Pattern Room Collection – late of the R. The collection still continues as a working reference library for Small Arms of the World and maintains its acquisitive remit to that end. The L98A1 Rifle is a full-calibre. The action can only be cycled manually by use of the cocking lever. Each round is loaded from the magazine in this way and there is no option for either semi-automatic or fully-automatic selective fire as is available on the L85A1.

Mauser made some relatively weird semi-auto variations in the early days of production, but after 40, or so guns, things settled down, and the factory thereafter manufactured only .

Plus a bevy of beautiful, bedazzling, and buxom ‘Babes’! A month to the day after retiring the blog, I find myself forced to return for a one-shot special in pursuit of justice and to draw attention to a shocking situation. I’ve always been quite prepared to use this blog as an organ of retribution against the guilty and that’s not going to stop now. He supplies newly manufactured replacement parts for various diecast models from the ’50s, ’60s, ’70s and beyond.

Some of the parts are excellent, some quite good, others merely better than nothing – and a few are downright mediocre. It’s quite a rough replica which will need a lot of filling, filing, sanding and shaping before it can be assembled and painted, but I’m willing to give it a go when I have time. The Budgie name had been very roughly scraped off the base, leaving some noticeable gouges, and I emailed Model Supplies to register my disappointment, as, to my mind, a replica should remain faithful to the original.

I then put the replica aside for a while, but upon a later viewing, I noticed that the canopy was extremely ‘cloudy’ and did not have the crystal clear finish that it ought to. When enquiring about something else at a later date, I mentioned this, and was told to return the defective part for a replacement. All well and good you may be thinking, but I’ve always taken the view that if I’m provided with something that isn’t as it should be, then I shouldn’t be put to any expense in obtaining a replacement – that’s the responsibility of the person or company who provided the faulty part to start with.

I duly contacted Model Supplies and requested that they send the replacement part first, along with a prepaid, self-addressed label or envelope for me to return the inferior item. They’re busy, I thought – I’ll give them some time. Almost a month later, I contacted them again – once more, no response.