Masked Up & Garage Raiding

Well my progress is at it's usual glacial like pace but I've managed to fit the windscreen of the Dak and then mask all the glasswork ready for priming.  First time I've used a masking liquid, Humbrol Mascol in this case, so no idea if it works or not.  If it doesn't I've got a job and a half ahead of me to clean the windows of paint.

The blutak is something I picked up from a thread on Britmodeller or the Airfix forum.

Storage Hunters PLF

With the bureau now up and running I thought it might be time to raid the garage to see what kits I have squirrelled away from yesteryear, along with the various tins of toy soldiers, sorry I mean military miniatures. 

There's treasurer in them there boxes

And these ones, somewhere.

These boxes haven't been properly checked since we moved house over 10 years ago (apart from to squirrel things away so the boss didn't see them), which was probably reflected in how hard they were to get at in the garage.  There was even kits stuffed in a drawer with bits and pieces of a car maintenance nature.

So I got this Airfix Fort Sahara off of that there eBay quite a number of years ago and hidden away it went, to be built one day when I got round to it and had the space and facilities.  I think I fancied doing it with ruined gates (the hinges are broken on one side anyway) and a LRDG team hold up inside fighting of DAK or Italians.  One day....

First box opened and I'm greeted with issue 500 of 2000AD (and a selection of other comics and gaming mags) and the Tolkien Bestiary, with Harnmaster and a few modules lurking beneath it.

Peel away the first layer and we find some plastic goodness, along with CarWars Deluxe and Marvel Superheroes.  All Airfix stuff, the control tower, a Beaufighter and a Me109, all useful for my desert airfield ideas.  The Beaufighter will be interesting as I also have the new tooling version from Airfix sat in  Bureau central.  Sounds like there could be a side by side build series of articles to me.

Old skool

Third and fourth layers reveal more of my roleplaying past, early editions of CoC, Rolemaster, Twilight2000 (from the days when it still felt like it could happen) and 2nd Edition Warhammer, I think.  Wonder what ever happened to my 1st edition box set?  Plenty of scenario/modules under these and the old cardboard dungeon floor plans.  Ahhh the good old days, the smell of nostalgia, or is it just mould?

Some of this stuff might actually be worth something!!!  You never know.


Casually shoved on a shelf underneath an old sports bag and some other garage detritus is this little beauty, I think this set was under £10 and has great potential for tarting up as a train from pretty much anywhere - the Eastern Front, the Western Front, North Africa or even the Far East, I'm sure you could even use it for North America as intended.

Choo chooooooooo

Mind the spiders!

Tucked away behind this was some serious squirreling, 3 copters from the UK version of Helicopter magazine.  Think I binned the mags but the models are all 1/72 and ready out of the box if necessary.  We have a Chinook, a Lynx and a Blackhawk.

chopper, chopper, chopper.

Final box of the evening was a bit squidged but I knew at lest one of its contents.  A made up, if slightly damaged, 1/72 Dakota.  The wing is now off it and an engine cowl is somewhere amongst the packing, but as this was always intended to be painted up as a crashed plane for a 'Rescue the General' type scenario it didn't matter and only cost a few quid off the bay.  Funny it seems smaller than the one I'm currently building. 

Good job it's going to be a crashed version

Nice surprise in the box though, another couple of choppers.  A Huey UH-1D gunship and a Wessex I think.  These were bargains as I recall, I think the first issue was something like £2.99, the second issue maybe £4.99 and after that £7.99 which for the Chinook was a pretty good deal.

So the final box I had time for I didn't fully empty it, looks to mainly have rulebooks in.  AD&D 2nd Ed, Runequest, obviously Judge Dredd rpg, some 80s vinyl, a box of dwarves and some other bits and bobs and rules. 

So that the haul so far, if you can call stuff you already own and have done for years a haul!  More updates when I get chance to return to the garage and tackle the main shelf, which I know has some of the boss's stuff on as well (childhood lego, still with the boxes and instructions - and she calls me a hoarder!!!)