Saturday 17 May 2014

The little T-34 who dreamt of something else...

Once upon a time, There was a little T-34 Revell kit laying unfinished in it`s box. It has layed untouched for many many years. One day, it`s Owner discovered a wonderful rules set for world war II gaming; Chain of Command (link). Thus was sparked a renewed interest for the period. It was a golden age of modelling; Germans were completed, Russians were too, and many many figures were converted to represent the myriad devices playable in this new game.

But the little T-34 remained in it`s box. Until the day where three more T-34 came in the house. Three superb kits from Plastic Soldier Company, all new and resplendent in their simplicity. Those kits were built rapidly, without any problem, and wonderful they were.

Our Little T-34 was then taken out from it`s box, and layed down on the table, in it`s current state.
The other three T-34 laughed at him, because of his huge gaps and crooked tracks.

-"Look! this old kit has separated links for his tracks!!! hahaha! they can never be assembled right", said the tank with the commander assembled unbuttoned, who obviously was the leader of the group.
-"And look at the gap in the front of it`s hull! I think it is the best that can be done with this obsolete kit!", laughed the second tank, who had the privilege of having a tarp sculpted on it`s hull in putty.

The little T-34 looked down, and cried silently... "it`s true", he said, "I can never be assembled properly. I am doomed to be confined to my box for all time, or worse... be converted to scenery".

-"OH!! Guys!!! look at that!!!" said the third tank.
The little tank looked on the ground, next to him, and his eyes widened in shock. Still on the sprue was one tiny bit of detailing that Revell had kept separated, probably to increase the pieces count on the box. It was one of the strips that adorned the side of all T-34 hulls... his strips were not sculpted on the main body... they were separate. 

"This is it", the little tank though, "that will be the last drop... I am doomed".

It`s owner probably had reached the same conclusion, because at that point he roughly thrown the little T-34 back in it`s box, along with nearly all his plastic sprues. But when he was handling the last of the sprues, the owner paused. He put back his glasses on, and inspected a piece that had been unnoticed before. he cliped it from the sprue.
His eyes bright with excitement, the Owner jumped from his chair and went to the computer, where he spent the next few minutes researching the piece he had just discovered. It was the gun mount of something else. It was not a piece that was anywhere in the plan for the T-34. It was a piece that was meant to another kit, but was left on by Revell for budget reasons!!!

The owner jumped back in his chair, and grabbed the little tank, and much to the little one`s surprise, started to cut him and chop him, until only part of his body remained.
The Owner continued to work, with a larger and larger smile. He even got out the remaining pieces of three plastic soldier company tanks, and lovingly applied them to the little tank. And in the end, not for any historical accuracy, but only for the act itself, purely for the sake of it, the Owner detached two of the detailing strips that had angered him earlier and applied them to the side of the little tank`s new hull.
And there he was; the little ugly tank had turned into a magnificent SU-85, using the spare 85mm gun that came in it`s original box. The three T-34/76 looked in amazement at his huge weapon, and dared not say anything else, not even the leader. The same night, the four Russian vehicles were painted buy the Owner; and are now sitting on his shelf. 

The little T-34; now SU-85 is still different from the other tanks, but now he embrace his difference, and is proud of it!
The End.

No plastic tank were hurt during the making of this story. The only real victim has been the English language. Seriously guys, I apologise to all English speaker, I really struggle with the "fairy tale past tense", among other grammatical subjects...

I will publish a lot more pictures of my venture into WWII in 1/72 in the next few days/weeks.

3 comments:

  1. Cute. At least you're having fun, and that's what counts.

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  2. That was a brilliant wee tale! Thanks!

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  3. Awwwwww such a sweet little story!

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