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'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.'

Thursday, 14 March 2013

Pot pourri...

... if you are of a certain age, then you will remember pot pourri. My Aunts - Edith and Hilda - both had pot pourri in their homes. Strange stuff, a mix of dried seeds, flowers, and other anonymous organic material that was supposed to provide calming airs, a sort of budget Prospero's isle effect for the respectable working class.

So, this post is a pot pourri of some stuff that is hanging around my painting and modelling life at the moment:


Bergepanzer 38 - looks like a very nice injection moulded kit, and I've got quite a few Hetzers to go with it when it is finished. Sadly, the marvellous spade which can be seen on the box art, and is included in the kit, only appeared on the prototype.


Canadians, 1812, work in progress in 20mm. Once these are finished, I've got some Glengarry Rifles to do, and some cavalry plus artillery. But, still no Yankees. I must address that!


Just look at this ! (And as friend Kinch says, 'click to embiggen'). It's actually a fridge magnet that came with a very nice book of old sci-fi and future fantasy covers that I bought my son - he's a sci-fi dweeb, just as I am a toy soldier nerd, or perhaps that's the other way around, nerd rather than dweeb ? The marvellous illustration of 'The King of the Clouds' is a temptation to go steam punk in 28mm. But I will resist. However, and coincidentally, I am re-reading the first volume of collected future wars stories that was edited by I.F. Clarke for Liverpool University Press - The Tale of the Next Great War, 1871-1914, which, in turn, sent me back to Erskine Childers' famous Riddle of the Sands - all stuff for 28mm!


And that friend of humankind, the postie, brought me this recently, all the way from the USA. It needs no commentary from me, and should be in every self respecting old school wargamer's library.


Meanwhile on the grandfather-grandson enthusiasms front, we have moved on to transformers. Somehow, my son and I missed out on these 25 or so years ago, but my grandson is really into them, and it is easy to see why. They are quite marvellous props for do it yourself stories of titanic struggles, battle and excitement, and, as toys, they are very neatly thought out.


My favourite is the sand coloured transformer - 'Fallback' - who transforms into a neat little Brinksmat style armoured truck. Coooool!

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10 comments:

  1. Conrad Kinch14 March 2013 at 20:53

    Have you looked at the Forgotten Futures website? It has links to quite a lot of scientific romance fiction.

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    Replies
    1. AlFront16 March 2013 at 14:39

      Ah, another thing I must look at - thanks, old man!

      Delete
  2. tradgardmastare14 March 2013 at 23:01

    An enjoyable potpourri indeed,with exotic ingredients as well as familiar ones.
    Pity about the tank shovel indeed.Do let a little more about the Scurby book.have thought about the Frater book at all?

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    Replies
    1. AlFront16 March 2013 at 14:40

      Hello, Alan, glad to see that the annoying blogger business has been sorted in the Duchy. Now, I don't know Frater, so you'll have to say more.

      Delete
    2. tradgardmastare16 March 2013 at 14:47

      In Beyond The Blue Horizon Alexander Frater reveals and relives the romance and breathtaking excitement of the legendary Imperial Airways Eastbound Empire service – the world’s longest and most adventurous scheduled air route. Written with an infectious passion, this is an extraordinarily original and genre-defining piece of travel writing by one of our most highly respected travel correspondents. ‘Whether being mown down by stampeding Baghdad-bound passengers in Cairo airport, or battling with Indian Airline staff (and failing) to reconfirm six vital going-on flights from Delhi, or being lured unwittingly into a souvenir shop selling pornographic wood carvings in Lombok, or hitting tropical cyclones Ferdinand in a 748 en route from Sumba to Bali, Frater rises above it all with humour, style and a wonderfully sharp eye’ Evening Standard
      I really enjoyed it- worth a go I think...

      Delete
  3. Springinsfeld15 March 2013 at 01:14

    Fascinating stuff, and the temptation to head of in different directions on projects that will never be completed. My oldest son is enjoying a book set in a steam-punk world, where airships and balloons are the main mode of transport, the title escapes me at the moment.

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    Replies
    1. AlFront16 March 2013 at 14:43

      Is he reading the 'Mortal Engines' quartet by Philip Reeve? The titles are: 'Mortal Engines', 'Predators Gold', 'Infernal Devices', and 'A Darkling Plain'. I read them 4/5 years ago (they're young people's books) and they are excellent. I only can't bring myself to re-read them because they are, in part, a tragic love story and deal with love and loss. Aieee, I'm too old for that sort of thing.

      Delete
  4. DaveM15 March 2013 at 05:29

    I very much like the film of "Riddle of the Sands" (no thanks to Michael Palin and "Whinfrey's Last Case" !).

    Bergepanzer 38 looks interesting. I've never built any UM kits...

    Cheers, Dave

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    1. DaveM15 March 2013 at 22:52

      P.S. Your comment regarding the spade piqued my interest. A couple of things I read stated that the winch equipment and compartment layout of the prototype with spade is quite different to the "standard" version of this vehicle.

      Cheers, Dave

      Delete
    2. AlFront16 March 2013 at 14:46

      Hello Dave! Ah, 'Ripping Yarns' - really first rate! Much, much better than Monty Python any day.

      The bergepanzer 38 business is interesting, I'm just about to blog about it...

      Delete

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