Ito Lang

National Bookstore in the 1980s had an unusual reputation for me. Especially the one located at Quezon Boulevard, next to Tropical Hut and McDonalds. You know where. It was the only place within walking distance from my grandmother's house where I could find models for sale. And at that time, around 1985 to 1987, they had tons of the stuff. But I was bitten by the armor bug then, or rather, I was in an arms race with brother number two. His Panzers were overruning my bed once a bit too often in the 1/35 scale, so I thought it would be best that a suitable anti-tank weapon be found to deal with him. I found the Tamiya kit there and promptly saved up for it. It was a quick build, and an easy task with my uncle's airbrush. I was rather proud of that model as I think I did it justice (for my teen mind, that meant getting it right to the directions). I never saw the kit on the shelves again though, because Tamiya pulled it from production.

This current model is one I recently built in tribute to that first one. Of course I never heard of Zimmeritt before so this has it on. Of course I didn't know that the long L/70 gun needed special bogies so this one has a shorter L/48. And of course I never knew these guys needed to be as dirty as possible, so there go the pastels. But its still that old soldier for me, standing guard over that pillow at the top of the old bed.