British Tanker Dollies

[Derek Attree]

Hi Guys
Does any one know of British Tanker Dollies?
Do Dragon have any listed?

Derek

[Adrian Harris]

Douglas Kay is the best one for this model, but goes for silly prices as it was a limited edition.

Terry Davies is another, but has a camouflaged Pixie Suit which was apparently never used in anger.

Dave Dibbs has done done superb work on this figure though, by painting the material to resemble the plain khaki of the normal suit and adding other details.

Adrian.

[Allan Webster]

Modellers Loft currently have the Dragon Terry Davies British Tank figure in their Autumn Sale for £20 :

http://www.modellersloft.co.uk/showitem ... emid=33224

The figure is generally regarded as accurate, except that the tank "pixie" suit is the wrong colour for WWII. These suits were not issued in camo during WWII. It is a simple matter to put right. Buy some textile acrylics from your local art shop and re-paint the suit to a light khaki colour.

[Stewart Ashton]

Douglas Kay is on evilbay at this moment

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/DRAGON-EURO-DX06- ... 33577e52c7

£33 and will definately go higher

Regards Stewart

[Dave Dibb (Armorpax)]

Douglas Kay is the best one for this model, but goes for silly prices as it was a limited edition.

Terry Davies is another, but has a camouflaged Pixie Suit which was apparently never used in anger.

Dave Dibbs has done done superb work on this figure though, by painting the material to resemble the plain khaki of the normal suit and adding other details.

Adrian.

And has another 8 to make a crew for my M7

If you are happy to paint the suits the Terry Davies one has the hood and is not only much cheaper than Douglas Kay but also looks better when finished.

If you go this route paint the suits with Vallejo khaki and Iraqui Sand but don't put it on too thick. Just keep drybrushing it on till you get the effect you like. Paint the collar facings and hood lining with British Uniform Brown. Its worth practising on something you don't need first though

Cheers

Dave

[Stewart Ashton]

Nice work Dave

Douglas Kay just sold for £41

Regards Stewart

[Pete Mallett]

The Douglas Kay figure comes with the Winter Pixie suit and whilst not perfect is the best we've got at present. It did not have a hood on the Pixie suit and so folks perfer to go with the Camo one and then repaint it. Alternatively, find some one handy with a sewing machine and use the camo one as a template to have a load made up in the correct colour.

As I said the DML pixie suit is not perfect and one of the major downsides to it is that they guessed at the construction of the suit; as a consequence the entire shoulder / aleeve area is wrong and this becomes apparent when dressing the figure in the suit, especially when putting the pixie on over the existing uniform.

There's another figure called Fred Upton, which DML release via the History Channel web site about 4 years ago. He was supposed to be a Desert Rats tanker from the North Africa campaign and accordingly he came with a molded tankie Beret, a battle dress blouse and a sand coloured tanker suit. However, the tanker suit was the wrong style for the desert campaing but was identical to that used in Normandy, (although the wrong colour). I dyed mine using emulsion wall paint as the synthetic thread thread doesn't always take the colour well when dyeing. Fred shows up on ebay every now and then but no longer commands the prices he once did because, I suspect, no-one knows who he is.

The winter Pixie suit is probably best for the Comet's period of operations though, September 44 - May 1945.

Perhaps Armortek could approach DiD, via Modellers Loft, and request them to make a British Tanker to complement the Comet. I have an original tan Pixie suit in my collection and would be more than happy to take as many pics as possible, plus Headphones, helmets, etc. In fact most of this stuff can also be had at Bovington. I could provide a full spec for what DiD ought to put in the box if that would help at all? Such a figure would fly off the shelves and not just to folks who buy the Comet. DiD just needs a prod in the right direction to make it and I'm sure that they'd listen to Armortek's request? What do you say guys?

[Adrian Harris]

Doh, I've just bought a bunch of TD Pixies to attack with paint

It would be good to see either DiD or DML produce a decent Allied Tanker but they don't seem to be the most customer led organisations, so I'm not holding my breath

Adrian.

[Adrian Harris]

> Douglas Kay just sold for £41

That's about £20 short of where I expected it to finish

I've I'd known it was struggling I would have put in a bid myself

Adrian.

[Stewart Ashton]

Adrian

I bid forty quid for him so heaven knows what the highest bid was

I was going to put it up for sale as well

Regards Stewart

[Pete Mallett]

Here's a couple of links to Fred Upton figures on Evilbay...

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Dragon-1-6-Desert ... 2303a838d7

and here

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Dragon-73099-Brit ... 255766fa07

[Adrian Harris]

The trouble with the the ones that come up in the US is that the postage is usually another $30

Plus I've been hammered by HMCE on every US parcel I've received this year, and the fact it costs £11 odd in fees on top of the duty and VAT makes it cheaper to buy Douggies

Adrian.

[Stewart Ashton]

Adrian

< Plus I've been hammered by HMCE

I bought two items and got hammered both times by them.

No more from the USA for me

Regards Stewart

[Pete Mallett]

Ah, the old HMCE... every now and again I get hit by that but not always. Not to encourage you to break the law or anything but I've know guys ask the shipper to mark it as a Gift, business sample or as a "Historical Collectible Item" which under HMCE guide lines makes it exempt from import duties!

where these guys come a cropper is when the insurance value is greater than the customs value statement.

Also, there is a personal limit of £54 per item, anything valued below this is exempt. If you buy from Cyber Hobby they mark all their boxes as value 100 HKD.

Personally speaking I never use insurance and I always stick to the USPS which of-course hands off to Royal Mail in this country. Royal Mail employess are less fastidious in checking contents than the couriers are. I also take the mid-level shipping option which will take 10 - 15 days... in 10 years ogf buying from the States I've never lost anything, or had much broken that couldn't be sorted out and most of my stuff has sailed by customs without a hitch.

But then the other side of the coin is that you live here and C&E and VAT are all part of the price and should be considered as such when buying from abroad. Too many people see it as some sort of add-on price when it isn't.. it's just that part of the price that you failed to take into consideration. Ignorance of the law is no defence before the law, you live here you're expected to be familiar with how it all works.

Now the morality of taxation and especially consumer taxation such as VAT etc. that's a whole other discussion and don't get me started on the prices RM and Parcelforce apply handling of incoming parcels, (isn't that what postage is for), that's not just immoral it's Highway robbery... Dick Turpin wasn't hung he simply defected!

[Derek Attree]

Hi Guys

Thanks for the info may help others.

Derek