More is the new ... More!

Recently I was offered by a fellow Christchurch war gamer of note, Robin Sutton, a bunch of three ROCO Tigers to add to my felicitous cat-type collection.  Naturally I was very happy to accept, but, whilst I took several days working out how I was going to arrange to collect them, round came Brian and Brent not only with said Panthera Tigris times three ... but also a bunch of fascinating other intriguing goodies.  

Panthera Tigris: my new Heavy Tank Coy 656.

 Examining the rest we begin with this interesting trio.  The DUKW doubles my collection of this particular vehicle.  I don't have much in the way of amphibious or beach landing vehicles or craft, so this is a welcome addition.  The little fellow on the left looks very much like a Light Mark VI tank, probably a scratchbuild - not a bad scratchbuild if it is!  Not having much of an early war inventory, I have just about decided it will feature as a light tank left behind in Tchagai by the Brittannic Empire, withdrawing from the country post independence...  In whose possession, though?  The Tchagai government, or the rebellious Baluchistan hill tribes...?  I have a little bit of a scenario in mind for that...

Then there is the ROCO Sherman, minus mantlet and gun.  There are occasions when that kind of deficiency is very welcome.  This Sherman will get a cardboard or plasticard mantlet, and an offset 'wooden' gun, and serve as an armoured Forward Observer vehicle.  Just the ticket.  Had it been more compatible, it would have been too tempting to have incorporated it into the main corps of Sherman tanks.

 Three very useful trailers!  One is wanting its wheels, and another  its towing ring (and front wheel, but I won't bother with that).   Very handy additions to my WW2 Allied Armies.

Now we come to this interesting chappy. 'What is this delightful... thing?' asks Hexxus of the tree felling machine that released him (animated movie Fern Gully).  It took a bit of a while to figure out how the three elements fitted together...

 ... though what looked at first like a boarding ramp turned out to be a fold-out military bridge.

 A little bit of fiddling about seemed to indicate that the 'AA gun thing' was actually a hydraulic mechanism that fitted something like this.  Having taken this photo, I thought I'd post it and get a laugh...

...but in fact I was on the money.  Once I figured out how the bridge was supposed to fasten on, it looked just the deal: a M48 A1 bridge-laying vehicle.  My Tchagai Army Engineers will be chuffed, no end.

The hydraulic mechanism extended. It looked so right, it had to be true - but how did the bridge fit?

Aha!  There we go!  The vehicle can be unclipped to leave the bridge free standing (so to speak).

Finally, this APC thingy will just have to be a command vehicle of some sort.  Those wheels are characteristic of the ROCO toy models - intended for ease of pushing along a floor, and not as part of the depiction of the real thing.  Clearly this is meant to be tracked vehicle, so tracks it will get.  Most likely cardboard.

I like cardboard.  excellent modelling material...

Robin: I thank you.  Robin has his own blogspot, by the way, that can be seen here:

Wargaming NZ.