The Etta Girl II

The role-playing stage of my life was memorable. We didn't have any wimpy swords and elves games. No funny dragons or goblinos. No way. We fought World War III. In 1988, the closing days of the Cold War, we were fighting a losing war in the year 2000 in Kalisz, Poland. We, a motley crew of soldiers of fortune, fought, adventured, stole better looking guns and defeated (for the most part) the enemy. We shot each other's horses and pulled out long pistoooools from holsters while shuddering from recoil from Automags and M60s. We piled the Warsaw Pact's stock of Kalashnikovs on a trailer and never worried about fuel or ammunition. And we rode the Etta Girl out of Poland into Germany. We had the Etta Girl, a modified Marder IFV, and Jake, Elwood, the Alicer, the Maru and the Ginggoy went on to become legends. Pretty soon the Simpliciano Marauders with DARD Baby joined their ranks. Good stuff. By the way, don't pick up that stray rifle if you don't have a helmet on. And hey, that is a NICE gun.

The Rose

Well, this should be titled 'From Rose'. This kit was a present to me one birthday from my favorite sis-in-law, who is my favorite because she is the only one of my in-laws who give me presents that I really love. No sweaters, no socks, no underwear. She gives me models to build. Love it! And love this kit! This is the Tamiya 1/72 P-51D Mustang, dubbed to be the best kit of the Mustang ever made. You literally just shake the box with some glue and paint and it comes out built. As you can see from the detail, this is a truly remarkable kit, and leaves the old Matchbox and Airfix kits back in the Stone Age. Ergo, I call it 'The Rose'.

The Survivor

Now this kit is one of the oldest I have surviving. And it is now here with me in Melbourne, after over 15 years. This kit first came to my attention when I bought it in Makati's old Nova Fontana. It was the old Tamiya kit, the one with the four paratroopers (which had the worst possible molding, but the best box artwork!). It was a work of passion, this Stug. It was the chunkiest, blockiest, bulkiest piece of armour, yet it looked mean and lean. With the help of my Uncle Rommel (ironic!), the airbrush was put to good use in doing the camo scheme. I had yet to learn about seamlines and zimmeritt, so you'll forgive me if it doesn't look right. But hey, it was 1989. I thought I had left this back in Manila to collect more dust for weathering, but an opportunity presented itself for me to stuff it in a shoebox to bring with me to migrate. And though I built better Stugs from Dragon, this will still be an old favorite.

Barrel of laughs

Imagine this: you get excited seeing this box of a kit you want to build; you pay up at the counter and take the trip home all excited to get started on the plane. You get home, open up the box and there it is. A puny, tiny little airplane. But wait, this can't be. It looks too funny to be a real plane. Its like a barrel with wings. Oddly enough, that's what the Yanks called this thing: a barrel. Oh well, let's see. What can we do with it. Then you read about it. You read about how it held the line in the dark days of the Pacific war. You read about how it fought Zeros. You read about how it helped win Midway. Wow. So there we go. An Academy 1/72 F4F-1 Wildcat. It may look funny, but it did its part.

Tribute to the Goo

One thing you remember well if you have younger brothers who sometimes end up owning something you wish you did is that one day, you can get what you didn't. Case in point: my brother Googoo has the privelege to get the Tamiya Panzer IVE (which was then the cat's pajamas in high-detail kits, but today's DML one puts it to shame.) I so wished I was the one who had that (and Gani's Tiger, and Inge's 1/32 Stuka) because they all looked to be such great builds! Fast forward to 2000, as newbie-Aussie me takes a trek to distant Dandenong on a bike trip to purchase the aforementioned Panzer IV. And I promised myself that as I built it, it will be as a tribute to those great kits my brothers had. Long may they stay in my memory and inspire me to build more and more!

Getting it right

When I was 11, back in the golden age when your mom was overseas and sent a massive box of model kits for you and your brothers to divide and build armies with, I picked out the Airfix Mosquito as mine to build. Of course, I remember I got the nose upside down on the fuselage, the engine exhausts pointing the wrong way, the landing gear on backward and breaking every extreneous bit off before finishing the build. Then I spilled paint all over the wrong places and eventually melted all the wingtips and tail off with gallons of sticky Revell plastic cement from a tube.

In 2002, I decided to try and get it right. Thanks to Victoria Hobby Centre for the kit, and Daryl for telling me that the camo wasn't supposed to be feathered, but hard edged. Oh well, I tried.

Climb every mountain

Sometime in 1997, I read a bit about the bloody battles the British and the Japanese fought in Burma in 1944, namely at Imphal and Kohima. One of the notes I really got into was finding out that the British used outdated M3 Lee/Grant tanks and brought them up all the way to the top of Mount Kohima. It was the highest altitude that tanks were used in combat. And for me, that was something. I could imagine these lumbering (and tall for a tank!) brutes climbing steep mountain roads blasting bunkers left and right. I got the old Tamiya M3 Lee kit from Lil's in Megamall, shortly after leaving Basic. So this means this kit is a bit of the my return to modelling. And this also marked the first time I did weathering and used Gunze paints!

Rumanian Emil

This is the second Matchbox 1/72 Messerschmitt 109E that I've built. The very first one was inspired; back in 1982, I was dared by a classmate (Glenn Imbang I think) to do a model over the weekend. And did a kit I did. Saving up a measly P20 for a short trip to SM Shoemart Cubao, where stacks of the classic Matchbox kits were to be found. I have to admit, though it took me 24 hours to build AND paint, a pretty JG27 plane in desert camouflage was the result.

In 2002, after a trip to the swap meet, I dared myself to do it again. And here we are! But now, I did the Rumanian option. By the way, that's my wife's hair as a radio wire! Thanks hon!