Normal...

... service is resumed. Well, sort of. Rather surprised to see that I haven't posted for a fortnight - how time flies when you're a middle aged duffer. But, at last, I've managed to finish another regiment for my current 42s project:

This regiment means that I have enough to play a small 'Rattle of Dice' game - soon.

And, below, a bit of artillery support for the oppo:

I still haven't finalised the 'back story' for this late 19th/early 20th century imagi-war, but I have, I think, got the names of two countries involved. The inspiration comes from the first Biggles book I ever read (42 years ago!!). It was Biggles Goes to War, in which our hero goes for a mercenary (for the purest possible reasons, you understand, and only after a woman - what ?! - intervenes). Biggles and his chums go to fight for Maltovia against the nasty, crew cut types of Lovitzna.  So, that looks as if I have two combatant states - but which is which?

But what have I been doing for the last two weeks? Why have my little tin friends, and plastic aircraft, been abandoned? Well, there has been/is still fruit to collect:

And I've been reading my way through Gavin Lyall's oeuvre, particularly his  'Major Maxim' series, the final volume being:

This one is a marvellous Biggles-type yarn for the older wargaming type. The story centres around an experimental British tank that has been caught up in a rebellion in Jordan. The cover photo, I have this evening learnt (from Katharine Whitehorn's autobiography - she was married to Gavin Lyall) is of one of Lyall's conversions - it could well be an Airfix Chieftain with new turret.

So, forward, to a border clash:

Projects...

... past and present.

Present projects - MC200 and the 42s - have been delayed this past week by filial duties and work. I also need some more rattlecan grey primer for the Macchi. But, today, while burrowing through the debris in my shed, I came across reminders of past projects:

Nord Noratlas in the unusual scale of 1/170. I wonder if any other aircraft kits were produced in that scale ? This is one that I will build soon - difficult to see one of these without imagining 1 REP pouring out of the thing. Though, thinking about it, the Algerian War (and the associated total ethnic cleansing of French Algerians) was probably over before the French started using them for paratroop drops. Mind you, the Portuguese did, in their African wars.  

And this:

I have no memory of why I might have bought this. It's a waterline model, so perhaps it had been destined, at one point, to become the basis of a Confederate blockade runner, or South American warship, or ... I don't know.

And:

I bought two of these (99 pence!)  and made one up, just because it looks good, and just 'speaks' of a particular era. Who knows, maybe this will one day end up on a railway lay out.

And:

Part of my long time interest in Italian aircraft. The G55 as a torpedo bomber was a one-off prototype, and never replaced the SM79 which the RSI's air force continued to use as its only torpedo attack aircraft until the end. This one will probably have to wait a little longer for glue and paint.

Finally

my mother bought this for me in 1965 - Dinkey's version of the very latest in British aircraft design (and the penultimate British only single seater?). I can very clearly remember being offered two of these by my mother, and I can also remember thinking that two would be greedy and it was wrong to be greedy. So I only have one. I was only five, and I did go to church.

Boys...

... of the Old Brigade.

It's been a slow week here at Hobbit Hovel, but, at last, my garrison regiment is ready. Old boys, the halt and the lame, but doing vital, if unglamorous guard duties - barracks, towns, water supplies, rail lines, depots, harbours and rivers. Here we see old Major Vlasov doing the rounds with a patrol:

While, earlier a company of the old lags had turned out for rifle inspection:

It won't be long now, and I'll have enough 42s together for a border skirmish...

Although it is warm tonight here in West Mercia, one can sense that the year has begun to turn. But there is plenty to be harvested, and, in the garden, this late flowering variety of clematis - 'Princess Kate':

Jig...

... not as in Irish, but as in clothes pegs and Lego:

Fuselage closed up, but under some tension and I suspect that once I've rubbed down the seams I'll have to do some filling. More work done on the tailplanes, to the degree that I'm reasonably happy with them and think that once they're painted they should pass muster (from a distance, without my specs). Wings mated and jigged (er, that doesn't sound quite right).

I've also been turning up more Italian aircraft information, the photo below shows the edge of another Osprey title with a nice colour profile of a Macchi MC200 of the same series (the cockpit covers are the key) at the same time:

Hopefully, my little plastic version will capture some of the 'look' when it's complete.

On the 42s front, paint has begun to be splashed, and my enthusiasm for Irregular's little fellows has been rewarded by the good men of York on their website. Aaaah, toy soldier fame.

Whose...

... bright idea was this? I'm supposed to be a kit basher, and here I am trying to squeeze tiny little bits of plastic into tiny cockpits:

Still a little bit to be added to the harness, and then it looks, from a dry run, that I'll have to shave the cockpit floor to get the fuselage to close.

Now for the daft bit - the new horizontal tail:

I spent a good hour and a half creating the new bits on the right, and they still need work. But look at the difference in size with the kit parts. Of course, that size difference will mean some more messing around when I come to add the new tail to the fuselage. I'm not sure at all about this, maybe it is a step too far and I should just use the kit bits - the jury is currently out.

All that sanding of bits of plastic meant that I haven't had time to start splashing paint on my new garrison regiment for the 42s project. I've been thinking about uniforms for the new chaps. The casts actually look quite smart as they are meant to be Greek regulars, but, of course, a garrison/invalids/old men unit would, I suppose, look more like: 

The above fellows are a Serbian third line infantry company in 1914 (so, a bit later than my imagi-war). The photo is from the Osprey, Armies in the Balkans, 1914-18, by Nigel Thomas, Dusan Babac and Darko Pavlovic (Oxford, 2001). What is striking about these Serbs is how old they look, poor fellows, but they also look pretty shoddy in the obsolete M1896 dark blue uniform. However, I think my 42s will have to be in dark blue too, or, perhaps dark blue and grey? I don't know. We'll see which paint pot comes out first.

Metaaaal...

... not as in the music genre best enjoyed by the hard of hearing (of which I am one). Mind you, as a callow, nihilistic, Camus-infected teenager, I did rather like the track 'Bomber' by the heavy metal band, Saxon. But I digress. I put my current plastic on one side this evening after giving the innards of the Macchi a coat of Humbrol matt light green, and turned to some basic work on the new Irregular 42s arrivals:

These fellows will form a garrison regiment (of old men and, perhaps, invalids) for my current 42 project. I'll give them a quick spray of white undercoat before work in the morning, and then I can alternate between plastic Macchi and metal for a while.

What...

... madness is this hobby we call kit bashing?

Beginnings of some basics to make the office look a bit busier:

But, horrors, look at the horizontal tail planes superimposed on 1/72 scale drawings:

Why ? Why? ! The vertical tail is spot on, so why, why this? I might have to scratch build...