HM of GB Tudor range

 The only painted metal I managed to pick up at the London Show last month were these two examples of artillerymen from the short lived HM of BG Tudor World range, the chipped paint might need a bit of a touch up!

The gun is borrowed from somewhere else (Sikh artillery) but looks okay with these Tudor chaps, they will join the Monarch, Barzo and Chintoys Conquistadors to beef up the Wars of Religion project which is very slowly taking shape here.  Rather neat little figures I think and an unusual subject.

This is the full set of Tudor figures from the HM of GB catalogue, the mounted figure of Henry VIII is really quite fine and I wouldn't mind getting a few more of these.  The firm mostly made British Colonial figures back around 1990 and quite nice they were too, particularly a mule gun battery, they exhibited for several years at the Olympia Toy Trade Fair in London but despite this they never really took off with collectors.  

1920's Lineol Knight

This mounted knight stands 140mm from base to top of plume and was part of an early set of medieval figures produced in the 1920's by Lineol.  Made from the usual "sawdust and glue" composition material it was part of a jousting tournament, with six foot figures representing members of the Court and attendants plus two mounted knights with two different horses.  The other knight had a couched lance on a rearing horse, I once had the other horse and it was one of the most spectacular pieces I've ever owned but I let it go to a German dealer......... and have regretted that ever since!

The horse trappings are parti-coloured green and white but this one has clearly collected a lot of grime over the past hundred years. I really should give him a gentle clean but I rather like the aged patina and if I removed it I really couldn't wait around another hundred years for it to come back!

USS San Pueblo at the London Toy Soldier Show

 Back in December I went along to the London Toy Soldier Show, I have to admit I was checking each day that it wouldn't be cancelled at the last minute, but they stuck to their guns and with due social distancing it went ahead.  

One of the highlights for me was this rather nice model of the USS San Pueblo, I didn't catch the name of the maker but no doubt it will come to light at some point, in the meantime I thought I'd share it anyway.  (sure enough, within an hour Antony Spencer has advised me that it's made by The British Toy Soldier Company)

Those sailors to look pretty smart.

I quite liked the backdrop of 2D Chinese shopfronts too.

I thought the mood in the show was rather sombre, but that's only to be expected in the circumstances.  Still, it didn't stop me adding to the pile of unpainted figures and it was great to get together again with like minded friends for the usual after show drink.

Gustav 1 Vasa by Holger Eriksson

From the Tennfigurer range of model soldiers produced by the master sculptor Holger Eriksson, I don't know who painted him but I think they did a great job on this fine figure.

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE.

Who remembers Historic Battles?

 I don't, and I'm sure I would have done.  It was a sticker album full of pictures of famous battles with blank spaces where you inserted the the numbered stickers to complete the image.  It was published by Cox international of Antwerp and the text is in French, German, English, Italian and Dutch, there's nothing to indicate the date of publication but it does appear to have been distributed in the UK.  

This is the cover of the album with examples of the stickers and the packets they came in, you got two stickers in each pack and you needed to collect 306 different ones to fill all the blanks.  Before the advent of the Almark and Osprey uniform books I used to rely mostly on postcards, cigarette and bubble gum cards for uniform info, and I would have loved this.

There are 17 Battles depicted and the  album opens with the Salamis then runs chronologically through to the Six Day War.  I think the illustrations are amazing, just the sort of thing I rely on to give me a bit of inspiration when the toy soldier spirit is flagging.

Each Battle covers a double page spread and I've endeavoured to get as much of each one as I could into the photo.  There are a few surprises among the conflicts included, this is Wahlstadt (1241) fought between the Teutonic Knights and the Mongols, I've never heard of it before.

One of my favourites is Lepanto, shown above, but my absolute favourite has to be Adowa in the two pics below.

I heard about the album from friends in Germany where it's available quite cheaply still on ebay, I got 200 packets of stickers with it but still need about another 100 to fill all the blanks so there are lots of doubles.

Peeling off the stickers and pasting them into the pages is a very therapeutic way to spend a few hours!