Larkin Logistics

[Nick]

This week I has mostly been building an halftrack. It's from Plastic Soldier Company in the esteemed gentleman's scale of 23mm or 1/72. It actually came from a Halftrack GB in my club where each of us got one of these kits and a deadline of tonight (which has now moved to next week thanks to the Tube strike).

I didn't fancy trying to do the same as everyone else (Olive Green, White Star, uber detailing    ) so I done mine for The Darling Buds of May, the wonderful book series by HE Bates and a pair of enjoyable TV series. Set in rural Kent in the 1950s, Pop Larkin is a wheeler dealer farmer and scrap merchant with fingers in every pie. The family vehicle is a 30cwt truck in faded Gentian Blue - I've changed it to an M5 Halftrack.



As you can see it has very few parts and most of it clicks together to make a very sturdy model for wargaming. The other sprue has extra troops, luggage and weapons. Needs a bit of shaving and encouragement to get it all together nicely. If you build one be sure to fit the hood before fixing the front bumper/winch and play a little with the tracks as they don't quite fit under the chassis. Not sure what the round things on the side are, ammo cans maybe.
I cut off part of the drivers helmet to make it resemble a flat cap and used putty to fill out the passengers legs like a dress. Still looks like a steel helmet in pink though.

*********

Pop and Ma Larkin are off to the Village Fete. Ma is wearing the latest fashionable pink outfit with matching hat from Paris to show up the Ladies from the WI. Pop is wearing his new cap and matching scarf. He bought the lot for a bargain from a chap in the pub who works in a big store up London way.
The Village Fete is a Very Big Deal this year and Pop knows just how to keep the Parish Council on his side and turning a blind eye to any 'unofficial' activities he might be up to.
He's providing some nice new benches for the village green which in no way look like they came from one of those recently closed stations nearby.
The new bins for the rubbish may or may not have fallen off the back of the Canterbury City Council wagon. And the oil drums will fuel up the councillors motorcars in a most certainly legitimate (taxfree) way.
But not the green drum. That's full of Larkin Legless, a home brew cider made mostly with apples. Don't spill any on the paintwork. 4d a cup, served by the delectable Mariette. 



It's nearly done. I just need to glue in the cargo and write Larkin on the front. And create a nice base.

[Rheged]

"Hark, the greenwoods laugh"  at this H E Bates inspired beauty.  If Larkin's Legless is similar to some home-crafted cider I drank at an event 5 years ago, space will be needed in the vehicle to take the inebriate quaffers home!      I think this is "perfik"  as Pop would say.

[zenrat]

Very good.

Could the round things be spare road wheels?

[loupgarou]

Very good.

Could the round things be spare road wheels?

No,those were mines in real life.

[loupgarou]

Sorry, I disagree. I will have to dig out (tomorrow,now is midnight) the half-track specifications.

[loupgarou]

It's enough to check on wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M3_half-track

go down to "Design":
 In 1942, the vehicles were fitted with small racks for land mines on the outside of the hull, just above the tracks.

May I also point out that, as the tracks were essentially a rubber band, it did damage/wear much quicker that the steel wheels, so, what could be the need for a whole series of spare weels?

[loupgarou]

It's not "my" assertion, it's what the data say.

[Old Wombat]

Why is it that Ma Larkins' millinery reminds me so starkly of a Brodie helmet?

[Rick Lowe]

Yup, landmines is what they are/were.

I've often thought those Plastic Soldier vehicles would be well worth a go... getting them here at a reasonable price in postage would be the trick... 

Nice job. 

[Nick]

FINISHED!

Here's the final article. And yes Rick, these kits are very good if you can get them. If only international shipping wasn't so expensive..

Why is it that Ma Larkins' millinery reminds me so starkly of a Brodie helmet?

Because I couldn't make flowers small enough to hide its actual shape.... 

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In the early 1950s there was a rare breed of English entrepreneur, the country farmer. Known for an ability to make cash wherever and whenever it was possible out of whatever was available.

The main proponent of this was one Pa Larkin. Famously written about by HE Bates, Larkin was known for generosity, business acumen and his large family. Often seen dashing about the fields and lanes of rural Kent in his pale blue..... M3 Halftrack.
He got this in a dubious deal with a US Army quartermaster involving some old suits of armour, paintings said to be by Constable and Turner, an antique bed supposedly slept in by King Henry VIII and a glass or two of his scrumpy.

Here we see Pa taking Ma Larkin out for a run to the shops. On the way back he'll be delivering his cargo - benches for the local park, dustbins for the new council houses and some fuel drums. The green one actually holds local scrumpy for the village fete 





M3 Halftrack by Plastic Soldier Company. Benches, drums and dustbins from various model railway sets. 1/72 scale.

[PR19_Kit]

BRILLIANT idea Nick. 

[NARSES2]

Well done Nick 

[Rick Lowe]

Very nice, well done. 

[Wardukw]

What a little cutie Nick and the Larkins is a big fave of my mums 
Lovely little build matey