First February Post - A Reiver and a Truck

 One more mounted Reiver exits the painting table tonight - the remaining four will be completed quite soon too. In addition, I share a few images of the recently converted Matchbox Yesteryear truck that I mentioned in my previous post

The dismounted version of this Reiver was painted some time ago - he is included just as reference to the mounted incarnation

Several close ups from various angles follow...

Here is an image of the original model. If we are being technically accurate, its not actually a Matchbox Yesteryear model at all - its made by Lledo in the UK, who produced a range of "promotional" vintage vehicles like this in the 80's I believe - the guy who ran it was surnamed Odell (Lledo was his surname reversed) and he had previously worked for Matchbox as lead designer of the Yesteryear range - or something like that! If you are sufficiently interested, please Google for more info.

I removed the milk churns, undercoated it with black spray paint and then used a brush to repaint it. The figure is from Eureka in Oz and is part of the Maximillian 1934 range. She was added prior to the spray painting - in fact, like the staff car and driver, this truck has been sitting on my painting desk with the MG gunner attached for quite some time! A little trick I learned on the staff car was that the rubberised tyres are removable, which I did prior to the spray painting - and I left them off until the bodywork had been completed.

Here is the vehicle with a Copplestone command base to give an indication of scale

And followed by a few shots from different angles

I am happy with how this model has come out - I think the gunner fits into position very naturally.

Finally, as its now a couple of weeks since our last bush walk, here are images of the first day of a weekend in Rotorua, being Saturday 22 Jan.

A rather remote entrance way off the side of the main road from Tirau to Rotorua

There were several decidedly rough bits of terrain, where the correct pathway was not entirely obvious

My dear wife let me lead at these points - probably so that if we took a wrong turn, she had an appropriate person to blame!

Fortunately, we made it to the correct destination, and as a bonus, I managed to avoid falling in any streams this time!

Walk two was in the Redwoods park within the boundary of Rotorua itself - very different looking environment from the morning excursion

Above - view from the highpoint, out over Lake Rotorua. 

Below, looking up at the high point from which the previous image was taken

In the evening we went to the so called "Eat Street" and picked a very nice Indian restaurant to dine in

After dinner we took a stroll along the lake front

And ended our evening up at the Government Gardens

Next post will likely include the images taken on the Sunday. Thanks for persevering - thats it for tonight!