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.

New Book - Soldats Pastiques: Cyrnos et Jim

Available at the Plastic Warrior Show a couple of weeks ago was this new book on two major French manufacturers: Cyrnos and JIM (Jouets Incassables Modernes en Matiere Plastique).  Once you get past the major Marques of CGB Mignot, Quiralux and Starlux, French made figures in all their metiers are notoriously difficult to identify, they carry little in the way of markings, while packaging, advertising and catalogues hardly exist (compared to the plethora of material surviving for U.S. British and German makers) and so this book is much overdue and greatly welcomed.

Soldats Plastiques - Cyrnos et Jim, author Alain Thomas, www.impribeau.be  A4 soft cover format, 136 pages illustrated throughout in full colour.  Depot legal: D/2013/6284/1

Written by Alain Thomas who is well known for his previous three books on Starlux which were written in collaboration with Jerry Meimoun, I couldn't see any ISBN number so take it to be self published, as is increasingly the case these days.  My copy cost me £25, I think you can buy it a bit cheaper direct from the author but then you have to pay postage so it all works out even in the end.

The text is only in French but it is very easy to follow even if you have very basic language skills (like me), as always with such books they are all about the pictures and this one does the job admirably as you can see from the sample page above.  The first 70 pages concern JIM and the remainder are devoted to Cyrnos, each section follows the history of each company from aluminium into plastic figures, how to identify them and then a pictorial cataloguing of their various ranges.  Both companies products are common enough in France but don't appear to have ever been exported so have only become known outside their mother country in recent years through the more International collectors shows or the ever present ebay.  This book is well researched and beautifully presented, the figures of these two companies deserve to have a much higher profile on collector's radar and I understand that this may be the first in a series of such publications on the lesser known French manufacturers.  Highly recommended.

There's going to be a BIG PARTY in London tonight.......

No.......... it's not the opening of the Olympics......................

There'll be lots of Music..............

Lots of Women..............

Lots of Dancing..............

Lots of Eatin' and Drinkin'............

Everybody'll have a good time...........until the drink runs out, then.........

Lots of Fightin'.............

Have a Good Day!!!!!!!!!!

Seen at the Plastic Warrior Show - May 2012

Now that I feel suitably recovered from the exertions of the day here are a few of the photos I took at the Plastic Warrior Show last weekend:

This rather fine mounted Saracen made in France by JIM was on the stall of Belgian collector Daniel Lepers, shame about the horse's tail though.

The joy of attending a show is the plethora of boxes to rummage through.

Even bigger boxes, plenty of raw materiel for collectors building armies or making conversions.

And then some good stuff

At the start of the show these shelves were full, you can see from the gaps that by the time I got my camera out nearly half had been sold by collector Joe Bellis.  Click on the picture to enlarge then click again and you will see:

Top row - bartender and gambler with derringer pistol from the Cherilea Western Bar Brawl set.

Second row - Large scale (65/70mm) Lone Star Indians, these have swoppet heads, looks like the whole set here.

Third row - The Cherilea Great Helm Knight, originally made in hollow cast lead as part of the Baronial Series, the mould for the horse was modified for the plastic version to make it a rearing rather than charging pose, also I have never seen the plastic version with the knights helm so I suspect they dispensed with it.

Fourth row - Four Monarch Highlanders (two each with double handed sword and claymore and buckler shield) which I mentioned recently in the post about Monarch Conquistadors, a Speedwell FFL, a Trojan WW2 Australian and at the end a Britains ECW roundhead.

Fifth row - A couple of the rare Crescent 65mm Mohicans, a Cherilea Davy Crockett, seven Timpo Cossacks - very hard to find these undamaged, Charbens FFL officer and another of the Trojan Australians.

Bottom row - Crescent mounted Arabs, FFL and First World War British Cavalry, the foot figures are two Cherilea Nubians, a prone Japanese machine gunner from Trojan (hard to see), a very rare Cherilea Indian firing a bow - previously made in hollow cast lead and finally a Cherilea Davy Crockett.

The Three Musketeers

My final post from the London Show, three French plastic musketeers, the first made by JIM (Jouets Incassables en Matiere Plastique) the second and third are unknown - hopefully someone from the French forum soldat plastique 1/32 will be able to shed some light.  What I found interesting was that No.2 is the same figure as No. 3  but has his hat moulded as part of the original figure whereas the other has had it moulded separately and glued on afterwards, also their bases are very different.

All three have lost their swords, which is a common enough problem with French figures which were mostly made in hard plastics or acetate rather than the more supple poly plastics used in the UK and USA.  The JIM figure originally had a sword moulded in plastic but the other two originally had a piece of metal wire to represent a sword.  I will probably repair all three with a length of wire and I'm tempted to repaint them but I quite like their "shabby chic" look and besides my painting pie is large enough already without adding to it.