OK, let’s get this one out in the open, well away from the closet…yes, it’s true, I like playing with toys – not just big boys’ toys like power tools etc (and in all honesty, most of them are Carmen’s!) and well over the guns thing now, but toys…model planes, tanks, ships, spacecraft, whatever – if it’s different in shape or markings or something, I’ll probably like it…

So yet another package arrived this week, much to Carmen’s ongoing disgust and eye-rolling (Honey, are you ever going to finish one?), all the way from the Ukraine and inside were (have a look at the Papermodelers site while you’re there):

Orel 1/100 Zhelezniakov I really love these big Russian river monitors – big and ugly and lots of guns…

Orel 1/33 Pe-3 This was just a stocking filler to maximise the postage costs but it still big and different and comes with guns and bombs…

Orel 1/33 Ilya Murometz This has always fascinated me – at a time when most other nations were trying to get planes with one engine and a couple of hand grenades for payload in the air, the Russians were doing this. It strikes me just now that this would look good alongside the latest Russian 4-engined bomber the mighty Blackjack which I also have in 1/33 – now if only someone would do a Pe-8…

Have a look and maybe be enlightened – it’s something else I do…. there’ve been some really interesting entries on both the CAC COIN and Strategist blogs this week, regarding the core elements of leadership and what makes an army great. Although I have given a lot of thought to this subject (which may or may not be evident in my posts in these blogs), I’d like to expand further on the topic here but this will need to wait until the weekend when I have a little more time on my hands to structure my thoughts…

On the home front, the rimu spiral is in and looks great – although the current geography of the house makes it a little difficult to get a good picture of it – will be a lot easier once we (Carmen) chainsaw the front door out…Feral the Cat loves it probably because the dogs don’t…The man-cave move started today so will hope to see progress when I get home tonight…have visitors and twins this weekend…uh-oh…

PS Scale Model Expo 2009 is on in Wellington 5-6 Sep – go and have a look…