Rose Model Soldiers catalogue 1957

I never really got the bug for painting the white metal Military Models that proliferated during the mid 1970's, I dabbled of course but never really developed the skill or patience for all that shadowing and highlighting which became the fashion so beloved of the international modelling magazines. Some people painted them sumptuously in oils others went for the ultimate in authenticity by using vegetable dyes, for me, that path would ultimately have led to madness so I stuck to my tins of Humbrol gloss enamels and did them in Old Toy Soldier style.  Probably my favourite manufacturer of this time was Rose Models sculpted by Russell Gammage so I was delighted to discover this:

I recently bought up a selection of old magazines and while flicking through them what should fall out but this rather quaint Rose Models Soldiers catalogue from 1957.  It is an A4 sheet folded into A5 and printed on one of those old Roneo reprographic machines that we used in school before the advent of the photocopier, the sort that you fitted a carbon sheet to and turned the handle.  The smell of solvent filled the room so you felt high as a kite by about page 15, then the paper feed went askew but you didn't notice until about page 60 so every sheet had to be amended by hand where it had misprinted.  They were great days.

It's not a great document in the scheme of things but it gave me a moments amusement so I thought I would share it for anyone with a memory of Rose.  I never realised they'd been in business since the 1950's (never gave it a thought really) so I was interested to see the prices - 5 shillings (25p in today's worthless coinage) for an unpainted foot figure, in the late 1950's that would have bought you at least 5 pints of beer, today that would make the castings £17.50 each (all figures based on London beer prices).

There is no mention of Gammage's smaller scale wargame figures so I guess they didn't come out until some years later.  Since publishing this post Rob (Xaltotun of Python) has kindly directed me to a post on the Old Metal Detector blog showing that the first two Rose wargaming figures were listed in the 1956 catalogue and I subsequently noticed that what I have here is a supplement to that list.

Posts to this blog have been rather sparse of late because we recently suffered a burglary, thankfully little was taken (causing Mrs C. to observe that our electrical goods are so big and obsolete as to be not worth nicking) but the haul included my camera, and as my web/blog philosophy is to be big on images while short on text this loss has had a very limiting effect on me.  Even greater disruption has been caused by the subsequent fallout - dealing with Police and Insurers (both very helpful) changing locks, adding locks, raising the height of fences and installing an alarm system (the latter a neat piece of kit based on wireless technology which will even send me a text if the miscreant should return for a second round!).  Hopefully normal service will be resumed as soon as the insurance claim is settled, in the meantime I am reduced to the use of my scanner and whatever stock photos I can dig up.

Vosper MTB102

For the past 12 months, Mrs C and I have been walking the dog for an elderly neighbour who has been unwell, this morning we decided to walk him along the river where we came across this MTB gently bobbing against the quay at Eel Pie Island.

To be precise it's the Vosper Motor Torpedo Boat 102, an experimental craft launched in 1937 and just over a week ago it participated in the Jubilee River Pageant.

When I was a schoolboy I was an avid reader of the Victor comic and one of my favourite series was called "Under Two Flags" (not to be confused with the Foreign Legion novel by Ouida) which was about a Royal Navy squadron consisting of a MTB and a captured German E Boat which constantly surprised and outwitted old Jerry, I've always had a bit of a thing for MTB's since then.

It's always fun to discover something unexpectedly!

What really struck me was how small the torpedo tubes looked, perhaps because it was an experimental craft?

A Guardsman is a Guardsman.......is a Guardsman

If you happen to be British then perhaps the most iconic toy soldier is the guardsman, standing to attention in his red tunic and busby.  Everyone who has ever owned a toy soldier will at some time probably have had one but what do you do with them?  The only time the British army ever fought in a uniform vaguely resembling this was during the Crimean War, which the toy soldier industry has chosen to totally ignore! 

The other sin of the industry, looking back from the lofty pinnacle of political correctness, is one of ethnicity.  There are five Regiments of Guards: Grenadier, Coldstream. Scots, Irish and Welsh but the toymakers will invariably only offer you the Grenadiers or Scots.  Does it matter?  Not really (unless you happen to be of Irish extractions, as I am, or perhaps Welsh).  And the point of this post is ............how do you tell them apart anyway?   On this occasion Her Majesty, no less, comes to our assistance with a poster outside Buckingham Palace explaining the uniform variations - it's all about plumes and buttons (note also the buttons on the cuffs).  The photographer captured in the reflection is non other than your humble reporter before being hauled off to the Tower.

HAC Open Day 2011

Last Wednesday Mrs C was flicking through her favourite blogs (like you do) and found this entry on Tired of London, tired of life

The Honourable Artillery Company is the oldest Regiment in the British Army and they were holding an open evening that day as a recruitment event but also to raise money for charity. This has now become an annual event and it is only on for 3 hours but entry is free and they certainly pack a lot into that short space of time. We arrived shortly after the doors had opened and there was already long queues at the food tents where free (donations gratefully acccepted) burgers, chinese noodles and mini pizzas were being served up, next to these was the beer tent. We did a circuit of the static displays, field hospital, survival equipment, ordnance vintage and modern but best of all was the Chinook, surrealy parked before the high rise offices of the City.

The programme opened with a display of exercises by the Kings Troop Royal Horse Artillery towing a 13lb gun, personally I never tire of watching them wheel those guns around.

Next up was a display by the Company of Pikemen and Musketeers who provide the escort to the coach of the Lord Mayor of London during his Annual Procession, while the Lady Mayoress' coach is escorted by the Light Cavalry, below.

The HAC is a Territorial (Reserve) Regiment of the the British Army which specialises in surveilance and target aquisition for the artillery, members of the Regiment have been mobilised for service in Iraq and Afghanistan. Next followed two displays by No. 2 squadron, the first was set during the Boer War and involved calling up the guns to support infantry ambushed by a Boer Kommando. The second was a similar scenario set in modern day Afghanistan. Both displays involved lots of explosions and much smoke, I love this kind of thing.

By now the dusk ws settling in and with all the smoke let off visibility was poor but we were reaching the finale of the event, the Band of the HAC came on wearing the uniforms of the Grenadier Guards, with whom they are affiiliated, followed by the take off of the Chinook from which there was to be a parachute drop.

The Chinook hovered above us for an age looking like a big dark malevolent bee.

The band struggled valiantly to be heard above the noise and wind from the Chinook rotors as it took off, a flare was set off on the ground (behind the band above) to guide the parachutist back to the field. Unfortunately the sky was so overcast, the ground shrouded in smoke and the wind so strong that the crowd held it's collective breath as we watched the parachutist carried away into the streets and office blocks of the surrounding district. Some time later the lone parachutist strode back into the arena, carrying his unfolded chute, to a rapturouse applause from the crowd.