Return to the Age of Sail

I waited patiently…

Waited until the day when the toy in my daughter’s Kinder Surprise egg was consigned to the bin…

Then I pounced!

The possibilities offered by this blow-along trike were immediately apparent to me when my little ‘un opened the egg; and so when she was done with it, I rescued it from the bin.  A bit of modification and a quick paintjob later, the first land yacht to sail the highways and byways of VBCW Britain was born!

After cutting off some of the extraneous bits, and gluing on some others (including some wire, a backpack, blanket roll and Lewis Gun), I added a ‘sailor’ in the shape of a spare Renegade Miniatures WW1 French machine gunner – kepi replaced with a backwards Milliput flat cap.

I’m not really happy with the sail, which looks more like a dirty tarpaulin than a billowing mainsail. When the paint dried I was sorely tempted to replace it with a new Union Jack sail (à la James Bond and in tribute to our Olympic heroes), but that would mean ungluing the sail, so in the end laziness beat patriotic fervour!

So in terms of scratchbuilding a qualified success; and in battlefield terms a woefully impractical vehicle which is largely useless unless the wind gets up and the roads are good. But all in all a fun conversion – and fun is what VBCW is all about!

The mast is also removable for ease of storage!