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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 4 November 2012

Resting on my toy soldier laurels?

Not at bit of it! With one bound, he leapt from PSC Jerry half-tracks to Armourfast ('Made in England' - much applause!!) top hole Crusader IIs:



They are basic, and a bit bare, so I've already added those welded on strips seen in North Africa, along with odd bits of kit (from the half-tracks), and an old Matchbox officer, who looks just the part.

Searching for a suitable command figure led to this little lot of forgotten Airfix (second version) and Matchbox Eighth Army chaps:


After nearly 40 years like this I think they need a bit of TLC.


12 comments:

  1. You need the chappie in the beret from the Matchbox Brit infantry as well:

    http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/SetScans/MBXP5001b.jpg

    Cheers, Dave

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    1. Right! He must be knocking about somewhere - it's time for a trip into the loft!

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  2. I also have some airfix thats 40 years old and no rot.. any of yours?

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    1. No, no rot in the stuff bought in the 1970s, but the Airfix American Civil War (Union infantry) stuff I bought (well, had bought for me) in about 1966 has got rot. Having said that, spent a happy afternoon one day when I was just a nipper 'killing' them with my aunt's hairspray - that might have affected them!

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  3. Great minds think alike .I was looking at my 60s/70s Airfix ans Roco minitanks last night too. I need to get a cloth for the table before I can proceed. Some of mine ( given to me most generously awhile back) have a touch of the plastic rot.Can anything be done for them?

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    1. It must have been something in the 70/- in Edinburgh in the early 1980s! I wonder if a PVA coat might help?

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  4. Plastic rot will be the death of me. I find it in the old 1980s ESCI molds. It does however mean more figures for conversions however.

    Nice work Stephen.

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    1. Thanks, Paul. The plastic rot business is interesting. The Matchbox 8th Army chaps in my photo are actually discoloured as the odd little shop I bought them from in the early 1970s had them in the window. Now, I know the English sun isn't particularly fierce, but it had yellowed the plastic - yet they don't seem brittle at all. I wonder if different batches were affected to different degrees?

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  5. They've got the lines right at least. They're not a bad kit by the looks of things. I have some spare Montys from his caravan kit if you'd like one. Not sure what uniform he's wearing, but it can't be too far off at that scale - there's only so many ways to sculpt pants.

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    1. Yes, the overall look is fine, but detail is sparse. But, for wargames, fine. Thanks for the Monty offer - before I take it up I'll see if I can find my Monty. I used the body of his caravan and returned it to the Italians by adding a scratch built Lancia cab, and I turned the Dingo into a not entirely accurate Lince in RSI colours. So ... that must mean is out there somewhere. It is definitely a loft recce.

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  6. I think Monty got taken by me when I was small, and if this is the case, he will be in a huge jumbled box of plastic figures. Which may or may not be in the loft, shed, or T's room...

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    1. Ah. Well, he wasn't in the loft when I looked this evening; not in any obvious place anyway. We shall search for the jumbled figures - in the sweet tin in the shed?

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