Packages galore!

Yesterday brought out some of the holiday spirit in me, after having received 4 packages during the course of the day. One thing I can never fathom is the complete inability of the mail services to keep a schedule. All 4 came from the UK, mailed between the 28th of February and the 10th of March, to arrive at my doorstep on the 17th. And they did not all come in with the same postie, no......1 was dropped off by TNT Parcel service, 2 were in the regular mail handed to security team where I work and the 4th was delivered by a courier. Yet they all had the same UK stamp on em. Go figure. I'm happy they made it though, sadly my Doms Decals order is still in limbo somewhere.

First package had the mother of all dents in it, a nice cube shaped box with 1 tip caved in like someone had hit it with a mallet. This contained 2nd hand resin vehicles so you can imagine what I felt while unpacking them. By some sheer stroke of luck that side of the package had been filled up with foam, so fortunately nothing was busted up and I ended up with 1 Saxon (looks like a RH Models one), 3 S&S BTR-80's, one with the remote cannon on top, a S&S SHilka, 2 BTR-60's and 3 UAZ jeeps, all from RH Models. I've been particularly keen to get the UAZ jeeps for my Iraqi's and Russians. I removed the cardboard bases from all and dunked them in bags filled with Muscle Ovencleaner. I've managed to remove most of the paint off them so they should be good to go soon.

Second package was a big bubble wrap package from S&S, containing 2 of the new Stalwarts, a pack of Afghan civillians, a M577, a Acco cab and American modern light truck whose name escapes me.That and the Acco cab are for the 2012 Africa Big Game, to be painted as civillians, the M577 will go to my Iranians, the Stalwarts to my motly collection of Brits that I will propably never game with (well, maybe some Twilight 2000 stuff) and the Afghan civillians are a what the heck purchase as I had then just finished the BRDM-2 rocket battery conversion. Which reminds me I need to get cracking on the 2nd conversion. All cleaned and washed, some built, the Stalwart is standing next to me and I'm wondering if I'm going to cover the back with a tarp or make a slot in base loaded with fuel, parts and what not. Propably the latter, more fun and more me :)

3rd package was from Maelstrom Games. I ordered here every month for the last 9 months, just to get the Wargames Illustrated and Vallejo paints. (You can't get that from them anymore so ordered up the same items from Wayland Games, who, 2 weeks on, still have my order as Waiting for Stock <sigh>) This time I used the discount coupn to get some more campaign books for CY6!, namely the Gualdacanal: Cactus Air Force and Breaking the Luftwaffe. Next time around I will propably pick up the Med and France campaign books. Won't be gaming that soon I'm afraid but good to read and get ideas and motivation from to finish more aircraft.

4th package was from Grubby Tanks. I keep being amazed how he manages to deliver so quickly while so many take such a long time. Not a big order though, a 57mm gun so I can convert my M3 75mm into a Russian one, a few FJ with a sneaky 5th Columnist Yank Paratrooper sneaked in, a Russian horse drawn cart, a 20mm flak gun and a M5 Stuart from Brtitannia as the item that I wanted wasn't available. I do hope Britannia will become available again but time will tell. The minor problem with the Yank para will be resolved in my nex order, Grubby has excellent customer service.

Everything has been checked and sorted now, so now I can go back to doing what I should be doing today; sorting kit and putting it up for sale.

(and not ordering this, and that and then some.....)