A very long time ago, there lived a much younger man with locks of brown hair, his own teeth, ("Oh the joy of food") and MK one eyeballs. One day this man came home from work, to a house long left, and on a large square box, he saw black and white pictures of one of his delights a "Tank". But this was not any "Tank this was a "Supertank" a boat ? "Tank". His family rushed to meet him duty replaced curiosity, the tank was gone from his eyes, the TV switched off. Was it a dream or had it been real. The man was never to know. Time passed, houses changed, computers came, TV's got bigger and got colour. The man became old, the hair went white then bald. His teeth dropped out and the MK one eyeballs needed glasses. Strangely he never forgot his super tank. He never found it , even on the wonderful worldwide web. Then one day, on this very forum the man looked at the "Home of the Grumpy Gnome" and whilst looking at the wonderful photos and reading the story of Grumpy's collections, the old fossil had a tingle in the brain cells. A tear almost crept from his eyes. For there, in a picture was his tank. his 'super tank', and it was called Object 279. He called his wife and began telling her the story. She replied. 'if you want one try Ebay or Amazon'. So the man did, and in America over the pond there were several but postage was an arm and a leg and the man couldn't pay. So sadley he turned to Amazon and there was his tank, and the postage was affordable. The man sent for the tank only for the day it should have arrived it had got lost in the post. Amazon said it was unable to deliver the parcel and it was returned to sender. The man was heartbroken. His wife got back onto Amazon and said the seller is still showing one left, I'll send for it ~ next day delivery. The man got up early and paced the home waiting for his precious present. At last it arrived, the man had his tank. Suddenly his wife said 'don't forget that's your birthday present for August'. The man smiled. This story is totally true for I am that man and here is a picture of the tank. With special thanks to my friend Grumpy Gnome who without I would not have found this tank.
The Tale of a Grumpy Gnome and the Last Tank.
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A moving tale, even to a Grumpy Gnome. Glad to see you happy mate!
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@Grumpy Gnome Couldn`t be more so, my mate, can`t belive Object 279. I was dying to tell you then thought, no have a laugh, tell the story . Must be 45? plus year that I saw her, technolegy for finding things was so crap in those days, even when it improved, I was convinced for some reason she was Swedish like their "S" tank. Your blog was the first sighting Its been a pleasure to see her on U- Tube driving around, and that shes to be restored. Any way bye for now Eileens calling, take care "Grumpy" old mate. Cheers Geoff.
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What a lovely story, and so well written! Being another gamer and collector who has more grey than anything else now, and having returned to our glorious hobby after illness this resonates deeply with me and shows just how generous our hobby can be... well done chaps 😍
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@Bill Thomas Pleased to meet you, thank you, I`m glad you liked the story. As you may have seen in other posts I`ve been out of modeling and forums for along time. I made some very big changes in my life, and hobby wise, to go along with my health. Like us all, I`d brought to much over the years, and being an extrader, made it a bit worse. So at least 97% of my hobby went. books. models, figures. rules the lot, all I kept. were Shadowrun all items, Dinosaurs, Fantasy in 1/56th scale and Eisenkern the New. Now I buy Rubicon, 1/56 th scale items, and thats it. One scale, one lot of buildings,when the new Modern figures from WA come out that will restart the ball rolling.
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@Geoff Maybury and pleased to meet you good sir, albeit virtually... I was completely out of games and models for many, many years but due to a serious illness I was laid up for almost a year, in and out of surgery :( One of my friends gave me a couple of models to make to keep me occupied and BOOM!... I was back into things. Seeing wonderful posts like this, and knowing I am amongst kindred spirits makes it even better, and the world a slightly better place :)
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@Bill Thomas Cheers, yes I can really relate to your coments above. when illness brings you low,its supriseing how pleasent it is to get in some modelling, and use this forum, and I don`t Know about you but i think that we need both in our lives. The fun of building and painting, also the comunication if only as you say virtually. We moved house for the last time, then covid hit, the friends and neighbours we left behind, sadlly became left, and only the ocasional phone calls conected us. At our ages we are not yet totally comfortable with crowds, in fact we had our first real restaurant meal monday. Covid as made our world much more closed down for our ages, and we are still decideing on attending Wargame shows. I`m glad you are pleased with this forum, hope to have many more chates over the time I think this forum will be a laugh and brain food for us all, as well as grand "Eye Candy" like Object 279.
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@Mark Dewis Yep, and did you see it`s running, and having a full make over, brilliant.
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@Geoff Maybury been checking out all your "Iron Core" posts and loving them :) I bought the first new box set and fell in love with the aesthetic, so I can see this an area that I'll be following for sure! Right now though I'm pursuing the elusive AS42 Italian desert vehicle in the right-ish scale as I have a great collection already of the Atlas WWII vehicles in 1:43... those seem to scale nicely with the current crop of "28mm" figures so, like you, I'm on the hunt for a somewhat elusive fighting vehicle 😆
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I seem to recall there were two versions of the Sahariana in 1/43 commonly available on eBay in Germany.
https://www.ebay.de/itm/133924278548
https://www.ebay.de/itm/384168260165?hash=item5972367245:g:sxgAAOSw2LBgoT1m
And a third version that I can not seem to currently find on the German eBay.
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@Grumpy Gnome thank you, that's the very fellow... I'd seen the first one which is a good price, but shipping to the UK is (as always at the moment!) very expensive... they seem to be coming up more regularly now so perhaps my timing is good for once 😊
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Yeah, Brexit has really made postage a nightmare. I used to be able to source things regularly in the UK but now postage just puts too many things out of reach for my budget.
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@Grumpy Gnome
That's odd. I've not noticed any real increase in postage or delivery times myself. Maybe it's a UK/US thing that doesn't affect UK/Australia. i.e. might be a USPS thing and not the fault of Royal Mail.
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Well, take for example having to pay VAT now on some things coming from the UK to Germany, including gifts. Ebay is now 20% more expensive and that does not include the usual 6 Euro handling fee that comes most of the time as well. I used to buy sprues from Slogger777 on ebay regularly but not anymore.
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@Grumpy Gnome @Bill Thomas Rubicon are going to town on this vehicle, at this moment and it looks as if she will be a real bueaty, in perfect 1/56th scale. See all the tech drawings and details, on the Rubicon Comunity ffacebook page surch Sahariana.
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@Geoff Maybury yup, seen and it looks lovely with all the weapon options but I fear it will be too small for the rest of my collection :( @Grumpy Gnome I feel ya as I buy sprues from Slogger too... darn shipping and taxes are a killer now when I try to order outside the UK...
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@Grumpy Gnome Really? Yeah, that 20% VAT would make a big difference. Essentially I get my North Star and Perry orders around retail price because postage ends up being slightly more than the VAT I don't pay.
If the issue is UK -> EU -> US, your best bet is to order direct from UK, even if it used to be cheaper the other way.
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I am a Yank living in Germany now after living in the UK for a decade.
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Ah, gotcha. So I get a better deal by living in Australia...
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Surprising but yeah potentially. Before Brexit buying from the UK was not much different from buying online within Germany. Now it is like buying from the US for me. Despite being a Yank myself as a civilian I have no advantages when it comes to getting things posted from the States.
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@Grumpy Gnome Considering it wasn`t suposed to mess thing up to bad, postage as been a big kick in prices. If i want small items from Bad Robot, postage is 3x the item price, so no sale. Every thing is becomming tunneled, in country buying.
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@Grumpy Gnome what about organising a mailing address somewhere handy that isn't in the EU, like Swizerland or Norway, that you could visit occasionally? They might have their own sales tax issues, but it might be worth checking out. Wouldn't have to be a mailbox if you can locate a friend happy to take delivery.
Of course, I guess you could do the same with someone in the UK...
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Even gifts sent by friends in the UK have gotten hit by 20% VAT. Brexit has made it expensive for us to send gifts to each other.
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@Grumpy Gnome Was gonna sugest me what a pain, sorry mate.
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Cheers mate, I appreciate that. One cannot escape death or taxes.
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