Action at Kassassin 1882 - 54mm Battle Cry game.

Casting around for our next game, Anthony came upon a Battle Cry scenario for the Action at Kassassin 1882 on the Commands & Colours website, so we thought we'd give it a spin, here's how it went:

This link to the Commands &Colours website will give you the map and special rules used in the scenario.   The Egyptian Army under Urabi Pasha have spent the day attacking the British line attempting to break through to Ismalia and the Suez Canal but have been repulsed and thrown back to their trenches.  

The game opens late in the day as reinforcements arrive under Gen. Sir Garnet Wolsey, and they prepare to assault the Egyptian lines.

The railway runs alongside the Sweetwater Canal, together they snake their way through the centre of the battlefield.

Because the action is starting so late in the day a dice is rolled at the start of each round to ascertain the impact of fading light on visibility and effective range of the artillery.

The scenario calls for a railway gun so those ingenious chaps of Her Majesty's Royal Navy have mounted a suitably heavy cannon on a flat car and wheeled it into action.

The formidable Egyptian trenches are supported by a line of guns in the hills behind them.

The advance falters in the centre and the railway gun is brought up to soften the enemy trenches.

The fearless gunners bombard the Egyptian trenches but counter battery fire forces them to retire in haste.

In the fading light the Household Cavalry and Dragoons launched an immediate charge in a desperate attempt to cut through the infantry and reach the guns behind them.  Although rifle fire has taken a terrible toll of the gallant Dragoons nothing can stop them from crashing through and spiking the guns, but they are now a broken force and fall back in disarray.

The British advance on their right fares better, running skirmishes slowly drive the Egyptian infantry from the surrounding hills and force their guns to fall back on the centre.

Urabi Pasha looks on in relief as his Centre holds and the British line falls back, despite some success they were unable to turn his flanks but they still block his path to Ismailia, as darkness descends he knows he will have to fall back on his defences at Tell El Kebir.

The order of events surrounding the various actions at Kassassin are a little confusing so I've taken some small liberties with the narrative to make it fit the scenario of our game.  That said the "Moonlight Charge" of the Household Cavalry at Kassassin has entered the realms of British Army legend and was immortalised in a poem by Arthur Clark Kennedy. 

Plunder from the Plastic Warrior Show 2026

 I usually take a lot of photos at the Plastic Warrior show, particularly the more unusual items that turn up, partly to share information and images for those collectors who can't attend but primarily for use in promoting the show the following year.  This year I took my camera along but spent so much time running around I completely forgot to take any photos, so apologies for that and here are some of the bits I managed to pick up.

First up an early Monarch brand Conquistador in red/brown plastic which carries the lozenge shaped indent marked "England" under it's base which was used by Hilco (John Hill & Co), seen here previously: Collecting Toy Soldiers: Converting Monarch Conquistadors   I have lots of these and don't really go in for collecting all the different plastic colour variations but this chap was in a 50p junk box so he deserved rescuing.

My prize find of the day was the figure of Queen Elizabeth I from the Sir Francis Drake set made by Charbens, I am now just missing the figure of Sir Walter Raleigh to complete the set.  Everything turns up eventually and it's that quest which keeps us collecting.

The 75mm Warsaw Pact Sailor in blue is made from some sort of PVC plastic, he was made in the former East Germany by PGH Effelder, and is marked as such under the base.

The Standard Beaverette Light Reconnaissance Car (produced by the Standard Motor Co and named after Lord Beaverbrook) is an unusual item, it was an improvised armoured car with armour plate being riveted onto a commercial car chassis.  Considered unsatisfactory for overseas service it was issued to the Home Guard and RAF Regiment for home defence so I'm not sure what I'll do with it but I like the concept.  This is a 3D print and is very robust, I bought it from John McRae who has started a new venture making 3D printed figures but I think he said this was made by someone else.  I've noted with such 3D printed vehicles that they often seem to have this pronounced riveting, which is not particularly accurate but gives the model a bit of character, and I rather like it.

The Infantryman standing to attention is an early Zang for Timpo, there are several versions of these figures but this is the first I've seen in a beret, a forerunner of the figures Roy Selwyn-Smith would later design in plastic for Zang/Herald.

A copy of the Britains Armoured Car (based on the Crossley) which was issued from 1934 until 1941, the body and wheels are a one part white metal casting with separate revolving turret so it's quite a weighty piece.  I missed one of these at last year's show so was delighted that the same seller brought  along another one this year, it will see service in any number of 1930's scenarios.

An assortment of composition French infantry, the first made in Germany by Manzsoldaten dates from about 1910 he's not fully round and is what the some collectors describe as "Demi Ronde".  

In the centre a 60mm Poilu made in France by INCA (no relationship to the Belgian firm Incamin), according to the French "soldatplastique 1/32 forum" trade catalogues show the firm was based in Paris and made toys between 1957 and 1965.  They produced a small range of WW1 French and Colonial troops, including mounted, and are sometimes marked INCA FRANCE along the front edge of the base (none of mine are marked). 

The 80mm Standard Bearer was made in France by Cellose, the flag staff is complete, but out of picture, and is missing the cloth flag, fortunately I have one somewhere to make him complete.

Now this one is a mystery which I'm hoping some of the French collectors on the soldatplastique 1/32 forum or one of the facebook groups will  be able to identify.  Made in a composition material he stands 100mm tall, has no base and no markings, my first  thought was it's made by the French firm J.R.D. who's figures were on the large size and sculpted in a cubist art deco style

Rear view of the 100mm Foreign Legion figure above.

John Clarke very kindly cast eight of these smaller explosions for me in white metal, along with the recast of a Taylor  Barrett deep sea diver, and passed on four of the larger resin example, which were made by Paul Watson.  The explosions are copies of originals from the 1930's made in Germany by Lineol, can't wait to get these painted up and see them on the table.  

The three English Civil War conversions were made by Eric Kemp and kindly gifted to me by Graham Apperley, who knows that I'm a big fan of Eric's work, from the ECW collection he acquired last year (see link to Graham's blog "Tales from the Toy Room" in the list on the right) 

Last but not least Andreas Dittmann gave me this mix, a post WW2 composition infantryman made byy Solido Belge, a 1980's resin copy of an Elastolin WW2 marching drum major and three plastic horses made in Germany but I can't remember who Andreas said they were made by. 

An eclectic haul, as always at the Plastic Warrior show, because anything can turn up, and many thanks to John, Graham and Andreas for thinking of me and passing on these goodies.

It's all Greek to me, or Italian.....maybe Rumanian?

 This is a "What are they" post.  I bought a unit of these on ebay because nobody wanted them, so they were dead cheap and I thought they might be useful for something, but looking at them now I'm not sure what they're supposed to be.  I put these two pics up on facebook asking which army they represent and got lots of likes but no answers, not even rude ones! 

The two officers on the left have been converted from Britains hollowcast German infantry by changing the heads and arm, the infantryman marching on the right is a modern white metal casting and has no marking. The officers have green epaulettes and trouser stripe, the infantryman is wearing gaiters and a blanket roll. It would be easy to say French but the uniform isn't quite horizon blue and the Adrian helmet was in widespread use by armies worldwide for decades.

It was only after taking these photos I realised that the paintwork needed quite a bit of touching up, which is fine but there are fourteen of them so I don't really want to get into a whole repaint if I can avoid it.

Can anyone suggest which army they are supposed to represent? I was thinking WW1 Greek or Italian, any other ideas?

Britains American War of Independance Swoppets.

 This past year I embarked upon a review of how I store and display the unruly mass of toy soldiers accumulated in a largely haphazard way over the past six plus decades.  

Everything is being separated out between collectables and figures for wargaming, the former to stand safely on a shelf gathering dust and looking pretty, the latter boxed securely in their units and ranks ready to be deployed on the tabletop at a moments notice.

I started picking up Britains and Timpo American War of Independence Swoppets with the intention of using them for wargaming, back then they were the only figures available for the period, but they were hard to find and by the time I'd acquire enough they were getting too brittle and delicate for the amount of handling involved.  I aught to let them all go but I don't feel quite ready for that yet.

The building in the background is the tinplate "Revolutionary War Tavern" made in America by Louis Marx, the mounted figure of George Washington to the front left of it is an old composition piece made by Elastolin.

In amongst the Britains and Timpo Swoppet AWI are a smattering of figures from other manufacturers such as: Shell Liberty Men of '76, Louis Marx Warriors of the World, A Call to Arms, Res Plastics for Kinder Eggs, Awesome Toys, Casualties of War, Airfix, and a couple of white metal models.

The building shown here is the Louis Marx tinplate "Civil War Mansion" from their "Battle of the Blue and Gray" playset.

Native American allies are provided by Mohicans from Britains Herald range and Charbens.

 These figures have all spent far too long languishing in boxes so it was nice to get them out and put on display where I can appreciate them a bit more.

John Ruddle's Battleship

 On 6th December last year the Toy Solder Collection of the late John Ruddle was sold by C&T Auctions and I am told that the sale raised £100,000.  Here is a link to the online catalogue, compiled by James Opie, which in itself is a valuable resource for collectors of old toy soldiers: The Toy Soldier Collection of the Late John Ruddle Auction (candtauctions.co.uk)

But not everything went to auction; the wargame buildings, accessories, homecast figures and ships from his garden were considered unsuitable for inclusion in the sale, largely due to their condition, and were sold privately as a job lot.  After cleaning up and some repair most of the ships were sold through a collectors shop in Gosport, a Naval town just outside Portsmouth, where they were mostly snapped up by retired Naval officers as garden ornaments.  

  John had told me, some years previously, that he'd sold all of his model ships to a collector in Germany and I assumed he meant his garden battleships, naturally I was disappointed that I'd never see them again.  I realise now that he meant his collection of 1:1200 scale waterline ships, for which there is a much larger following in Germany, that made a lot more sense to me.  The last two garden battleships found their way to the London Toy Soldier Show last year so I couldn't pass up the opportunity to acquire one as a piece of iconic wargaming history.

John's ships have been shown before in various books and magazines but the photographs are mostly monochrome and set in larger views of his garden so I thought people might like to see a closer view.   

I don't know much about battleships so I'm hoping someone can tell me the class of this one.  John seems to have named his ships after actual vessels (although I recall a freighter named after the fictional "African Queen"), this one is HMS Rutlish, which I have been unable to trace any record of.

John was a maintenance engineer in the print industry and, while the ships are impressive from a distance, close up you can see that he bolted on all sorts of bits and pieces to build them.  

The superstructure lifts off and inside I found it had been fitted with an electric motor, so it might have been floated on a boating pond at one time, but there is no sign that a propeller shaft or screw were ever installed.  John had told me that he built his ships from aluminium sheet and that does appear to be the case with the deck, guns and bridge but the hull is made from fibreglass, a common enough material used by ship modellers and for DIY car repairs in the 1960's, but rarely used domestically since then.

This final shot of me holding HMS Rutlish is to give a sense of the size.  The paintwork is flaking badly, testament to years spent out in the garden and several repaints, I am currently struggling with the decision to burn off the worst sections and repaint or leave as is? 

Among the other items that never made the grade for the auction were a large quantity of silicon moulds that John used for casting his own figures and spare parts to repair and convert old Britains hollowcasts.  There was also a large collection of the actual figures he'd made and used in his garden wargames, being in the print industry he had access to ample supplies of lead, and created units which had never been covered by the toy manufacturers, including several units of what appear to be various Constabulary to police the far flung regions of his garden Empire.

John Ruddle 1932 - 2023

 I don't normally buy Toy Soldier Collector magazine, because it mostly seems to be about reviewing new product, but flicking through the latest issue I noticed two articles of interest.

The first was a three page tribute to John Ruddle, who sadly passed away in February, written by James Opie, with photographs taken by Paul Cattermole.  John will be well known to most people who visit these pages due to his internationally renowned model garden, which has featured in numerous wargame publications down the decades.  I didn't know John well but he only lived about a mile away from me and kindly invited me over to visit on a couple of occasions.  He was a great character with an unbridled passion for the hobby, both collecting and wargaming with Britains 54mm hollow cast lead toy soldiers.

So much so that he had landscaped his garden to represent different continents complete with buildings built from concrete in the relevant styles of architecture.  The beds on the left represented Europe, with areas allocated to England, France, Germany and Italy, also a small area for Belgium which included the Mons canal.  The large lawn in the centre of the garden represented ocean, and John had made fleets of battleships which he'd cut out of aluminium sheet so that the wouldn't rust because they were left out all year round.  

If I remember correctly the end of the garden had a large rockery with a hill fort and village to represent the North West Frontier and Africa.  There were two ponds which fed streams representing rivers and the canal mentioned above, that ran through the countries.  There was also an O gauge railway, originally clockwork, John told me that when he had his house rewired the electrician was so taken with the garden he offered to electrify the railway, he installed a transformer and built a control panel for John to operate it.

On one occasion John was in the process of building a palace with harem for a Turkish Sultan, to be situated on a point between Africa and Europe.  He had laid out a square wooden frame on the ground and filled it with sand, into which he would make an imprint of the building facade, and then pour in concrete.  He explained that on some of his earlier buildings he'd had a problem with cracks in the concrete due to frost until a builder doing some work on his house advised him to add sugar to the mix to prevent this.  A lot of the buildings had removeable roofs so that figures could be stored inside them, nothing vintage but ones that he cast himself, and each year he would give their paintwork a touch up, he also had to spring clean the buildings because mice would nest in them over the winter!

The last time I met John was at the London Toy Soldier Show where Paul Morehead and I interviewed him about his memories of Major Henry Harris, but that's another story for another day.  He was also selling off part of his collection so I bought several units of German and Russian cavalry from him, he was very pleased that they would continue to serve in games on the table and in the garden.

Which leads me neatly on to the second article of interest and this is two pages written by Paul Holcroft Wright about the new edition of Funny Little Wars, a reworking of the original layout with all new illustrations and incorporating a lot more background to H.G. Wells.  I know that several other bloggers who visit here are fellow members of the FLW group and will already have the new edition but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to give it a mention.

Battle of Vitoria (part 2) - A Napoleonic Battle Cry wargame

 Here are the rest of the pictures I took of last year's game of Vitoria, which Anthony played using the Battle Cry rules system.

The Highlanders have pushed the French back across the River Zadorra and now prepare to cross in the face of opposition from an Italian regiment.

The French come under pressure in the centre.........

........while things go from bad to worse on their right flank.

The French take a hard pounding in the centre of the line......

.......and the Highlanders break through to isolate their right flank......

.......and as the Allies cross the river in force it's all over for the French.

I got along to the Spring Model Show yesterday, this is the rebranded name for the March event formerly known as the London toy Soldier Show.  There is still a hardcore of toy soldier dealers while the slack has been taken up by sellers of model kits and modelling materials, the later were doing a brisk trade and it is hoped that this shot in the arm will enable the event to continue, certainly there was a good stream of buyers coming in through the door.

I took the opportunity to stock up on acrylic paints made by ICM in the Ukraine and a few other bits which will no doubt find their way onto this page in due course.

More of the new display

I've been wondering which figures to display on the extra shelves I added to my IKEA display cabinet, this is what I've come up with so far:

Some Polish Lancers, the officer in the centre made in France by JIM, the troopers around him made in Poland by PZG (the Polish Association of the Deaf), beautiful figures destined to remain in the cabinet and not risk the rigours of the wargame table.

The Corsican Ogre himself, made by Cyrnos, the Mamelouk standard bearer made by JIM as are the Carabinier and Hussars behind them. 

The Duke of Marlborough, mounted by Cherilea and on foot made by Tradition, the Grenadiers in the background are repainted Cavendish figures.

A hotchpotch of American Revolution figures, many converted from old Britains swoppets and Helmet kits parts by Denis Donovan and Gareth Lloyd, who have established an enviable reputation for such work.

Unknown Hussar conversion from Britains hollowcast toy soldier.

 This is a conversion of an old Britains hollowcast toy Hussar into.... well another Hussar, but who or which Regiment does he represent?  

The horse's forelock, mane and tail have been built up with solder rather than a modelling clay, which we would use today, also a pelisse has been added to the rider from lead sheet.  The horse has been painted in gloss while the rider and saddle are in matt paint.

On the tail of the shabraque I can just make out VII, and it looks like his busby has been heightened to appear earlier than the Victorian style on the original toy, also there is a small hole on the top where a plume would once have been. Other additions are the stirrups and valise visible in this picture.

Someone has invested a lot of time and skill into making him and I'd love to know who that was, it's very much the sort of thing that members of the BMSS (British Model Soldier Society) used to make in the 1950's and 60's so I'll be putting these pics up on Facebook in the hope that one of the senior members of the hobby might recognise the handiwork and even be able to tell me who made him.

A Crimean One Hour Wargame.

 A few  weeks ago we decided to hold an impromptu socially distanced game before the Powers that Be extended the lockdown to prohibit meetings of more than one household again.  These are strange times. The 2 metre wide table and a few other simple measures ensured that proper social distancing was observed, it's not difficult when there's a will and common sense prevails.  

Scenario One, Pitched Battle, was selected from OHW and toys suitable to the Crimean War were quickly garnered together.  The scenario called for a minimal terrain, the British drew units of infantry, skirmishers and cavalry while the Russians were favoured with infantry, cavalry and artillery!  Here's how it went:

Without any artillery the Brits had little option other than to pitch straight into the attack before the Russian guns ground them down.  "Into the Valley etc. etc."

Threatened on the flank, the Cossacks charge home but are bounced off by the doughty Dragoons of the Heavy Brigade, an immediate counter attack sees the Cossacks dispersed and routed.

Russian regular Infantry and Rifles wheel about to enfilade the advancing British line, they deliver a devastating volley that shatters a Regiment on the English right.

The thin red line holds and delivers it's own volley, both sides are now taking punishment and the British skirmishers have been brushed aside.  Here the British deploy their long range measuring tape.

The Battle began to pivot as the British faltered on their left but made gains on the right, at this point honours were even and it was still anybody's game.

Having seen off the Cossacks the redoubtable Dragoons followed through and rode down a Regiment of Infantry, only to flounder beneath the Russian guns on the ridge.  The withering Russian fire now began to tell and the British attack ground to a halt.  

The game lasted 8 moves, probably the quickest we've played, usually we go the full 15 rounds, but at least we got a game in, it was good to see toy soldiers back on the table and who knows when the next game will be?