Mr Graves and Mr Tannen

Mr Graves and Mr Tannen work well together, one passing the other anyone that they cannot deal with themselves.

Mr Tannen - Neverborn Enforcer

Mr Tannen does not look like much, an elderly man wandering the casino. But Woe betide anyone who attracts his attention.

He does have a nasty little pocket knife for those moments when bad luck is not enough.

Mr Graves - Neverborn Enforcer

Mr Graves and Mr Tannen both appear to be human, but are actually Neverborn Mimics.

Mr Graves is not the brightest of creatures, but is rarely found without a proverbial blunt instrument.

He is quite often found in the company of Mr Tannen, who chats enough for both of them.

The pair remind me of Mr Croup and Mr Vandemar, two assassins for hire who haunt the passages of "London Below" in "Neverwhere".

Tiger IIs at The Tank Museum

The Tank Museum two Tiger II tanks, one with the original turret and one with the production turret.

This is the production turret, with the flat front plate to the turret. Interestingly, this one has Zimmerit covering on the sides of the hull and the turret.

Detail on the skirt.

This is a Tiger II with the original turret design.

It was designed to fit both the Porsche design of the Tiger II and the successful Henschel design. The design had both production and ballistic issues.

This was a prototype, hence the lack of Zimmerit.

Warlord Tiger II - part two

This kit was a bit of a bind to assemble.

There are no real assistance in the assembly of the turret (well the one that was originally intended for the "Porsche" version). You have to balance the four sides and the top and the bottom.

The alignment wedges used to align the running gear with the hull do not slot together properly, the holes are slightly too small and require opening out. On the other hand the D shaped pegs on the periscopes allow 360 degree rotation and the gun barrels can rotate by about 10 degrees.

The exhaust options are limited, lacking the surrounds found on examples in use in Normandy.

The  zimmerit covering on the hull and turret sides sets the production date to pre-September 1944, when it was discontinued.

Now the weather just needs to improve enough for it to be undercoated.

Warlord Tiger II - part one

I bought the Warlord King Tiger (Tiger II or Koenig Tiger) kit at The Gameskeeper last year.

The kit comes in a standard Warlord box with three sprues.

 There are two complete turrets in the kit, but the finished model can only use one or the other.

Grizzling... The M4A1 Grizzly - Southsea

Back in 2016 I visited the D-Day museum in Southsea.

Outside the museum there is an M4A1 Grizzly and a Churchill Crocodile.

You can see the cast in thickened armour (under the star and the maple leaf) on the right hand side.