Something different...

... the PSC carriers are on the last leg, just some more paint on the crew, then unit markings, fading and wear and tear, and they will be ready to join a wide variety of (mismatched) carriers of one manufacture and another in my British, Empire and Commonwealth Forces kit for the Western desert. But while the paint is drying on the carriers, I thought I'd try something that is, for me, new:

Pre-war German glider, which, according to the instructions was the first to sport spoilers.

I'm not sure, but I have the sense that the 1930s, then immediately post-war, was the golden age for gliding. I knew an RAF Flight-Sergeant whose father had served with the Polish air force in 1939, and then with the RAF. He had first taken to the air in a Polish government scheme whereby, apparently, all Polish boys could learn to glide. If so, that is quite something, and also, perhaps, an interesting insight into Poland between the wars - sandwiched in the wrong place, but with a strongly martial ethos of its own. And, of course, the Germans, and not least, the Nazis, were pretty hot on gliding.  On a more recent and personal note, my only claim to a bit of hands on flying has been in the RAF's Grob Vigilant. It is a powered glider and takes off under its own steam (as it were). It feels somewhat odd (until one gets used to it) when the whirly thing at the front of the aircraft is switched off and it suddenly plunges... 

It's an...

... ambulance! Just as Xaltotun of Python correctly identified the bones yesterday. Well done, that man! And he provided a very nice link to a large scale version - here. My PSC conversion is now more ambulance-like:

Still some bits and pieces to do,

including some stretchers for the  body of the vehicle.

And, perhaps, some unit markings.

The inspiration for this wargame conversion came in this marvellous old copy of Airfix Magazine from February 1970. It is absolutely packed with a feast of articles - including, a scratch built Deacon SP (I will, without doubt, have to have a crack at that), a late production Sherman with HVSS, railway modelling, aircraft modelling - all in the smallest type face, matched by often indistinct black and white photos. But one of the clearer ones is:

'A carrier ambulance of a New Zealand armoured regiment in Italy', from Peter Chamberlain's series, 'The Carrier Story'. This series was later turned into the Profile hardback book, Making Tracks; the Carrier Story, by Chamberlain and Ellis. I have that book, but the all white NZ carrier ambulance does not feature in it. 

I rather enjoyed bashing that PSC conversion, and the assortment of old 1960s and 1970s Airfix Magazines that I recently e-bayed tempts me to do more.  Perhaps a carrier shower, a ghost carrier, or a tea and buns carrier...

It's a Universal Carrier...

... but not as we know it.

Kit bashing away at Plastic Soldier Company's universal carriers. Two will be for my Western Desert fellows, but the third is being converted:

The white isn't undercoat, but part of final finish. A WIP, but anyone know what ?

100% Toy...

... Scouts. Every now and then I am seized by classic Toy Soldier mania, usually in 54mm, but occasionally in 42mm. This year, as you will know, is the 100th anniversary of H G Wells' Little Wars. I'm rather in two minds about Wells. He was clearly a cad, believed in world government, 'scientific' politics, the way of the Samurai applied to said politics (all that was very popular among the middle class Left of pre-Great War Britain), and many of his later novels needed a good editor. So far, so bad. But, he did write Little Wars, he does appear to have been rather a fun pater, he was friends with Jerome K. Jerome (a fine fellow, and Three Men in Boat is still a laugh out loud book), and he sported a moustache. So it's probably 65/35 bad/good. As a result of the 'Funny Little Wars' revival (TM, the Padre), I painted up a few regiments of Army Black last year, infantry and Uhlans (anyone remember 'The Uhlans are coming!' on the front of The Victor comic, some time in the late 1960s??), and intended to round up various unpainted toy soldier types and draft them into Army Black. Well, I haven't, but surveying that stalled project yesterday, I did dig out some 54mm chaps who have been waiting for paint for so long that I can't even remember where I got them from (Soldier Pac??). So, after a nice, simple, straightforward toy soldier painting session, I have:

Toy Scouts ... wearing the uniform that they were famous for over decades, until that cheap, nasty decade of mad egotism - the 1960s - saw the end of the Wideawake hat and khaki; although when I moved up to the Scouts in 1971, the oldest boys still wore that kit.

These fine youths (from Owl patrol) would go well with a FLW army (though clearly not Army Black), acting as messengers and guides.  Just, in fact, as they did for the British Home Guard in the Second World War:

The photo above is from my history of the Home Guard - a very reasonably priced volume, elegantly and clearly written, and, although I say so myself, the new standard history of the force. On that big headed note, I'll sign off, and return to my PSC universal carriers.

Track links...

... or not.

I peered into the UM kit box this evening, wondering whether I was in the right state of mind to tackle the myriad of Bergepanzer 38 track links... mmmm... wasn't sure. So I got out my wargame Hetzers to see if that would encourage me. They are from a range of manufacturers - Esci, Fujimi (I think), Britannia, and a metal version, possibly SHQ or possibly not:

One in Russian Liberation Army (POA) colours. The POA Hetzers helped liberate Prague from the Germans, and agreed to do so on condition that the Czechs wouldn't hand the POA 1st Division over to the Reds. The POA kept their side of the bargain. The Czech government handed the POA over to the Bolsheviks. You can guess the rest of the story. Funny how people think the Second World War in Europe ended in May 1945.

Unfortunately, my Hetzers weren't enough, and I closed the UM box again.

Instead, I flocked my 20mm plastics:

Canadians from the War of 1812. Much easier!

Is it a bird..?

In the Superman comics of old, citizens frequently seemed to be scanning the skies for strange sights. Oddly, this seems not to be the case today. But they miss much as a result. I live on one of the flight paths to Birmingham International Airport, and not far from Coventry Airport. The latter handles light aircraft and, in the summer months, vintage aircraft. As a result, one can often look up at the sound of unusual engines and see a Dragon Rapide, or a Dakota, or some other beautiful classic. But few do. Today, I had just stepped out into my tiny garden to peer at emerging buds when I heard something slightly different overhead, apparently descending towards Birmingham. I looked up to see that marvel of 1950s design - the VC10! With its T tail, four aft mounted engines, and raked wings it is still a design classic - 50 years after it first flew.  And the one that passed overhead today will be one of the very last to fly, for the six that the RAF have (the last) are due to be retired at the end of this month. What a stroke of luck that I stepped out at that moment.

The Duke of Tradgardland illustrated one of his recent posts with a couple of very nice medieval figures. Sadly, His Grace appears not to have the complete set, so I illustrate it here:

It is the Piers Plowman set from about 12 years ago - the Perry realisation of the famous English medieval poem by Langland. If you are not familiar with Piers, you can still get the idea from the figures here:

Plus ca change: the above figure could be an EU bankocrat - except that he/she would simply steal your money from the bank these days, and wouldn't have to actually go and find you.

Finally, my grandson in my garden yesterday, impersonating a 'monster', or, I thought, the Green Man:

Spoilt...

... for choice. I've been much less productive on the toy soldier/model/wargames front since the beginning of  2013 in the Year of Our Lord. This, of course, has led me to buy not less, but more stuff, and the mountain of toys grows daily. As readers know, I have a very interesting Bergepanzer 38 waiting to be built. I opened the box earlier, and found:

'The horror !', to quote Conrad's most famous novel (I shall re-read all of his novels one day, and transport myself back to the time when I was a callow, dreaming Sixth Former at one of Old England's old grammar schools. They sit on a shelf not two feet away, waiting.). 'The horror!' - just look at those track links, and bear in mind just how small the '38 is in 1/72. But I will be bold. Soon-ish. Now, DaveM has already raised some points about the recovery version of the Hetzer, so I will have to rummage around to make sure that I make the right call about that spade, and the recovery kit that the Bergepanzer 38 carried. In addition to Hilary Doyle's New Vanguard title on the Hetzer, I have a very, very thorough book, Hetzer; Jagdpanzer 38, by Vladimir Francev, Charles K. Kliment, and Milan Kopecky (MBI, Prague, 2001). As you will  realise, these authors are from just the right place to have written about the Hetzer, and if you are interested in that deadly little tank killer, then you would really appreciate the book.

To offset the horror of the track links, I have (thanks to Saturday's postie):

PSC - the wargamer's friend. Lief, over on Figurfanatikern, provided a review of these carriers last year in his normal perfect English - how can a Viking speak/write such perfect, colloquial English? Amazing! My PSC carriers will get a Western Desert finish, but I am tempted by France/Belgium 1940, something that I've had lurking at the back of my mind since a trip to Calais nearly 10 years ago to follow the action described in Airey Neave's Flames of Calais. Neave (also of Colditz fame) was supposedly murdered by the INLA, although some well informed people (including his fellow MP, Enoch Powell) believed that the CIA was responsible.

Stripes. The SM81 build led, of course, to my later post on the Caudron Simoun, and Heller's kit, which I made up some 20 years ago. I said in that post that the yellow, striped red, scheme was of Antoine de Saint-Exupery's aircraft that he crashed in the Sahara. After posting, I started to check images on the internet, and it became clear that I was wrong - why, indeed, would I have ever imagined that Saint-X would bother to have his aircraft finished in 'high viz' ? Nooo, that wouldn't have impressed the skinny French chicks, or his Spanish wife, Consuelo. Anyway, too much peering at photos of the Simoun sent me to Hannants' website, and I have another kit:

Interestingly, my sideswipe at the Euro in the post on stripes led to one 'Nundanket' entering the lists in favour of the Euro. This has lead to fierce exchanges. Rather good! And since I last responded to Nundanket, I see the Eurozone has a new 'success' - taking money directly from the bank accounts of (Greek) Cypriots. Our American cousins would call that robbery. And they'd be right.