Cartoon Wednesday

 

D-Day, 80th Anniversary

 Order of the Day, June 6, 1944

SUPREME HEADQUARTERS

ALLIED EXPEDITIONARY FORCE

Soldiers, Sailors, and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force!

You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hope and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you. In company with our brave Allies and brothers-in-arms on other Fronts, you will bring about the destruction of the German war machine, the elimination of Nazi tyranny over the oppressed peoples of Europe, and security for ourselves in a free world.

Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well equipped and battle-hardened. He will fight savagely.

But this is the year 1944! Much has happened since the Nazi triumphs of 1940-41. The United Nations1 have inflicted upon the Germans great defeats, in open battle, man-to-man. Our air offensive has seriously reduced their strength in the air and their capacity to wage war on the ground. Our Home Fronts have given us an overwhelming superiority in weapons and munitions of war, and placed at our disposal great reserves of trained fighting men. The tide has turned! The free men of the world are marching together to Victory!

I have full confidence in your courage, devotion to duty and skill in battle. We will accept nothing less than full Victory!

Good luck! And let us beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking.

Dwight Eisenhower

Cartoon Wednesday

 

Cartoon Wednesday

 

Alice and Johnny (Charing Cross 1940) By Scale 75

Time seems to be a rare commodity these days. Spring has threatened to come early here and we have been trying to take advantage of that and get our yard and patio area ready for summer. Here in Colorado its typically not safe to put in the garden until after Mother's Day and its safer to wait for Memorial Day. Just depends on how much you like to plant everything twice.

I started messing around with this kit from Scale 75 about a month ago and its been slowly coming together. There are a couple of areas that are being contentious because the fit wasn't quite right, but nothing that couldn't be overcome. I did remove all the massive bolt detail on the interior side though. Unfortunately I waited until I had done some assembly work...oops. The sub assemblies are just about ready for painting now. Here's a little look at the work so far.

Note the large bolts on the ends of the interior wood panels.

The casting is a little rough under the seat. Odds are it won't be noticed but I'll fix it anyway.

The side doesn't sit square to the floor. Higher on the right, exposing the edge.

Fixed it here, the "pins" that hold it in place needed to be filed down to allow the side to fit correctly.

Floor, end and side walls glued together. Leaving off some of the more delicate components at this point.

Sub Assemblies so far. The truck is not fastened to the base at this point. Otherwise I can't paint the base completely so what looks like one assembly (upper right) is actually two. The roof does not fit correctly so I'll add that after everything has been painted but before I finish weathering. Johnny's left arm is at a pretty awkward angle. I considered assembling him in place but that would have made painting really difficult.

Still in the box; Alice (in three parts), plus various detail parts both inside and outside the train carriage.