More on Jono's World...

It is amazing sometimes how, in the middle of a project, it begins to accumulate stuff almost of its own accord.

To begin with: a couple of vehicles and a little something else from 'A fist full of plastic' Brian. Over-scale for his own projects, they are slightly under-scale for mine - which means, of course, they are just right. The TEXACO label has to come off, as you'd expect, and the vehicles will be painted some sort of military colour-

I was thinking of putting a tilt on the flat-bed truck and removing or disguising the crane. I've changed my mind. It will be left as is, a supply vehicle, with the crane handily in place. Very inventive, these Raesharn. The dozer blade will most likely be attached to a cardboard scratchbuilt bulldozer, and attached to an Engineer platoon.

Meanwhile, the search has been ongoing for aircraft. I thought the Disney 'Planes' merchandising might supply suitable war birds, but what I have been able to find in that line are too small. However, I did find these.

Made in China (isn't everything these days?), they are obviously modelled on the WW2 Spitfire, and come as simple kits in about 1:72 scale. About 10 pieces, including a 'friction' motor, clip together, and a small screw holds the motor in place and the whole kit together. The thing comes with its own little (Phillips) screwdriver as well (I now have 4 of these). The colours are the tan and green and the green and yellow as shown above. There are no decals. Still, at $4 the time, they seem to me a snip.

A Flight from 147 "Pandion" Squadron.

These are toys, but with a certain something. I painted the spinners and rudders red, added the White on red roundels (still tossing up whether to add a sable device within the white circle), and the numbers on the fuselage. Mathematicians among you might discern a pattern in the numbering.

147 Sqn again. The near aircraft obviously slipped
through the Chinese quality control.

To outline the details I washed overall with Nuln Oil, wiping off the surplus before it dried. Although it adds a grimy effect to the whole, methought that it gave the aircraft more character somehow.

A flight from 63 "Falco" Fighter Squadron.

In certain cases, Flights will stand in for entire Squadrons.

The green guys I haven't outlined, though I probably will around the yellow patches. I find the added red and white details - though simply painted on - have a very handsome effect on these green aircraft.

This is the packaging the aircraft came in.
You can see that at age 62, I fall very much
within the target demographic
for this product.

On a whole different level, friend Brian also shoveled my way some magazines. The Military Modelling ones I already had, but I'm glad he did, for, flicking through one of them, I found this (see infra):

Beaver Bug Light Armoured Cars under production.

Scanning the page onto a picture file, I resized the thing from 1:35 scale to 1:48 and printed it to provide a template for the parts shown. Five little Beaver Bug armoured cars are now in production for the Army of Kiivar. Most will be armed with a light cannon and a co-axial machine gun. At least one will have twin-MGs instead, I think.

The Navies of Sideon IV

Reorganising and relocating my stuff, I've rehoused my Jono's World navies into one box. At the top is the exiguous Kiivar Navy; in the middle the colourful Navy of Saabia; and the sinister yellow and dark grey belong to the Raesharn Imperial Kriegsmarine. At the top right hand corner are landing craft, a few aeroplanes, and several merchant vessels.

An example of the kind of foliage that one finds on Sideon IV,
especially in the regions of Kiivar and Omez.

On a more general note, here's a box of Jono's World trees, hacked from an abandoned artificial Christmas tree. I was originally cutting them off a stalk at a time, but I have discovered that with a bit of effort I can cut them nearer the stem for larger trees with actual branches.