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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.'

Monday 31 December 2012

Soviet Soviet ...

... in 1:87.  I think.  My search for usable kit for the Fidelistas in April 1961 continues, and took me into the loft again today, where I dug out:


'TANK T-34'. This little box, just over three inches in length was the product of the Soviet toy industry in the mid 1980s - the highly charged years of SS20s, Cruise Missiles, neutron bombs, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament's second wave. Oddly, one of that organisation's apparatchiks was the current, unelected, 'foreign minister' of the European Union - Baroness Ashton (for Americans reading this, her title was another stage in her unelected progress - raised to the House of Lords by her Party, the Labour Party).  Back then, in her unelected post as a CND funding apparatchik, she seemed, apparently, to be unaware that the KGB was channelling funds to the movement. I'm sure, of course, that it was just an oversight on her part, and that her lack of enthusiasm for free elections is no reflection on her or the EU.

Inside the box is a T-34 in what looks like 1:87, but, sadly for the Bay of Pigs project, it is a T-34/76:

So, I have two options: scratch build an '85' turret, or go old school entirely, and just use it as it is.

I also dug out another Soviet toy, a T-26, also in 1:87, here with a much larger version from Empress:


And now:

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ONE AND ALL,
Peace and Good Modelling in 2013!

6 comments:

  1. Happy New year to you and your Household!
    best wishes
    Alan

    ReplyDelete
  2. Happy New Year to you and yours too!

    It is an odd system where someone can rise from obscurity to prominence, without ever having a vote cast in their favour... and she's not alone either!

    Unlucky with the T34. The image on the box is an 85 though.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Jim.

      Yes, dam' odd. Democracy is not as popular among the elites as it should be. Funny, too, how the EU is popular with has been politicos, the unelectable, and the de-elected. I'm reminded of how Jim Callaghan softened the sacking blow for Barbara Castle by giving her an EEC job. She had been strongly opposed to the EEC, but on gaining her new (has beens) post she suddenly started lobbying for more powers for the EEC. And, of course, the Great Tony still intrigues for a stronger EU President's post - for himself. And the whole dreadful Iraq debacle marks him out as the most undemocratic of our post-war 'leaders'. Never in my lifetime had it been so clear that the British people did not want that war - but, who are we?

      Delete
  3. Haven't heard from you for a week,do give us an update when you feel like it.I am missing the modelling and the chat too.
    best wishes
    Alan

    ReplyDelete