Medieval figures on display.

 Slowly getting around to putting figures back on display after they had to be packed away for work on the house a few years ago, a change is as good as a rest and it's good to see them out again.

Medieval figures always add a good splash of colour and and these are some of my favourites, lots of conversions and some will get pulled out from time to time to serve in a wargame but mostly their purpose is to please the eye.  

The Playmobil ship is crewed by Einar and his men from "The Vikings" movie, as portrayed here in plastic by the French firm Ougen, Matt Thair has now produced the set in metal and you can see it here: White Tower Miniatures  

The castle walls and towers are from a Foreign Legion fort gifted to me by another friend Barrie Blood who commissioned it from a chap called John Russell, who exhibited his wargame buildings at the first Plastic Warrior Show and built the Spanish Town shown in the previous post One Hour Wargames - Double Delay

 The fort was built in scale for 54mm toy soldiers and rather large so I solved the storage problem by incorporating it into this display, it should come out without to much difficulty if needed for a wargame.

In the foreground an assortment of figures made in Poland by PZG (Polski Związek Głuchych - The Polish Association of the Deaf), rear right a mounted knight made in Italy by Nardi and Joan of Arc made in France by Starlux.

Two Elastolin siege engines, behind them a group of crossbowmen made in France by RF (Rene Fisher).

Lords and Ladies of the Court, too many to list but included are figures by Elastolin and Starlux with many conversions and also a few chessmen.

More conversions with a resin model of Joan of Arc (mounted) sold in France as a tourist item.

Some folk heroes are dotted around in this corner, including Robin Hood figures made in England by Crescent and Italy by Res Plastics, some of the Wiliam Tell set from REAMSA of Spain (Resinas Artificiales Moldeadas S.A.- Moulded Artificial Resins Ltd.) and yet another Joan of Arc on foot which is a Starlux conversion.

In another corner the musicians and jesters strike up the band.  The larger yellow jester was made in Germany by Heinerle, Manurba, Domplast (take your pick) the smaller one beside him is a ceramic knick knack and the seated piper is a shepherd boy made by Elastolin.

In the foreground a group of crossbowmen made by Res Plastics and offered in Kinder Surprise chocolate eggs, there are four figures each with different styles of armour, pavise and bows.

In the foreground various footmen made by Starlux, behind them Edward The Black Prince is a Starlux conversion made by Vince Mattocks and the mounted knight to his right was made in France by Guilbert.

In the tower are three figures from the Alexander Nevsky set made in Russia at the Progress factory in Moscow, I bought these at the second Plastic Warrior Show back in 1987 from a chap who was importing figures made in the old Iron Curtain countries, I think he was the only dealer at the show that year.  To the right of the standard bearer is the portrait figure of Albrecht Gessler from the William Tell set made in Spain by REAMSA (Resinas Artificiales Moldeadas S.A.- Moulded Artificial Resins Ltd.), this is the later reissue made by Oliver.

You can never have enough archers, the front row kneeling are Starlux behind them are mostly figures by Rene Fisher.

Books at Christmas - Die Zinnlaube

 Several books arrived over the holiday period, so here are the new additions:

Die Zinnlaube started life as a magazine and is the; Journal of the German society  "Collectors of Old Toy Figures" but has become an annual publication and is now more of a book, this is volume 15.  Printed as a limited edition of just 200 copies, 140 pages (incl. cover), illustrated in full colour throughout, text in German and English, it costs 15 euro plus postage.  

The coverage is very much German centric and aimed at the top tier (i.e. expensive) end of the hobby, mostly early tin flats and solid lead figures, rather out of my league but always fascinating to see some different and unusual toy soldiers.

contents of this issue include:

Prince Murat and the French General Staff of 1870 

The Fire Brigade made by Spenkuch

Female Colonels-in-Chief as toy figures, 

The toy soldier workshop of Christian Wollrath, 

Spanish General Espartero made by Sohlke, 

Solferino - two testimonies of playing with tin soldiers in the 19th century, 

The Little Wars of Fieldmarshal August von Mackensen and his toy soldiers.

There is now a website for Die Zinnlaube where you can download the first three issues as PDFs for free, buy back issues and subscribe.

The Airfix Handbook

The Airfix Handbook - James May's Toy Stories, ISBN 978 1 84486 116 3, 96 pages illustrated in full colour throughout, I would describe this as being in the nostalgic format of childrens "Ladybird Books" but stand to be corrected on this (the illustrations are photographs).  

James May is a UK TV presenter best known for co-hosting the motoring show "Top Gear" but in 2009 he also created a six part documentary series to showcase his choice of the six most notable toys on a grand scale.  

One of these projects was to build a 1:1 scale model of the iconic Airfix Spitfire kit, and this book tells how they did it, it's split into three sections:

Introduction and The History of Airfix (50 pages)

The Big Build - full size Spitfire model (30 pages)

Complete catalogue of Airfix kits by year (8 pages)

I watched the programme when it aired and was thrilled to receive the book unexpectedly on Christmas morning (Mrs C. had found it in a local charity shop) so I don't know if it's still in print but you can probably find it on the internet.  Thoroughly recommended.

The life size model built for the programme is now on display at the Royal Air Force museum in Cosford.  Among the other projects were a basicule bridge to span a canal made out of Meccano (on display at the University of Liverpool), and a full size habitable house made out of Lego bricks, which had to be dismantled after the series because it didn't have planning permission!

The Toys of Astra-Pharos

 The Toys of Astra-Pharos, privately printed in 2007 by the author David J. Booth, soft cover A5 format with 72 pages illustrated throughout mostly in black and white, ISBN 978 0 9556361 03.  My copy cost £16.50 from the author via ebay.

I've known the Astra range of toys from early childhood, we lived near the factory in West London and their products were popular locally, yet I've never owned one.  They are big solidly built pieces of model engineering, distinctive and iconic, the 1939 catalogue is full of Anti Aircraft guns and working searchlights, strangely prescient of the Blitz about to engulf the nation.

This booklet is seriously punching above it's weight, covering the history of  the company from the end of WW1 until it ceased to trade in 1975. It charts the entire toy product range, the boxes, accessories, catalogues and instruction leaflets, with each item illustrated.  Highly recommended for anyone with an interest in the history of toys and toymakers.

Toy Soldier Battles II

 Toy Soldier Battles II, Antonio E. Belmonte Cerezo, ISBN 9798272688880, 95 pages, illustrations designed and text translated by Copilot, Microsoft's AI assistant  (one paragraph has been missed and is still in Spanish!). 

This is a strange one, I saw it advertised on facebook and thought I'd give it a punt as I fancied trying some simple, fast play WW2 style rules, which is what these are, but not in the way I'd imagined.   

The coloured illustrations throughout are quite charming and drawn in the form of Army Men toy soldiers like the ones shown on the cover.  And that's a good introduction to what the book is about, go online, buy a couple of those big bags of green and tan Army Men, the ones that come with tanks, jeeps, planes, helicopters and bunkers, grab a couple of dice then settle down on the floor with the kids and have yourself a wargame.

There's a bit more to it than that, units are given a profile based on their armament, mobility and resilience/armour, casualty modifiers affect range and cover, dice for random event activation and there are Victory points at the end. Officers play specialised roles with eight different strengths they can bring to a unit like; Medic, Communications, Mechanic etc.  There are chapters for Army Lists, running a campaign and four trial scenarios.  It's all stuff we recognise in a set of wargame rules but it's all kept fairly simplistic so it's easy for a newcomer to pick up.

So it's more than a stand 'em up and shoot them down toy soldier game but I'm not sure it's one that will appeal to regular gamers.