Recta Ratio

Lent here at Recta Ratio, and in my own life, is pretty rigorous. I won't say it is entirely cheerless and dismal, as St. Patrick's Day, St. Joseph's Day, and Lady Day occur in Lent. But it is very FOCUSSED. And the focus is Our Lord's Passion and how my sins are responsible for His sufferings, as well as making a full, worthy confession and a worthy Easter Communion. What little of the "good life" I can attain is shunned for the 47 days of Lent, as I don my own version of sackcloth and ashes.

But Lent isn't here quite yet. So allow me a little leeway for the next two days to post about less serious matters that interest me.

I came across these photos of military miniatures from The Playset Addict, and found them compelling. They are all done with posing unpainted Conte World War II plastic toy soldiers.














I like these too, with a wide mix of Conte, 21st Century Toys, Forces Of Valor, Marx, and Barzso figures, buildings, terrain, and vehicles.





















And here is the work of my friend, The Toy Soldier Guy:

Labels: Toy Soldiers and Wargames

A 1/4 scale King Tiger Tank.

A quarter the size of the real thing.

Wow.

It would need its own berth in a garage.

The $10,000 price tag is a little steep, but we are talking about a tank here! You might be able to pick up a real, live Chafee or Sherman in need of $250,000 worth of repairs for short money because Michigan turned out more of them than boxes of Cornflakes. You can't get a real, full size King Tiger anywhere. The Krauts didn't make that many of them, and there only are only about 5 of them left, and they are all in museums, or decommissioned as permanent memorials. So you have to settle for a quarter of the real thing with a King Tiger.



Drool. Pant. Drool.

Labels: Toy Soldiers and Wargames

These two photos are from the diorama of the Battle of Lexington Green, housed in the Lexington Chamber of Commerce visitors' center next to the Buckman Tavern. The diorama was constructed for the Bicentennial, and was partially the work of Mr. William Buckley, the CIA officer kidnapped and murdered in Lebanon by Moslem terrorists two decades ago.

Labels: Toy Soldiers and Wargames

Found via Dale Price.

Which Civil War General are You?

Robert E Lee: You are the very image of the gentleman warrior with the soul of a river boat gambler. You place a very high price on honor and personal loyalty. Lee is widely regarded as one of the greatest generals in US history. Personally opposed to slavery, he only joined the Confederate army after Virginia seceded from the Union. Some say that he personally prolonged the war at least two years with his tactical brilliance Take this quiz! Quizilla | Join | Make A Quiz | More Quizzes | Grab Code

Labels: Toy Soldiers and Wargames

Maybe I had a particularly spartan childhood. But I could not afford to destroy my toys. They had to be husbanded and guarded to be used again and again, since my parents certainly would not buy me replacements if I did things to them like this:



These are from Conte Collectibles in-house blog, and feature their own products. So they don't have to pay for replacements. They can create neat scenes like this for effect, without worrying about destroying hundreds of dollars worth of collectibles. I never could.

Labels: Toy Soldiers and Wargames