Maratha mobile artillery

Almost a year has passed since the last Plastic Warrior toy Soldier Show in London and as this year's event approaches I realise that I never posted my finds from last year, this was the highlight for me:

This Maratha gun mounted on an ox wagon was made by modeler Ian Walden who has been converting figures to this period for many years now and only offers them for sale once a year at the PW show.

The cart should be pulled by a pair (or more) of Gaur but Ian couldn't find any so these oxen had to step in.  The cart itself was a tourist souvenir of a jaunting car, the gunners are made from the crew of the Britains RNLI lifeboat, the boy leading the cart is from the farm series and the chap running behind the cart with a barrel of powder and bucket of balls was a cheapo China pirate.

The first year that Ian brought his Maratha figures to the show he had camel mounted gunners and I shied away from buying them because of the price and I've regretted that ever since, so now I don't ask the price I just hand over the cash and take everything he's got. Over the years I have been steadily building up a force of infantry, cavalry and elephant troops, I now have reasonable numbers for a small game, still regret not getting those camels though!

Sadly I learned a few weeks ago that Ian had passed away suddenly and those of us that knew him are still thrown by the loss, he was a great character and one of the most imaginative people I've had the pleasure to know. 

The 2016 Plastic Warrior Toy Soldier Show will be held on Saturday 14th May  at the usual venue

here: Plastic Warrior Show

Soldiers in Silloth come to London

Up in Cumbria there is a museum dedicated to Toy Soldiers, it's called Soldiers in Silloth and for just 3 days part of their collection is coming south to London courtesy of those nice Swedes at IKEA.  The Exhibition opened yesterday and ends on Saturday (24th January), its at the The Proud Archivist, 2-10 Hertford Rd, London N1 5ET, so if you happen to be in London why don't you pop along, as I did yesterday.

A selection of types from the Imperial French Army of 1870 fill one half of a cabinet while their Prussian opposition (out of picture) command the other half.

Lone Star paratroopers force their way across a Bailey Bridge in face of stiff opposition from the Afrika Korps.  I don't know who made the bridge, which all breaks down into it's constituent parts, but I've been after this item for as long as I can remember......and that's a long time......even though my memory isn't what it used to be!

The Foreign Legion advance across the burning sands against rebellious tribesmen who are (as all good guerrilla fighters should be) out of  shot.

French, Swiss and Danish troops on parade to show how International this hobby of collecting toy soldiers is.

A wider shot of the collectors cabinets (which are actually the point of the exhibition) with Peter Evans (left) from Plastic Warrior magazine and Tim Barker who created the museum.

My apologies for the poor quality of the pictures and some of the better ones didn't even come out - Elastolin, Starlux and Russian made medievals to name but a few.  

The exhibition at the Proud Archivist is titled "The Collection" and has been organised by IKEA to showcase the various ranges of  display units they produce for displaying collections in the home, and very good they are too (I have some myself).  Apart from Toy Soldiers there are also collections of Vintage Cameras, Pez machines, Beatles memorabilia, Lego and Retro Fashion so there is plenty more to browse around

If you can't make it to the exhibition you can always make a note to visit the museum if you're holidaying in the Lake District - here is the link: Soldiers in Silloth

Figuren Magazin

The latest issue of Figuren Magazin hit the mat this weekend, it's the final issue for 2015 and I guess it got caught up with the Christmas post, nonetheless it's a very nice start to the new year.

Contents include:

Report on the 2015 International Toy Soldier Show at Bad Nauheim (I keep promising myself I'll try to get over to this show again each year)

The Berlin Humboldthain Flak Bunker - modelled in 1:24 scale

Review of CTS new plastic North Koreans

Composition Czech flag bearers made in the 1930's by a firm called Oexle (which are new to me)

Richard the Lionheart - character figures by Starlux from the French ORTF TV series

Three comic book heroes from Spain - Prinz Eisenherz etc.

"Every Sunday the Colts smoked" - a look at the Wild West figures spawned by all those cowboy series on TV in the 1960's

The Western Train made by Hausser (Elastolin) - it's origins (the prototype)

The Arabs by Timpo - more plastic colour variations

Reports on the Toy Soldier Shows in Herne, Neustadt, Altenburg, Wohlen and Hamburg

"Toy Soldiers in the Great War" an exhibition at the Museum Porte de Halle in Brussels - there's a PDF version of the booklet accompanying the exhibition which may be of some interest HERE

Book Review - Encyclopedia of the German Tinplate Toy Industry

A sample page of the Bad Nauheim show report, lots of pics and not much text, that's just how I like to see reviews.

Printed in German throughout, but easy to follow with lots of images.  A few too many show reports in this issue for my liking but hey, it's just as well to get them out of the way in one go.  In recent years there have been a lot of small firms setting up in Germany making 7cm figures in the style of the old composition but  made in resin and they only seem to show their wares at the German shows.   

A subscription of 4 issues costs 33 Euro to Europe or 39 Euro to Rest of World. More details here: Figuren Magazin

London Toy Soldier Show - December 5th 2015

Yesterday I trollied off to the London Toy Soldier Show, I don't care for the commute into Town at the best of times but have to admit that I felt a little uneasy navigating the London Underground in the wake of recent events in Paris and elsewhere.  However, we can't let such fears dictate our lives and I was in desperate need for a fix of plastic and metal, so here are a few items that aroused my curiosity.

The idea of transporting medieval artillery is something which has rather slipped below my radar so I was quite amused by this piece, although not amused enough to pay £80 for it.  Somewhere or other I'm sure I have a spare set of Marx bullocks, from the remould western waggon, harnessed up like this which could be pressed into such service.

This one I really liked but I'm not sure how feasible it would be for that horse to push the gun forward like that, what do you think?  I didn't get a note of who made these two but they have given me some food for thought on future scratchbuilding. 

This King & Country stuff has to be admired but is way out of my budget (at £120), still, more food for thought and I know I have plenty of Britains camels and spare Saracens knocking around.

A Samurai group by First Legion, nice to see the armour details and colours, another project I've been squirrelling away the figures for and must get around to basing and painting (maybe over the holiday period)

So what did I get?  well quite a lot really but mostly figures from the junk boxes for conversions rather than collectable items and a small hoard of catalogues from an old timer who was having a clear out, more of this anon when time permits.

7YW Cavalry.....but which Regiment?

Over the past few years I have been building up a Prussian army for the 7 Years War, some of which has featured on this blog and that of Vauban & Shandy  The quality of modelling hasn't been as high as the period deserves due to the limitations of my skill and patience, both of which are intolerably low, but they have a naive charm to them which works for me. 

So what is this ramble all about?  well, since before I started this project I've always wanted to have a unit of Hussars in mirliton helmets and about a year ago I picked up four suitable heads from Alexanders Toy Soldiers (ATS) - this is what I did with them:

The ATS heads on Dulcop Napoleonic hussar bodies and mounted on horses by Jean Hoefler, the later are a bit "My Little Pony" but I quite like their jauntiness and they paint up nicely.

Since then I've squirrelled away enough body parts to make 24 figures, which in my little Toy Soldier world equates to three Regiments - but what to paint them up as?

My original thought was one of those black clad Totenkopf outfits but now that seems a bit dramatic for the table top and in any case I do like a bit of colour.   Also, what to do with the other two Regiments?  I currently have one each of Cuirassiers and Dragoons so three units of Hussars would surely be too unwieldy?

I draw heavily on the Kronoskaf site for research and I'm currently recruiting for the armies of  Brandenburg, Austria and Russia, as well as others outside the 7YW period, so my question to you dear reader is what should I paint these three Regiments up as?  Your consideration in this matter is much appreciated.