Liquorice...

... allsorted!

At last, after a bit of paint here and there, now and then, I've managed to finish the various lumps of liquorice I had on the painting table, courtesy of Minimi Miniatures and Frontline Wargaming (both sound chaps!). The lumps are now ready for the canvas and cord covered tabletop Western Desert, circa February 1941..

Still, at that time, queen of the battlefield, and the only British tank to see service from the beginning to the end of the war (the latter thanks to the Australians).

On the other hand...

it took very brave men to go into action in 1941 in one of these.

Meanwhile:

the universal carriers are actually PSC models that I realised I hadn't finished off after making a New Zealand carrier ambulance from the Italian campaign. The Indian Pattern Carrier, however, is a liquorice lump from Minimi, and very nice too. I am a tad concerned that it might not have been chugging around the Western Desert in February 1941, as the classic Making Tracks, the British Carrier Story, is, unusually, a bit unclear; it notes that these carriers were CAPLADs (go on, work that acronym out!), but it may be that this MkII (I think) came a bit later.

And, more Minimi:

What a terrific Chevvy - the super headlights just say 'American style'.

Finally, a M13/40, and two TL artillery tractors - but just where can I get Italian crew for them??

Yesterday, I visited one of my top two second hand bookshops (well, of those that still live - there used to be such marvellous ones in Museum Street in London. Now gone, almost all gone. I grow old, and, indeed, wear my trousers rolled). In the tip-top shop I visited - 'Ross Old Books' in Ross-on-Wye - I was pleased to see that the stock continues to be updated, and that the military sections had much that was new since my last visit. So, among other books, I came away with:

 In between re-reading Beda Fomm; the classic victory by Kenneth Macksey MC, I shall turn my attention to this beauty, which is being touted widely by aircraft modellers as Airfix's finest 1/72 model to date:

Zooooooooooooooom!!!