Hope yet for African Queen gunboat on Lake Tanganyika

Ships don't come with much more historical ballast than the MV Liemba. The steamer still shudders and belches its way across Lake Tanganyika every Wednesday and Friday, a century after it was built as a warship in Germany. Link to BBC web site for the full story.
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Poll - Is a Games Workshop Finecast resin figure good value for money at £10 ?

Two days ago I blogged about the new Games Workshop (GW) resin (not plastic as I posted) Finecast figures. I'm not a GW hater, I've bought loads of their figures over the years, but I feel that at £10 per figure these are outrageously overpriced. Anyway, chatting to my old friend John Elwen last night, he mentioned that there was comment about the new resin figures in the GW 2011 Annual Report. So after walking my dog, I went in search on the net, and found the report in question and the commentary, elements of which I reproduce here from Page 4:

"Compared to their metal cousins resin models are far easier to assemble, are lighter and less prone to chipping and are much easier to convert with a hobby knife and superglue. Crucially, resin miniatures provide a much higher level of detail for the customer. The reaction of customers and staff to Citadel Finecast has been overwhelmingly positive."

Personally I'm not convinced by the PR guff in the report. My own experience of resin being that small pieces with fine detail are notoriously brittle and susceptible to damage. Anyway, I have started a Poll which I will leave open for a month.
The exam question is 'Do you think £10 for a GW single Finecast resin figure is good value for money ?'
Please vote, I'm interested to see whether I'm totally out of touch on this one.
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Post Poll Note: Thanks to those who voted on the poll I ran. Out of 43 votes, 1 person thought £10 for a figure was good value, 2 were not sure, and 40 thought thought that it was a rip-off !

Frustration At The Vulture's Roost

Large amounts of frustration here at the Vulture's Roost. On Monday I took the truck's Generator and Voltage Regulator through to an auto-electricians in Peterborough called C J Parkinsons (due to the problem mentioned on the 20th) to get them sorted. See photo of the Regulator below.
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I was hoping to have them back yesterday, but the forecast is now Tuesday :(
The weather has been rubbish here the last couple of days, so the opportunity to change the brake hose has been limited as well. So I'm stuck with 5.1 tons of soggy immobile WW2 truck compacting my tarmac. (sigh)

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On the upside we've been playing Carcassonne, which is without doubt a top family board game. If you haven't got a copy, I highly recommend you get one.









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Games Workshop - Unimpressed

Yesterday my son and I visited our local Games Workshop in Peterborough and picked up a Tau Empire Battleforce box set.
It's quite a while since I've been in there, and I must confess I was slightly shocked at the prices they are now charging, and surprised that they have now done away with all the individual blistered metal figures. I thought the single plastic figured blisters that have replaced them were outrageously priced at £10. V unimpressed...
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Ramsey 1940 Weekend

This weekend a village close to where I live called Ramsey is hosting a 1940's weekend. I had hoped to take my 1944 CCKW 352 truck along, but sadly they already have over 200 vintage/historic vehicles booked in, and have no space left. I shall still go along anyway, but just as a normal member of the public. The weather looks like it will be fine this weekend, so hopefully I'll get some get photos which I'll post later. Talking of the truck its been an expensive week at this end with over the purchase of £190 worth of parts (oil filter, 6 x flexible brake hoses and springs, generator repair kit, and spare brake and grease nipples). The two main issues I need to resolve at the moment are:
1. A brake hose on the drivers front which has a small bulge in it,

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2. The generator which is not charging the battery.

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I hope to get both sorted in the coming week.
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Iron Age road link to Iceni tribe

A suspected Iron Age road, made of timber and preserved in peat for 2,000 years, has been uncovered by archaeologists in East Anglia.

The site, excavated in June, may have been part of a route across the River Waveney and surrounding wetland at Geldeston in Norfolk, say experts.

Causeways were first found in the area in 2006, during flood defence work at the nearby Suffolk village of Beccles.

It is thought the road is pre-Roman, built by the local Iceni tribe.

See the BBC web site for more info. Link
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Ex Iraqi tank that caused chaos at Bovington

Whilst browsing the Historic Military Vehicle Forum (HMVF) I came across this old (but interesting) news about an ex Iraqi tank that caused some chaos at Bovington. Link
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RAF airman blogging from Afghanistan's front line

There is an interesting article about an RAF man on tour in Afgan who has set up a Blog that has had over 80,000 hits thus far.
Link to the article.
Link to his Blog.
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Military & Flying Machines Show - 7 Aug 2011

Yesterday I went to the Military & Flying Machines Show near Upminster organised by the Military Vehicle Trust (MVT). With flying displays, 200 military vehicles and 30 plus groups of Re-enactors, plus Militaria stalls, it felt like a scaled down version of the War And Peace Show. Personally that suited me fine, as War And Peace is such a big event, to do it justice you need to be there a couple of days. The Upminster event was large enough to show a bit of everything without wearing you out in the process. I thoroughly enjoyed the day, and will certainly consider going back next year, probably with my GMC 352. Here is a short video I took of the armour in attendance. The video does not do justice to the condition of the M18 Hellcat which was simply stunning.
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Talking of the 352, when it rained here last week the cab roof leaked as did one of the doors. I plan to sort the door out in the short term, but in the interim I bought an old army tent for £15 at the show, and have draped it over the cab.
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GMC Purchase Completed !!

Well guys, after a couple of weeks delay whilst the previous owner sorted a few things out I finally got my WW2 truck. GMC CCKW 352B1 Registration Number WSU147 all 5.1 tons of her is parked up occupying a large part of my drive.
The adventure started last Friday evening when I caught the train from Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire up to Knaresborough and stayed with my old school friend Chris Jenkins. Up early on the Saturday morning his long suffering wife Diane took the pair of us over to the little village of Hunmanby (near Filey) for 08:00 where we met with the owner David and his brother-in-law Stuart Kinroy (also a 352 owner). The truck had been moved from when I first saw it into a open barn. My first thought was 'Holly shit I am never going to fit this on my drive and be able to get into the garage. Julie is gonna kill me!' more on this later however... After a final look round the truck David and I shook hands on the deal, cash was exchanged, and we went an organised a Tax disc in the local post office. Due to it being classed as a historic vehicle it is tax and MOT exempt, but notwithstanding that, a Tax disc still has to be obtained and displayed. Stuart then took me out for a driving lesson during which I dropped a £ 100 worth of fuel into the trucks 40 gallon tank. On the narrow bumpy roads around Hunmanby driving the truck for the first time was quite an alien experience. To start with I'm on the wrong side of the cab (left hand drive), a lot higher than normal; the steering wheel is huge and due to the size of the tyre side wall there is lots of play in the steering; as there is no sound proofing there is lots of noise, the gearbox is crash one, so I'm having to double-de-clutch which I've never done before and furthermore the layout of the gears is not like a conventional car. Put all this together plus the sheer size of the vehicle and the large turning circle required to manoeuvre and I'm starting to think 'What the hell have I done here !' Anyway, at 10:15 we were ready to set off, and in the photo below shows Chris, David and I just before Chris and I left his house.
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To get home we had decided upon a route which took us south across country towards Driffield, where we could get on the main roads, and cross the Humber Bridge. What a total nightmare we had for those 15 miles across country! Dodging traffic, and trying to get to grips with the gearbox made for an exciting time to say the least. Getting into top gear was a real problem until we worked out the ideal speed at which to change. All I can say is, its a good thing they made those gearboxes tough, for it got some real abuse.
Eventually we made it to the main road, and things became easier, and we could maintain a higher top speed, although it quickly became apparent that the most comfortable cruising speed was between 35 and 37mph. In theory you can go up to 45mph with an engine governor limiting you at that point, but in practice there is so much suspension shake 41mph was the most we touched.
Now the truck was thoroughly warmed up we could start to appreciate the heating system in the cab, however this system is different to modern ones, in that you can't turn it off ! LOL Heat radiated through the floor, and was blown up though various openings for levers, an especially by your right leg, which over a period of time gets slowly cooked ! LOL
Anyway, after collecting several big queues of traffic behind us and stopping a couple of times to left people pass we made it to the Humber bridge where we stopped for a quick change over.
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And then we crossed it...

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Heading towards Lincoln we stopped for a quick break and to grab an sandwich. A further check round the truck revealed that the we had a slight leak of brake fluid from the front n/s wheel. We tracked this down to the flexible brake hose that needed tightening. Without a manual at this stage I couldn't find the brake reservoir to check the level, no sign of anything remotely resembling such a thing in the engine compartment. A quick call to Stuart remedied this puzzle. You access it from a small cover plate in the cab floor, obvious really eh ? (not).
We then pushed on opting to take the long route round Lincoln rather than fight our way through it, and joined the A1 near Newark. A stop for some extra fuel was required (another £ 50), then we cruised home arriving in Warboys at 17:15.
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Safety parked up on the drive, it was a relief to find that I hadn't miscalculated and I can get to my garage! :)
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Here's a couple of photos of the family by it for the first time.
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In the evening we all went down to see my parents and my brother Bruce and his family who were over visiting. My little nephew Toby was quite impressed.
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My mother and father were pretty non-plussed it had to be said ! LOL Bruce who has recently fully restored his Triumph Stag took great delight in a supportative brotherly kind of way, by crawling over it and pointing out lots of stuff that needs attention ! LOL
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My thanks to Chris for his support and encouragement during what was to say the least, quite a memorable day.
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Now to have some fun with it... :)
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