite the bouncing suspension, is a reasonable kit. I've never actually fielded it on the wargames table, as it just seems so ludicrously overwhelming. But my last ditch Germans and allies, some of whom are below, have seen plenty of dice rolled in good humour.


Not only did I get a bit of modelling in after work, but this handiwork of Rattrays of Perth was waiting for me on my return home:


'Red Rapparee' - what a name ! Surely as smoked by Watson, if not 'the master'.

As if that was not all, I even had time for an hour of harvest on the allotment - gathering pounds of blackberries (or 'brambles' as my Scottish wife insists). And here they stew on the stove - the first stage to jam. The wonderful fruit aroma fills our little house even as I blog:


And courgettes, swollen to monstrous size by the rain:


I also gathered cabbage and beautifully smooth skinned runner beans before I lit my pipe and watch the dusk gather, the full moon rise, the bats rush crazily up and down from the oak tree, and the mainline train head past to London, the passengers blind to the shambolic perfection of the Railwayside Allotments in this corner of West Mercia.

4 comments:

  1. A most enjoyable post.
    I await the next stage of the tank with interest and the green stuff looks as if it will have done the job splendidly.
    Brambles is indeed the the word used in these parts too.We used to like foraging for brambles on a path which was once a local railway line here. We were put off by the problems of avoiding myriad dog poos left by selfish owners to ruin the unwary and their children. It is good to eat for free of the land and I must get back and try it again soon.
    What do you use the big corgettes/marrows for?
    best wishes
    Alan
    p.s loved the evocative last paragraph

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    Replies
    1. Ah, you are a fan of Mabey's 'free food' front! Of course, it is not just dog poo that one has to watch out for these days - there are also the officious local government stooges who seem to want to stop all decent, ancient habits.

      The huge courgettes will become jam - though I stick to the bramble jam.

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  2. Mrs Kinch very impressed by your courgettes and the blackberries.

    ReplyDelete