Saturday 19th, to be precise. My dad was about to undergo a double hernia op, which was a major thing then resulting in a week in hospital and about a month of recovery. Nowadays, you are in and out in a day but I digress…
The important thing is me, and more so as I would have my 10th birthday while dad was under the knife, so he took me to Addlestone for maximum scamming - whoops! - to choose some presents. I came away with a Matchbox He111 and a box each of the new 1/76 infantry (two German, though - dad did not want to be outnumbered). The one surprise present, though, was the Airfix LCM and Sherman. The LCM has long gone, but the Sherman survives in all its mid-80s Guards Armoured upgrade glory!
The hatch was modelled open as the Matchbox British had a tank commander and he needed a mount. So this is 50 years old and a bit fragile, but I still have my original Sherman which is probably 4 years older!
My dad built the Airfix stuff, but I had a crack at the He111. I did very well apart from not painting the pilots, which was my dad’s first comment when I showed him my magnificent effort. It was high praise indeed if you received a ‘Hmm. s’alright’.
Anyway, I’ll be jumping forward in time to 1983 again for my next post, with yet another holiday and my increasingly fertile teenage wargaming mind (helped by Keren Woodward from Bananarama).
