New book on Greek Plastic Toy Soldiers from the 50's and 60's

Another book about toy soldiers is always welcome in my house, this one written by collector Markos Plytos covers the stories and products of the two main Greek toy soldier manufacturers, PAL and their better known rival Athena (AOHNA) who eventually took them (PAL) over.  ISBN 978-960-7661-91-3.  It has 235 pages, illustrated throughout in full colour, the author has done a lot of original research and shows that these two companies did a lot more than just the Hoplites and Evzones for which they are best known.

40mm semi-flats by Holger Eriksson for Authenticast - confirmed

Hidden in the bottom of the junk box I bought at the London Show last weekend were more of the 40mm semi-flat Authenticast figures that I recently blogged about, and here they are:

There are three of each pose shown above but sadly no box, I'm not usually bothered about boxes and frankly the whole concept of something being better or more valuable because it's mint and boxed just grinds my gears but in this case the absence of a box leaves me with more questions than answers.  With the previous sets of 7YW infantry and Arabs all the places in the boxes are filled so I know that they are the full set complete with individual portrait figures of standard bearers etc.  In the case of these new figures I'm left wondering if they are both from the same set or separate sets of WW2 British infantry and Sikhs, also were there any other poses?  However what I do know this time is that they were definitely sculpted by Holger Eriksson, apart from the unmistakable poses and chiseled finish they are marked HE under the base.  Semi flat figures are not every bodies cup of tea (not mine either really) but discovering these unexpectedly in a box of junk gave me a moment of pure serendipity.

Homecast Toy Soldiers at the London Show March 2012

An assortment of 56mm Prussian infantry castings

Various old homecasting moulds

This two part mould for a Prussian Hussar on prancing horse is marked JDEAL, a German company actually called IDEAL, which made copies of Gebr. Schneider moulds.

New to the London Show was a chap called Mark Shilam who had a table full of old homecasting moulds and various castings for sale.  Mostly they were old Schneider Brothers hand clamp moulds but there were also quite a few rubber Prince August moulds for 54mm figures.  What interested me was that Mark told me his father used to make toy soldiers from the moulds and sell them commercially, I had heard that people used to do this but this was the first time I'd met someone who actually diid it.  Usually in the run up to Christmas his father would go into the garden shed for days at a time pouring the moulds and cleaning the castings, Mark was then a schoolboy and would spend all of his spare time in the evenings and weekends painting them, they would sell them in markets and anywhere else that people would take them.  Mark was selling everything up on behalf of his father who is now too old and unwell to continue the business.

On another stall I found a junk box with a variety of homecast figures going cheap:

Two Turks but I don't know what the paint scheme is meant to represent, I think they will be taking a bath in paint stripper farily soon.

A French? bugler and British infantryman

Finally an Uhlan and a Cossack.

Fontanini figures seen at the London Toy Soldier show March 2012

I spotted these figures made in Italy by Fontanini on one of the tables at the London Show and couldn't resist taking a few pics. The foot figures turn up quite often but you rarely ever see the mounted ones, they are a bit on the smallish side being about 50mm but I particularly like the rather animated poses.

London Toy Soldier Show March 2012 - Skirmish Wargames Group

The Skirmish Wargames Group continue with their run of 54mm wargames at the London Toy Soldier Show, this time with a scenario set on the Nile in Ancient Egypt (these games are always based on an historical battle and I forgot to take a note of which one this was, for which I am most remiss).  I've said it before (many times) and no doubt I'll keep repeating that these games are one of the highlights of the Show for me, the figures and landscapes they display are always imaginative and built to the highest quality.

The figures were supplied by Ted Herbert who found the Nile boat above in a junk shop in Cairo, you dn't get more authentic than that!

The figures include various makes such as Atlantic, Cherilea and Del Prado, by painting and mounting them in the same style they fit togehter well despite being slightly differing sizes.

The chariots are Del Prado, you have to buy six partworks to get all the bits to make just one chariot. 

The Group were celebrating the 100th edition of their newsletter "Reports from the skirmish line".  Well done you chaps!