"Well what is this all about?."

A place for things 20th Century, real and imagined..

Thursday 30 September 2010

The Tank Brigade, almost completed..

First up is the transport, a heavy US lend-lease truck for the overstrength  SMG company ..the actual six SMG  figures are already  with their owner,  here  is the attached MMG platoon
MMG and crew Britannia , truck Airfix

Below is the SU-76 company , crew and  AFVs Britannia



Aircraft

I thought this was going to turn to crap and I wasn't really looking forward to doing them but they worked out welll enough







Wednesday 15 September 2010

Soviet Battlegroup command

This is the group that commands the Tank Brigade , and the Infantry Brigade that is coming
Command group


AA truck and radio truck

Staff and transport  section

more of the movers and shakers

Soviets for RF-2, a bit more of a Tank Brigade

some more pieces for the Tank brigade..to come is another SMG company with truck, The SU 76 company and the flak company
here is...

SMG battalion 76mm gun company

SMG battalion mortar company

Assault engineer company and rocket company
SMG battalion HQ

Thursday 2 September 2010

Pulp Adventures 2 & 3

THE CRUISE OF THE CONDOR

First Published in August 1933 - 256 pages



Biggles and Algy go to visit Biggles' Uncle. Biggles used to called his father 'Pa' and when he was a toddler called his father's brother, Dick, 'Dickpa' - and the name has stuck ever since. Biggles and Algy find Dickpa's house in a state of siege. Whilst exploring in Brazil, Dickpa had struck the trail of some ancient treasure, but his villainous porters found out and turned against him. Escaping to England, they have followed him and have him trapped in his own house. Biggles escapes from the house with a plan. Returning with a rented aircraft, Dickpa and Algy are rescued from the house and together with Biggles' old Flight Sergeant, Smyth, they all travel to South America on a treasure hunt. They have bought a plane and shipped it out with them. Arriving at Manaos, a settlement on the Amazon River, they find trouble. Dickpa is arrested and thrown into jail by a corrupt official. Biggles gets him out, with the help of Algy and Smyth and they make a getaway in their amphibian aircraft, which they have named the 'Condor'. Suffering a magneto failure, Biggles is forced to land on the river. Here, they are caught up by the current and swept towards the falls. Smyth manages to fix the problem in time for Biggles to fly off the falls just as they go over. Landing, Biggles goes off to explore. When he returns, Indians have captured the rest of the crew of the 'Condor'. Trailing after them to their camp, Biggles uses flares to scare the Indians away and save his comrades. Moving to a safer place, the adventurers travel to where Dickpa has previously found gold in a cave. Here they find that there has been a rock fall and they have to spend time clearing it. On the return journey, they are shocked to see another plane - the villains are after them again. Returning to the 'Condor', they find it has gone! Guessing that the baddies have spotted it from the air and landed to tow it away, Biggles realises that it must be down river. Crossing the Amazon on a Balsa raft to where he knows there is an abandoned canoe, Biggles is able to get them transport. Biggles, Algy, Dickpa and Smyth find the 'Condor' and steal it back. Parachuting down to ensure a safe landing area, Biggles watches Algy land and they all make camp. Next morning they and the 'Condor' are attacked by ants. Returning to Dickpa's cave, there is an earthquake and everybody is trapped inside. Smashing their way through a man made wall, a path is found that eventually leads to the top of a plateau. Here they find a vast crater and in it, an old long lost city. Here, the bodies of the long dead inhabitants remain and eventually a huge room filled with a fabulous treasure is found. Taking a few portable items, they plan to return to the 'Condor' and fly up and land on the plateau. Biggles is the first to cross a precarious bridge made out of a tree, when an earthquake strikes and he is lucky to make it to the other side before the bridge collapses. Embarking on a dangerous journey alone, Biggles is attacked by a huge bird called a King Condor and has to survive numerous perils on the small cliff side path. Failing to jump a gap, Biggles falls into a waterfall and is washed to the bottom of the cliff. Surviving this, he is then shocked to find a man in their aeroplane. The man, called Aaron Speakdetruf, has escaped from virtual slavery in a rubber plantation. He helps Biggles to take off and watches him do so - only to be cruelly murdered by Blattner, one of the enemy, who has just arrived - moments too late to stop Biggles. Biggles lands on the plateau and the plan is to load the treasure and fly to Bolivia. However, at that moment the volcano where the plateau is situated, erupts and our heroes are lucky to escape with their lives. Flying away in the 'Condor' they are then attacked by the baddies plane. This plane is armed with a machine gun and Biggles has no armaments. Algy uses an oil drum as a missile and brings the enemy plane down. Flying to Bolivia, the 'Condor' becomes fog bound and eventually lack of fuels means that Biggles has to make a forced landing. Surviving this, Dickpa notices the strange ore in the rocks where they have crash landed. They have discovered silver! Their adventures at an end, they return to England, this time by boat. Having some items of the original treasure and after securing a mining concession on the silver, it has all be very worth while.
and
BIGGLES IN THE JUNGLE

First Published in May 1942 - 191 pages



Biggles, Algy and Ginger are flying an amphibian called the Wanderer to Central America to examine the possibilities of an air service between British possessions on the mainland and the West Indies. Stopping at Belize, Biggles looks up an old friend called Carruthers who is acting Governor there. Carruthers tells Biggles of a problem he is having with the so called 'King of the Forest', who is interfering with supplies of chicle (the sap of a tree used as a basis for making chewing gum) - the colony's most important export. Biggles offers to use his aircraft to help out, as Belize has no air force. Starting by exploring the so called 'unknown river', Biggles comes across a wounded native chicle collector, they nickname 'Dusky'. Dusky had been shot whilst escaping virtual slavery by a man called Cristoval Bogat. Dusky has a story to tell. Bogat is the right-hand man for the 'King of the Forest'. Carruthers and his assistant Marcel Chorro visit Biggles. Carruthers swears in our three heroes as special constables in order to enable them to deal with the 'King of the Forest'. After flying Carruthers and Chorro back, Biggles finds his aircraft has been sabotaged. Bogat and his associates attack Biggles' camp and our heroes are forced to fly off. Ginger spots an old ruined city on a plateau in the mountains and Biggles lands in order to explore. They discover a huge staircase carved in the side of the mountain that leads down to the jungle. Dusky thinks this may lead to where he was held captive as he recalls seeing steps carved into a mountainside. Biggles and Ginger go down to explore and accidentally meet the 'King of the Forest' in his own base. Captured, they are put into a cage divided into two, with a Panther in the other half. The plan is to feed them to the panther. Algy, who had been left with the aircraft, sets off on the long trek down the mountain steps and is able to rescue Biggles and Ginger. Pursued up the steps, our heroes get away in their aircraft but not before a bullet has holed their fuel tank and forced them to land on the river. Here they face a number of perils before they are able to obtain more fuel sent to them by Carruthers. A storm-swollen river forces Biggles to take off without Algy, Ginger and Dusky. Biggles flies back to Carruthers to report on progress so far. Whilst he is away, Algy and Ginger are captured by natives and meet up with another captive, an American called Eddie Rockwell. Eddie has come to Belize on a treasure hunt but his business partners had betrayed him and left him to die in the forest. Bogat attacks the native village and captures the three white men and takes them to the 'King of the Forest'. Biggles returns and Dusky is able to tell him what has happened. Following on, Biggles finds himself returning to the mountain plateau via the lengthy flight of steps. Algy, Ginger and Eddie are being used, amongst others, as slave labour to dig for the treasure. The two men who abandoned Eddie have now joined forces with the 'King of the Forest'. Biggles, disguised as a native, joins Algy and Ginger and later helps them shoot their way out. Ginger however, has discovered a secret chamber whilst digging. After the initial escape, our heroes hide in an abandoned house on the plateau but later under the cover of darkness, they move to hide in Ginger's hidden chamber. Biggles goes to scout around and whilst he is away, the house where they were hiding is blown up. Unbeknown to Biggles, this has the result of trapping Algy, Ginger and Eddie. Biggles returns to find Dusky who he had previously left when he joined the slave labour party. Returning down the steps, Biggles captures Bogat and Chorro who has been betraying our heroes. During an attack by native Indians, both Bogat and Chorro are killed. Returning to the aircraft, Biggles and Dusky fly back to Carruthers and return with a small army in order to take the King's base. Meanwhile, Algy, Ginger and Eddie have found a secret passage that has lead them to the treasure. Further exploration helps them find a way out. Meeting up with Biggles and his reinforcements, the King of the Forest is captured and taken back to civilisation to be tried.

Pulp adventures 1

http://www.biggles.info/
BIGGLES - AIR COMMODORE

First Published in May 1937 - 255 pages

Re-published in 1994 as Biggles and the Secret Mission



Biggles is intrigued by a mystery. Supply ships have been disappearing in the Indian Ocean and before they sank they managed to broadcast a final message. In all cases, when they referred to the word "weather" it was misspelt as "whether". Biggles concludes that the same person sent the messages otherwise the coincidence would be too great. Biggles approaches Colonel Raymond, now with Scotland Yard, but formerly with the Air Intelligence staff when Biggles was in 266 squadron, to find out more information. Before he knows it, Biggles is dining in the Foreign Office and setting out his ideas about how to deal with the problem. Biggles is given a temporary commission in the Royal Air Force with the rank of Air Commodore and his plans are put into effect. A decoy supply ship has been sent out called the Bengal Star. A Royal Navy ship called the Seafret then follows this. Biggles, Algy and Ginger then follow on in an amphibian aircraft named Nemesis. The plan is too lure out whoever is attacking the British ships with the Bengal Star and then follow them to their base and launch an RAF attack on it. Things go wrong from the start when the Bengal Star is quickly torpedoed and the crew killed. Biggles manages to save one survivor called Ladgrove, although he later dies, but not before he is able to tell Biggles which direction the submarine took on leaving. Exploring in this direction, Biggles comes across a crashed plane. Algy and Ginger take off in their plane in order to send a signal to the Seafret but a hostile plane attacks them. Ginger manages to shoot it down before it gets them. Meeting up with the Seafret and Biggles, further casualties are suffered. At a council of war, Biggles catches a spy who has come from a nearby junk. Biggles leads an attack on the junk and captures it. Inside, maps are found which seem to indicate that Elephant Island may be the enemy base and the junk was taking further supplies to the Island. The junk is scuttled and its crew marooned. Biggles and Ginger set off on a recognisance mission to Elephant Island. Splitting up, Ginger discovers a submarine base hidden in a cave in a cliff whilst Biggles is pursued by hostile natives. Both Ginger and Biggles escape to rendezvous with the Seafret but it doesn't arrive. Algy arrives in the Nemesis to say that the Seafret has been torpedoed but the Captain managed to beach her to avoid her sinking. Biggles and Ginger return to investigate the submarine base and finding a supply of mines, they lay one in the entrance cave. However, they are trapped by the unexpected return of a submarine, which sets the mine off. Biggles and Ginger then have a desperate fight to get out of the enemy submarine base. Meanwhile, the RAF has been called up for an aerial attack and they bombard Elephant Island setting off the supplies of gas bombs kept there by the enemy. The base is destroyed and Biggles returns to England, his mission a success.



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