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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.'

Sunday 28 October 2012

At the tablefront...

... Su76i on the table, albeit only on a proving exercise:


The rather lurid graffiti was chosen to 'lift' the usual Russian tank green finish. My very basic Russian language skills suggest 'Stalinish' as an English transliteration. Stalin-ish - mmm, sort of Staliny ? Staliny on some days only? Sort of jokey Stalin? Fortunately, very fortunately, I can type all that without being killed or sent to the gulag for 40 years. I seem to remember that Alexander Solzhenitsyn was initially held by the NKVD in 1945 with a tank crew who had been overhead laughing at Stalin's moustache. The same moustache beloved of Picasso.


On the same theme, I bought Anne Applebaum's new book, Iron Curtain; the Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1944-1956, on Saturday. I always find it difficult to read things like that, but I will, at some point.

Enough. The question is - what is the next tanky type thing to be built. My small, accessible, stash (the rest hides in the loft) is:


and:


A parting shot. In yesterday's Daily Telegraph (a conservative, and, to some extent Conservative British newspaper) there was a sort of interview with Roger Scruton (a conservative philosopher) which focused on his Anglicanism (membership of the Church of England). Scruton plays the organ in his local parish church, and after some interesting musings on the nature of Anglican belief, he appears to have played the reporter a favourite hymn of his - 'Come Down,  O Love Divine'. The reporter, Sameer Rahim, finished his article with this, and the following reflection of his own:

'As the music plays, it feels like I'm hearing the last withdrawing notes of Scruton's England'.

Roger Scruton is 16 years older than me, but, sometimes, and too often, I feel as if I can hear the last withdrawing notes of England too.  


10 comments:

  1. Su76i looks great. What to build next? I vote for the PSC 251/D - rank self-interest as I hope to get my mits on a box very soon!

    Cheers, Dave

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    1. They look good on the sprue - with plenty of crew figures and options for a platoon commander's Hanomag. I hope to start soon - I think I'll run a couple of projects simultaneously.

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    2. Note that the full height PaK shield suppled for the 251/10 (platoon commander) is not correct for the Ausf D. It should have a low profile shield.

      Cheers, Dave

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    3. Excellent - many thanks, Dave. I wouldn't have spotted that myself, would have made one up, and then sat looking at it wondering what was wrong!

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  2. I do hope that you are wrong re the last notes...
    Perhaps we all ,in our own small way and in our own small place,can help preserve that "mythic" England of values,connections,cultural literacy and infinitely more.It is well worth a go is it not?
    Oh I nearly forgot at 6.24 a.m to add make the Elephant kit next!!!

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    1. I suspect that we are in a similar situation as the Romano-British after the Legions had gone; or, in fact, the Anglo-Saxons once they had converted. The better values, the (for want of a better word) 'spiritual' element, is being submerged by a form of globalised materialism that knows no natural limits, and will tolerate no opposition, however small. There is little hope, I suspect.
      I think I'll run a few building projects at once - it takes ages for the Elefant running gear to set anyway.

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  3. Replies
    1. Cheers, Dan! Actually, sitting in the sunlight this morning the Su76i looked much better than in my artificially lit photos of it - i.e., fewer glaring faults!

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  4. Fantastic conversion Stephen, a worthy addition.

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    1. Cheers, Paul! It only took me 40 years to get round to it!!

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