Did anyone else love this set in the early days

[Babelfish]

I used to enjoy a visit to Marcway Models on Attercliffe Road in Sheffield when I was a youngster in the 70s ..... I can remember buying Tamiya's then-new 1/35 StuG III kit from there one Saturday afternoon in 1972, & my Mum took me to the Zing Va Chinese restaurant on The Moor for a slapup feed afterwards. Happy days!

Unbelievably, Marcway on Attercliffe Road is still there. They used to have an second shop off the bottom of the Moor, but that closed years ago.

I remember Zing Va as well, back when Chinese restaurants were considered "exotic" .

- Steve

 

[Jed]

I started figures after I was given one by the owner of (no longer there) The Bedworth Model and Art Supplies shop when I were a lad, I then went through pretty much all of the Airfix 54mm and 1/32 multipose sets

 

[Blind Pew]

Haha ... Beatties of Pinstone Street in Sheffield was my local money-pit back then.

I had the kneeling squad leader and the artillery officer (in classic "pointing German" pose). In fact the latter was still knocking around somewhere until relatively recently (last 10 years or so).

Do you remember The Manchester Model Shop on Deansgate? I used to call in there in the mid-to-late '90s (possibly also into the early '00s) for my Verlinden fix on my once or twice annually journeys between Manchester Airport and Sheffield (I was living in Germany at the time).

I was most vexed one time when I went over and found that it had turned into a Turkish fast food joint. A sad end indeed.

- Steve

It all went wrong when it turned into a 'Model Zone' and basically became an overpriced toy shop.

But don't diss the Topkapi Kebab House! They make their own sauce, which is excellent. It's next door anyway.

 

[Kevin Gibbons]

Old dioramas in 1/35... Still have a couple that somehow survived almost intact to several house moves...

Such as these two:

View attachment 350975


Back then for these two I made those transparent acrylic covers, which obviously are the main reason why they have survived all these years!


The small vignette on the right on the other hand, not having a closed protection has suffered some incidents and has already been repaired a few times (at least after each house move...) :

View attachment 350976

The Soviet T-34/85 tank on the left is obviously not a building kit but a fully painted "toy".


A couple more old pics of the two main dioramas above (this one, the 1st large one I ever did, I called it "Ambush", and it obviously depicts an ambush by French Partisans on a group of Germans crossing a river near Cherbourg in 1942) :

View attachment 350977

View attachment 350978

The bridge was fully scratchbuild using plaster. The river was made using some epoxy resin or something of that kind-

Actually there's even a pack of dynamite under the bridge, that one of the Partisans is about to detonate, so this is like if it was a picture taken right before the big boom


View attachment 350979


The other one, entitled "Falaise", depicts a group of Germans on the famous Falaise pocket, during the Battle of Falaise in 1944, on a brief moment of rest.
View from above:

View attachment 350980

Some scratchbuilding on this one as well...

View attachment 350981

View attachment 350982


Up-closes of the small vignette:

View attachment 350983

View attachment 350984

View attachment 350985



It brings back old memories indeed! I just wish I could still have sharp eyes and firm hands as some 30-40 years ago...

Can't remember exactly who the manufacturer(s) of these figures is/are, but most likely Tamiya and/or Esci. I probably still have the empty original boxes somewhere in the attic, together with a few of these kits that I ended up never building.

Thanks for bringing back those happy memories, guys


Cheers!

Dolf

Loved the old Tamiya kits when I was a kid

 

[Chris Oldfield]

If you went round the corner from Attercliffe Road after Marcways, there was a bridge over the River Don, & I always remember the river was bright orange there because of all the chemicals from the steelworks which were being pumped into it! Bet it isn't that colour any more though.....

 

[Jed]

Hers an Airfix one in my stash