Battleships belching Smoke and Flame by Heyde?

This rather nice little set of Battleships has left me with something of a quandary. 

I think they are meant to be Pre-dreadnoughts (though I am no expert in ship design) and show two ships of the Imperial German Navy battling it out with a sole Frenchy off the coast of Denmark, as denoted by the lighthouse sporting the Danish flag.  But what does this group represent?  I don't think it could be a Franco Prussian War encounter because the ships look much later and anyway the Imperial Navy wasn't founded until 1871, also I can't find any mention of an action between German and French Naval forces in the North Sea in WW1. 

Who made them?  Well Haffner and Spenkuch seem to have been the the main providers of semi flat battleships but I've looked through several books on early German leads and the examples I've found by these companies don't look anything like the above.   The nearest thing I could find in terms of sculpting and paint style is by Heyde, which is curious because this firm mostly made it's vehicles, vessels and accessories 3D in tinplate.

A great set, I particularly like the ram on the French ship but the secondary armament firing from a cupola half way up the mask seems a bit incongruous to me, is this correct? 

Abu Klea and others by John Jenkins Design at the London Toy Soldier Show

John Jenkins Design have been around for a while but I don't recall seeing them at the London Show before, maybe they were there but tucked away in a dark corner.  Anyway last month they had a stand in a big bright area where I had expected to find my old friends from White Tower Miniatures and I have to say I was quite taken with some of their dioramas.

I assume this to be the Battle of Abu Klea because it depicts Mahdists rushing the Gardner gun manned by the Naval Brigade at the corner of the British square...........

.........but taking a closer look at the gun I think it looks more like a Gatling.  Still, a very nice piece of work which deserves better than a bit of nit picking from an old fogey like me.

Still in the Sudan we find this rather fine little vignette of Gen. Gordon's last moments at Khartoum.

And finally, the Highlanders storm the French lines somewhere in North America.

I don't collect modern white metal models like these but there are plenty of people who do so these few pics are for the benefit of those unable to travel to the shows, but also for those like me who need inspiration for conversion ideas and wargame scenarios.

Wagon Train in 20mm from 1960

Tying up the last few odds and ends that I came across at the London Toy Soldier show last month, among which were this rather dinky plastic Wagon Train set tied in to the Universal TV show which ran from 1957 to 1965.

Helpfully the backing card carries the copyright date of 1960, which can be seen in the bottom right hand corner.  It amused me that the manufacturer used such a large package to emphasise the media tie in for three such tiny little wagons.

This close up of one of the wagons also catches the manufacturer Morestone's (Morris and Stone) brand mark BUDGIE.  Morestone's were the firm that employed Roy Selwyn-Smith and Charlie Biggs to make the moulds for the old Timpo hollowcast figures, Selwyn-Smith was the sculptor and Biggs engraved the detail into the brass moulds.  Later they both went off to work for ZANG on the Herald range and when that company was bought out by Britains they both ended up as Directors of the company.  I vaguely recall that Morestone's made quite a range of diecast vehicles back in the day.

Skirmish Wargame Group - Toussaint L'Ouverture game in 54mm

The Skirmish Wargames Group are well known for picking some unusual scenarios but at the London Toy Soldier Show in June I think they surpassed themselves with a game set around the slave revolt of 1792 in Saint Domingue (Haiti).  A very confused affair in which plantation slaves rose against the French colonists and were armed by the Spanish (who occupied the eastern end of the island) and the British, who mounted an amphibious landing.  They then rallied to the French when the Revolutionaries abolished slavery and, led by the very able freed slave Francois Toussaint L'Ouverture, they ousted the Anglo Spanish garrisons and set up their own government.  Subsequently Toussanit found himself fighting the French again when Napoleon became First Consul and sent an expedition to reclaim the Island and reinstate the slave trade.

An overview of the table, in the centre a plantation building surrounded by bush and cane fields, at the far end the slaves are rousing themselves with voodoo incantations.  The fun thing about the SWG is their inventive use of scenery and accessories, the bushland is made from teddy bear fur while the plantation building has seen service as a Russian dacha for various periods.

The insurgents led by Toussaint L'Ouverture advance through the bush, the great man himself is in the left foreground sporting a bicorne with red and white plume, a band of armed Mulattos move forward on their right flank.  Toussaint and his men are new metal figures made by Beau Geste of Argentina.

Among the troops sent by Napoleon to retake the island in 1802 were these Polish regulars, also made by Beau Geste, and led by an officer from Replicants

When the French expedition arrived Toussaint led his men into the interior and fought a guerrilla campaign, which is the scenario for this game.  Although Toussaint surrendered early on and the country was soon pacified after that, the withdrawal of freedom and equal rights soon led to further insurrection and mutiny against the French, whose biggest enemy was now yellow fever.

I'm not sure where this chap fits in the story but he's a nice character figure and in period costume so why not?

The French colonists, figures from various sources and in sizes from 54mm up to 70mm it just shows that you can get away with mixing scales if you just don't stand the figures too close together!

The free mulattos were given equal rights with white and creole colonists after the storming of the Bastille but this was also revoked by Napoleon when he became First Consul. I think the mulattos above are conversions but I'm not sure from what.

The slaves practising voodoo are made from Marx Daktari set natives and some Hong Kong Tarzan figures.

Clairet Eskimos at the London Toy Soldier Show

I'm always on the lookout for something unusual when I go to the shows and here is something I was really pleased to find, it's the Clairet Arctic set.  I say Arctic set because it's got Inuit people and Polar Bears but commits the universal sin of including Penguins which are only found in the Antarctic.  Marx, Britains and Timpo all made Polar/Exploration sets but I don't think anything quite compares to Clairet, in fact of all the French manufacturers I rate them the best, being on a par with Elastolin for quality but with the advantage of being 54mm.

I was really taken with the ice flows and the sleighs pulled by reindeer, they're a nice touch to a very original set.

A close up of the figures, note the chap who has caught a fish in his two pronged trident, the one standing beside him with an oar looks as if he's frosted with ice but in fact this is a chemical reaction in the acetate plastic which will degenerate further over time causing crystals to form all over the figure.  There are some other poses which are not included here - two men carrying a polar bear slung from a staff between them and a man with a hunting eagle tethered to a pole. 

Final shot shows the sleigh pulled by huskies which I couldn't get into the main picture, also a better view of the huntsman with rifle who has a dead walrus at his feet