Feuerwehrwagen

Most people come back from holiday with sensible souvenirs. A straw donkey perhaps or maybe something pottery or perhaps a notifiable disease. Me, I brought this back from the Isle of Man.

A plastic kit for a German Mercedes Benz fire engine.

My excuse is that it was cheap - a fiver from the pet shop in Port Erin. Also, I enjoy building Preiser road vehicles. Besides, I'd already bought everything railway and tram related on the island.

Quite why the pet shop had a stock of foreign road vehicle kits isn't clear. There were about half a dozen stacked up in the window. All looked pretty faded and it was only after 3 or 4 trips by the shop I finally succumbed and bought one. The lady in the shop said something about the owner buying jobs lots of stuff but wasn't sure. I think she'd have liked me to take the lot away but I didn't have the cash, or space in the suitcase.

Obviously I bought the model with greatest play value because I'm a big kit. Looking at the box, the legs extend and jib rises up. Since the current price is nearly 30 quid, I reckon it was worth it.

Inside the mouldings are self coloured, which is good because you can't paint parts that slide inside each other without gumming things up or rubbing the paint off. The instructions are mostly pictures supplemented with 4 other languages. To be honest, with brain in gear and with the experience of many kits behind me, I don't expect too many problems.