8404 Diorama Studios

Ever get into a project going full tilt and lose steam before it really gets off the ground? Yup. In the words of Austin Powers – “Crikey! I’ve lost my mojo.” I had the best of intentions with the Iwo Jima project, but things just turned against it. To the back burner it goes. AGAIN… Part of the problem is that the industry plays a part in this ADHD of ours, they dangle these new shiny kits in front of us and they all tease us saying “Buy us, you can make something great with us, buy us, you know you need us…” ; we’re inspired and visions of the next magnum opus dance through our heads and we part with a bit more treasure in pursuit of something that remains just out of reach. And what is it you might ask? Why it’s our Ultimate Creation, the greatest thing we’ve ever managed to design, build and complete ever. Such was my Iwo Jima project, it languishes now waiting for its’ turn to move back into contention someday pushed there by more modern subjects. Yeah, they’re my next big thing, see there’s this great Afv Club Israeli M113 kit and… you get the picture.

Right now, while I’m waiting for the next great thing to arrive from Hong Kong I’m working on an older Afv Club kit, 1973 Sho’t Kal. It’s not something I’ve built before, so it takes me out of my comfort zone in two ways – 1.) It’s a tank I know zero about since it’s an Israeli modified British tank (and Israeli armor is pretty cool in its’ own right they don’t let things go to waste); and 2.) It has a tie in to the period where my current mojo lies and might be useful in that ever elusive Ultimate Creation that I’m gonna build when that -113 arrives. I’m gonna do it this time I swear.

The Yom Kippur War in 1973 is something I remember, but never learned much about even while in the Army it was only mentioned peripherally. I would have thought given the defensive fight on the Golan Heights there would have been much more attention given to the lessons learned since the equipment being used by the Syrians was what we would have faced in Germany and the guns on the Israeli tanks were identical to those on our M60 series tanks. We studied the Entebbe raid in depth when I was in a unit that trained for airfield take downs (and having the opportunity to meet one of the actual participants in the raid was better than meeting any celeb for me). Uh-oh, here comes that ADHD again…off on a tangent bad, very bad. I’m considering a small project dealing with ’73 on the Golan Heights, but trust me it ain’t gonna be that Ultimate Creation. Not this time.