Remember the days...

...when shopping, although a bit boring, wasn´t such an effort ?

Anyone remember the "massive horror"  of  PIG FLU ?

Franks crossing the Rhein

Frank Jackson, his son Frank Jackson Jnr. and his apprentice Frank Smythe,  cross the Rhein.

On the other bank waiting for them are Norman Clarke, Norman Huds and his son Norman Huds Jnr

Rubber Ducks - A Warning!!

There they are, bobbing in the bathtub or sitting next to the soapdish, wearing, similar to you,  nothing but a smile. Nearly everyone and that´s the clue, nearly everyone has one somewhere in thier living space. Big ones...small ones...ones that squeek when squeezed. Mainly yellow but they come in a wide range of colours and guises, Santa Ducks, Cowboy ducks etc. All cutsie but....do not be decieved. When there´s enough of them, when there´s one duck for each Person on the planet, this friendly Little chap...

....will turn into this ! A hunchbacked Horror!!!! A belly hook and three claws per arm for gouging and tearing! This Thing will hunt out your soft areas for burrowing into to form a nest with ensuite larder.
Be advised...The day will come so don´t Keep them in your bathroom,especially in or  near the  foot end of the bath!!

A happy day out Floating your ducks? Yeah right! Think again..it´s an Invasion!!!!

Photo by Andreas Schwarzkopf

Teutonics - restart

After a gap, the next couple of  Bods for the Teutonic 1329 dio.
The rider in blue normally has a Lady riding sidesaddle in front of him but She didn´t fit along with the smiling kniggit. As with my Version HERE, they don´t  fit 100% comfortably anyway.
The other two are from..er??..I´ve forgotten which set

and for a bit of a Change.....
The "heroes",  Lord Brashford and Lt. Tompkins, Achmed  and thier Faithfull mule Dobin went on a jaunt to Xanten..and amazingly, unlike previous trips out, like the one where Tompkins caught crabs!!!! or their picnick in South africa!!!(how they got out of that no-one knows!) this time they had no terrible mishaps.

A visit to the Roman town .View from the Ampitheatre towards the workers houses.

The Hafentempel (Harbor temple)

Looking at the amazing high altar of the Xanten Cathedral (St. Victor's Cathedral)

and the pics taken by "others"

 Kriemhild windmill. Built onto the town wall around the end of the 14th Cent as a Bärwindmühle (a fortified  Tower   with a windmill added)   rebuilt over the centuries and re-used for different things, like a gardenhouse or quarters for the Nightwatch  , it still is in use today.

 Klever Tor (Cleves Gate) First built in 1393- re-built in 1843

Garden Gnomes

Atfer seeing Tony´s recent Post on Garden Gnome Restauration I remembered I´d restored and painted up two of them  a couple of years ago. **
Number one....In it´s* natural Habitat.

Before the final layer of varnish

Big Bang........theory

The FIREBALL XX1 is ready for the big day.  Now towed out of the top secret hanger...

.............Pre/flight checks are carried out.........

..fuel is loaded, ignition systems checked and rechecked and....

...the Pilot, Major Stephan Ostin, poses proudly for one last publicity shot before....

..the FIREBALL is taxied to the start ramp and the countdown Begins...

The flight (as usual) didn´t go entirely according to plan. A Crash investigation Team has recovered the wreckage and Initial reports assume a total failure of the main drive Systems..possibly due to a fuel leak.

 

Life´s a Beach

It´s Holiday season and even the bods have to have a break.


Finally after a Long and ardous journey and  climbing the last sand dune Lord Brashford and Lt. Tompkins have thier first view of the sea.

The brave trio, Lord Brashford, Lt, Tompkins, Achmed  and thier Faithfull mule Dobin. In the Background a beach camp.

Lt. Tompkins  - "CRABS sir! HUGE CRABS

Lord Brashford - "Tompkins!I have absolutely no interest in your personal Problems!!"

The big bods also did a bit of travelling and had a look about.
The For Freedom Museum in Belgium. On the link there´s a virtual visit to the Museum which is way better than my photos. One thing which was a bit of an eye opener was a video of some Archeologists excavating a Messerschmitt BF-110 Nightfighter ...........with a Digger!!!!!

 

Just up the road was another Museum, Sincfala - Museum van de Zwinstreek.

Mostly about the life and times of the locals from the medieval to present, it had some cracking wooden model boats. The ones pictured are all around 1/72nd - 28mm scale.

 

Bunkers!!!! The whole are is dotted with WWII bunkers, most of which you can go inside and look around. A lot of them are in a poor condition, Graffiti, used as rubbish dumps, like this Type 630 not far from the camp site,

Garffiti!! I´m not sure wether the marks on the side are from Shellfire. Apparently the walls are 3.5 meters thick!

Inside the main door.

One photo of the Type 630 at Breskens that the Bunkersite.com People didn´t get..., the turret on the top. There´s steps going down into the bunker but it was too dark to take photos.

 

Behind the Type 630 there was a Type 112a. As with the 630 you could go inside but had a few inches of water inside and frogs living there.

Bunkersite.com is a mine (no pun intended) of info about the bunker Systems in the area of Zeeland / Belguim. There really are masses of them.  One we visited was massive..with loads of bunkers of all different types spread over an area of two footballfields. Unfortunately we´d forgotten the camera..doh!!

 

 

 



A blast from the past.

Some very very old airfix (and a couple of others) from way way back in the days of Humbrol enamel paints and when the choice of bods made converting them a necessity. 

A drawing pin stuck into the bod..a shield. The archer has got some legs from an Airfic ACW confederate bod.

EEK!! That gloss paint!!! Sunglasses on!..Bavarian  and Nassau grenadiers

This little lot is about half what remains of my napoleonic bods, most of the cavalry and a lot of the cannons have "dissapeared" along with t two farm houses .........and hundreds of tanks, planes and 1000´s of infantry......... without counting hundreds of 1/32nd bods and thier vehicles etc. 

They used to have regimental Standards and were attached to strips of cardboard from Old cereal packets. 

Superman in his scratchbuilt war taxi.

Edward Lear Animals

It was the  birthday anniversary of the artist and writer genius,  Edward Lear or as he would introduce himself, Mr Abebika kratoponoko Prizzikalo Kattefello Ablegorabalus Ableborinto phashyph.  
Born on the 12th of this month, 200 years ago,  there was a lot of discussion on Radio 4 LW about him..and it got me thinking..  :-D

A Hamel..is a camel,

with the head of a horse.

A Corse..is an animal

the other way around...of course!

The very ungainly looking Hamel

The almost feasable looking Corse

Hello to Mr Lee
Hello to  Michigentile from Michigentile´s Microworld blog. Member of the Valdemar Forum (the place for medieval fanatics) A fan of medievals and he creates some excellent dios on the period.