The First GAMEIN5D - North Africa 1

I should probably have made this my first post, but I never got around to sorting the photos out. This also contains a lot of stuff that I did ages ago, when I was even worse at modelling than know (I know, hard to believe but true). And the boys have been trashing it for ages.

When I was little I had a great collection of soldiers, mostly Airfix, but my favourites were the Matchbox 8th Army and the Afrika Korps. I remember buying the Afrika Korps box from Masham steam fair, some time in the early 80s I guess. I was well chuffed, but also just slightly confused as to why anyone would name soldiers after dead bodies.

My other favourite set was the Desert Combat Pack, an awesome Christmas present. I played with that for endless hours. When my own kids were old enough, I gave them my old collection (like I had a choice, they also got all my Matchbox cars). Coincidentally, around this time Airfix had reissued the 1:32 desert outpost and I thought it would make a great present to make it and build a gaming board around it. There were several other toy-related issues at the time too.

1. Toy soldiers everywhere.
2. Rubbish plastic toy boxes.
3. It's so much more fun to play on a proper game board.
4. Gaming boards at 1:32 would be quite big - we have no space.
5. Nostalgia overload.

So I set about making a gaming board that would hold all the soliders and fold up nice and neatly into a toy box that wouldn't fall apart - hence the GAMEIN5D began.

Below are some pictures of the original version, which has been played to death with since it was first made.

Up until this point I was slowly getting back into making models. Something I'd done a lot as a kid and a teenager. Then not so much until middle age hoved into view.
I'd done a few planes and was trying to get better at everything so this project really made me learn quite fast - least-ways I made a lot of mistakes, which is almost like learning.

As you can see, I still have the original Panzer and armoured car, and one pill box. I also did complete the desert outpost and the 1:32 airfix strong point (not exactly deserty but the boys don't mind) I'll try and add some photos of those later too.

This project came with some serious baggage though. I loved those Matchbox troops and finally persuaded my parents to let me paint them. My Dad made models too so I set to work with his enamels ...
Many tears later, and a desperate (and sadly futile) ​attempt to get the hideous paint job removed, this Airfix soldier is a 30 years+ example of how bad I was at painting models as a kid. ​Worst of all, I'd ruined (to my mind) two of my beloved Matchbox soldiers.

So it was so pleasing to be able to have another go after all those years. And here they are. Now you might have a point if you say these are still rubbish, but my inner ten year old will

still be jumping up and down with joy. I do still think the guy on the left looks like he needs a wee though. And I painted Monty. He's not wearing thick white socks, that's white tack as he's currently in the repairs box, snapped off at the ankles.

Here are the rest of the gang. Tried to do at least one of each from the Airfix and Matchbox sets. I've also added a photo of the DAK soldiers too, as you can see, they are still not painted. Another addition to the Dad list of incomplete jobs and reasons for guilt.

Here are a few photos of the buildings, a little brick building and a weird bit of vegetation. It's all a bit ropey as I was even more of a novice then, than now but I had great fun doing all of this and my son absolutely loved it. He's played with it for hours. He even plays with them the same way I did, 35 years ago. ​

And that was the first GAMEIN5D, a gaming board that folds up into a box. It solved all the problems I was trying to solve, and scratched the nostalgia itch. But it totally got me back into making models - and trying to get much better at it.