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Motorbike with sidecar (BMW) and mounted MG34 of the
21st Panzer-Division, German Afrika Korps |
Many moons ago, as a child my first foray into any type of wargame was the famous box of Airfix soldiers, me and my brother used to set the soldiers up then throw marbles at them, I shudder to think doing the same to my new rather expensive collection today. My favourite troops were the German Africa Corps, I don't know why but they were always the first troops I picked. Then one year as part of my 8th birthday I got a WWII kids colouring book, the black line drawings were all taken from photos of the war, its sad but I can still remember turning to page 16 and finding the picture above, I was in awe and coloured the picture with great care and delight. The picture then found pride of place next to my Leeds United team posters from Shoot magazine. Recently my pal The Angry Lurker bought loads of Flames of War figures, they looked great so I made that fateful decision to halt painting the 15mm FIW figures I had been furiously painting away and get some DAK and 8th army figures, I ploughed into both armies spending far too much money and time on them, near completion I came to my senses and sold the lot on ebay and at Tonbridge wargame show. I had mixed feelings after, Damn I shouldn't have sold them!!! but I needed the dosh to finish the FIW project I started the previous year. Then what did I do,... I talked myself into buying into another period along with my other pal Richard, 15mm NYW. What's it all about???
Afrika corps I believe and when are you putting on a game with anything.
ReplyDeleteNo, No, No Fran, in English it's German Africa Corps, in German it's Deutsche Afrika Korps!! Other question...soon??
ReplyDeleteThe first Airfix I ever saw were sold with a model of a 'lorry' and a gun, so it was in the models section. It was the British 8th Army for North Africa.
ReplyDeleteNext I was back at the store and got the other set the DAK with an 88mm gun and a heavy halftrack to pull it. It took quite a few days of lunch money.
It was a year later I found someone selling the boxed troops separately from model tanks or planes. At that moment they were 69 cents a box.
Later on I noticed that Airfix resculpted those, so the ones I had were the older types. All gone now and too bad. That was how I found out about the whole vast hobby originally.
Always wanted one of those.
ReplyDeleteSo did Steve McQueen, Senor Sucio, and a whole generation of boys watching him, and he took one.
ReplyDeleteThe internet has the story of the one they actually used to film 'The Great Escape.'
I used to love airfix models - especially the Luffwaffe
ReplyDelete