'Toy Story' from StuartL - Military Vehicle Restorations

 Hi all,

    For this bonus round, the instructions read: Submit a freshly painted figure (or figures) and/or piece of terrain that evokes a beloved toy (or set of similar toys) from your childhood. Tell us the story behind your submission.    

    I have chosen to willfully misinterpret that and instead, I am posting some freshly painted toys that evoke a beloved part of my childhood.

    My father (who passed a few years back), was trained as a car mechanic, before eventually moving into selling trucks and HGV's. However, he always maintained his love of fixing up old machines. He was also interested in military vehicles. Restoring old machines was his passion and over the years, he rebuilt and restored several ex-army land rovers and a CMP truck, along with a water bowser and several trailers. He would spend hours outside in the garage hammering bits of metal into shape, welding things together and just tinkering with the engine trying to make the machines work. Whenever he passed a new scrap yard, he would call in and see if they had any useable parts he could scavenge. Growing up, there was always some half built machine next to our house. There were two of these that I remember clearly, because he used them to pull our family caravan when we went on holiday. They were draughty, cold and uncomfortable, they guzzled petrol and required constant work, but they were his pride and joy. 

    After he passed, I asked my mother to send me some of the old toys he had displayed in a cabinet in our house. For reasons I cannot fathom, he had toys of every model of Land Rover, except the ones he actually rebuilt. I received the closest possible models to his real renovations and I had originally planned to paint them up for the 2024 challenge, but never got them done due to real life issues. 

    The Land Rover my father had when I was in elementary school was a Series 1, 88" Wheelbase model. This is a Series 1, 80" Wheelbase model by Dinky Toys in the UK. I think it is about 1/72 scale or thereabouts. It is difficult to tell. My father would often attend military vehicle rallies with the NEMVC, or North East Military Vehicle Club. The highlight (for me), was the annual rally at the Durham Light Infantry museum in Durham City. For several years, my father and several other owners of 4WD vehicles would offer 'Jeep Rides' for visitors at the rally, where we would drive around some scrub land for about 5 minutes. It was a ton of fun and probably very dangerous. Eventually someone from the local council who was attending the show suggested that we should stop because no-one had insurance that would cover hurling a member of the public from the back of a speeding vehicle. (Boo!!)

    The original had seen some use overseas in the middle east and elsewhere, and one of the few things he was able to determine about it, was that at one point it had been painted in a dusty, desert beige. So, we drove around in our 'sandy landy' (as we called it) for a long time.

    The Land Rover my father had when I was in secondary school was a Land Rover Series 3, 109" Wheelbase model. This is the correct size and shape, but my father's didn't have a roof rack. Unfortunately there was no way to remove it from the toy without wrecking it. The Land Rover had originally been in service at RNAS Culdrose (RNAS is Royal Navy Air Station), one of Europe's largest helicopter bases. It was in a dark navy blue, with a huge yellow cross on the roof to prevent pilots from accidentally landing on it. After it left official service, it was repainted in green, but when my father bought it and restored it, he repainted it in the official colours. I know some of the challengers live in the North East of the UK, so you may well have seen it drive past you at some point, it was pretty distinctive.

    At one point we were on holiday near the airbase, so my father, in his infinite wisdom, pulled up in front of the gates, took out his camera and started photographing his land rover in front of its old workplace. As it transpires, military bases don't like having random people taking photographs of them, and a bunch of naval security types came out and had a few words to say. Luckily, they were pretty understanding once they saw the vehicle and he explained why he was doing it. Still a bit scary though.

    This model is about 1:48 scale, though I don't know the maker unfortunately. I tried to freehand the base name on the door panel, but I am not that great at painting letters, sadly. I also freehanded both of the original registration plates (from when my father owned them, I have no idea what numbers they had in military service), but again I'm not great at that.

    So, there we are, two painted toys that remind me of my childhood. Not quite the mission we were set, but one that I wanted to achieve. I will be keeping one of these. I plan to send the other to my younger brother as a memento for him.

    Points wise, I have a 28mm vehicle and a 20mm vehicle, so that should be 35 points, plus the 50 for the bonus round. It should also earn me another Squirrel point.

  My ongoing duels information:

Skulls - 218 (+0)
BSRoD - 16 (+0)
Squirrels - 13 (+1) - D&D Animals, 30K Militia, Plague Clowns, Afghans, Robots, Anglo-Saxons, Medieval Polish, Clan Smoke Jaguar, 81st West Africans, Undead, 10mm FPW French, Daemons of Khorne, Modern Vehicles