King & Country WW2 Italian Askaris

On Saturday I went to the December 2012 London Toy Soldier Show, which is now operated by Guideline Publications and has moved venue to the Business Design Centre in North East London.  The new venue is large and airy and easy to find but people generally don't like change and a number of the stands I had hoped to see felt the move was a journey too far, in fairness driving in this part of London is a nightmare and parking costs an extortionate £30.  The Skirmish Wargames Group who have to bring most of their kit by public transport did not make the show, this was a major blow to me as the SWG game is always a major highlight of my day.

So what was there to see?  well lots of nice modern metal figures but not a lot to speak of in the way of old toy soldiers, nothing to get the blood racing at any rate, so I have a few bits but not a lot to share over the next few days. 

One thing I did like was this mini WW2 diorama on the King & Country stand, I don't know if this is new but I don't recall seeing it before and as I have "thing" for Askaris I don't think I would have passed it by, I particularly like the Bersaglieri motor cyclist and the chaps in the tower having a piggy back!

I should mention the change of location for the show was forced on Guidline due the proposed redevelopment of part of the previous venue, the organisers have done well to find and alternative site but the show was moved out from Central to North East London once before without success!

Q. When is a Panzer not a Panzer?

A. When it's an aquarium ornament!  On a recent fell walking break in the Lake District I wandered into one of those great big out of town retail estates that pop up in the most unexpected places (it really was in the middle of nowhere, I'd give you the map grid reference if I'd thought to keep a note of it).  Anyway, this one had a massive "pets_and_everything_else_in_the_world_R_us" type store so I went in because I always like to check out the aquarium ornament section in case it it has anything I can use for wargaming - this time I realy hit paydirt

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The Tiger tank is a little small for 54mm figures but the Hanomag and truck are just about right, the crashed pane is quite large and would probably fit well with 7cm composition figures.  There was also a rather super sunken battleship sporting lots of combat damage which could probably have been painted up for WW1 or WW2, sadly it was displayed in a fish tank which was so dark I couldn't get a decent picture of it.  It would have been ideal as SMS Konigsberg in a Rufiji Delta scenario that I've had in the back of my mind to play these past few decades but try as I might I couldn't bring myself to part with £45 for it and at two foot long it wouldn't go in my rucksack!    Ho Hum.

Unknown machine gunner

For a prone laying pose this figure is nicely animated, it's 54mm scale in plastic, I don't know who made it but it was sold by a Belgian dealer at the PW show so I think it's safe to say it's either Belgian or French, on balance the style of it suggests the latter to me.

Since writing this post the figure has been shown on the French Plastique Soldat 1/32 forum and the consensus of opinion is that it was made in France by Colorado.