The last of the waterline model ship orders of 2024 arrived at Antics Warehouse yesterday. This parcel is from CM Miniaturen. It might surprise most readers of this to hear that Antics are expected to pay the "Anticipated VAT", there is no Import Duty (!!!), on parcels from Germany without any information about who the the sender is and without reference to the invoice which has been attached to the outside of the parcel (so that the anticipated VAT can be calculated to raise the ransom invoice to be sent to the addressee on the parcel) but this is the case. If Antics were not to pay the charges within two weeks, the parcel would be sent back to Germany. Twice last year the
contracted customs collector failed to send an invoice to Antics and then sent the parcel back to Germany before Antics even knew that the parcel had been posted in Germany. Tracking numbers applied in Germany cease to work when parcels arrive in the UK, but they are the only way that you can tell if they ever reached our shores in the first place! You couldn't make it up....
So what you really want to know is what was in this parcel. So here you are:
CM models (pre-WW2, blue numbers on the box); Berengaria, RMS Georgic, General Artigas, Statendam, and Laconia (II). Instant quiz: anyone know what this Laconia was infamous for?
CM-KR models (post WW2 models, red numbers on the box: Adonia (ex-R8) in P&O livery.