One day in the spring of 1973 a nervous 14-year-old boy slowly opened the door of the American Eagles hobby shop in Seattle. Washington. Under his arm was a shoebox containing several plastic models, including a Tamiya Kubelwagen complete with a driver and two German staff officers. The models were to be entered in a contest - his first -advertised by the hobby shop, with prizes in the form of gift certificates redeemable at the shop. As the youngster carefully removed each piece from the shoebox, the proprietor placed them in a glass case alongside the few other models entered thus far. The boy stepped back to admire his work. Both the vehicle and figures were well painted, he thought; the faces were painted a rosy shade of flesh colour, and every part of the uniforms was painted in the colour depicted on the box art. He was especially proud of the glossy finish of the leather waistbelts and boots; and of the eyes - tiny black dots inside the somewhat larger white dots - tough to do with a toothpick, his preferred tool for detail painting. His father was happy to let the boy browse awhile; and one kit that particularly caught his eye was a Monogram Sherman tank. Noticing that the plastic shrink-wrap was already removed, lie slowly opened the kit to have a look inside.
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