Toy Fair Plunder & Welsh Rebellion !

Gas Masks galore!

Waifs and Strays......Stafford Toy Fair

The Stafford toy fair has yet to let me down in terms of toy soldier plunder and the one this Sunday past was no exception. I paid my £10 entry fee at 8am as is my usual practise and almost immediately found a few hollow cast figures that made me reach for my wallet. I bought four gas mask wearing British infantry at the trail, another one running with fixed bayonets, one crawling and one throwing a grenade. These seven cost me £12, slightly less than £2 each. I love buying these old figures for a pound each, but will happily pay two to three pounds each for better condition or harder to find figures. At the end of the day, they will virtually all be paint stripped and repainted, thereby reducing collectable value to zero. But I want them to repaint for my armies to play with, so value is not a consideration, but cost is. I do not want to pay high prices for figures I am going to devalue a week later! 

Within half an hour, I had found another table with lots of reasonably priced old metal and in particular, a lot of the aforementioned gas mask wearing British infantry. I negotiated a price of £35 for another ten charging, an Officer, a spade wielding figure and three line infantry kneeling to receive. A fraction over £2 each again, result!

Serendipity seemed to be in play once again, as these gas mask wearing figures are at the top of my 'wants list'. As I may have previously mentioned, I have been planning to create my own version of Dr Who's U.N.I.T. Mine needs to be turn of the 20th century appropriate however and I had been struggling to think of a suitable look that would make them stand apart from my other regiments. I eventually decided, that as the cutting edge special forces, specifically designed to deal with extra terrestrial or supernatural threats, that futuristic equipment would not be out of place. Hence the steel helmets and the 'spooky' gas masks! 

Unfortunately these figures had very rarely crossed my path and so far, including a gift from my good friend Michael, I had only recruited about seven figures. Well I now have sufficient (with a couple of planned conversions) to build all of my planned U.N.I.T. force. I still have to think of a new name for them though, as I associate U.N.I.T with the 1970s. 'The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen' is obviously not an appropriate title, but does have the sort of 'feel' that I want. Ideas are always welcome!

Steam roller with mechanic for scale

A few stalls later I spotted this little steam roller. I have been looking for a steam engine for two years now to help pull artillery. Unfortunately the beautiful die cast model steam engines that are available, are either way to big, or too small. I spotted this little model however and saw a conversion project. How much for what turned out to be a tin plate Minic model from I would guess, the 1940s? Three quid was the response from the dealer, which seemed very fair to me. Since getting it home I am tempted to just restore it as a civilian steam roller. I am undecided at present, but for some reason ,I am unusually pleased with this little acquisition!

Not more flora and fauna!

On a second sweep of the table where I bought the haul of gas mask soldiers, I spotted a box of trees, hedges and garden pieces. Do I need more of these lovely items? Not really but can you ever have too much of a good thing especially if the price is right? How much? £30 the lot was the reply.  That has worked out at 50p per item and they are in remarkedly good condition. I am sure I do now have enough flowers for my project and I certainly didn't need the flower beds. As for the trees, hedges, bull rushes etc, I can use as many as cross my path. I love turning these into little scatter scenes for the table and the cabinets. A great buy. 

As far as the pre war garden range is concerned, I now need to concentrate on buying a few select items rather than any more bulk purchases but if the price is right................

Milk crates made by Moko in the 1940s

Whilst buying the garden pieces, I noticed these two small milk bottle crates which the dealer kindly added to the purchase at no extra cost. A small item but one that scratched an itch. I have (sadly!) long been irritated by the Britains milkman holding a bottle of milk but only having large milk churns on his cart. Well no more! These are also quite rare little items and I was again more pleased than I should have been, to bring them back to Apperley Towers.  

So there we have it. A very satisfying morning out. 

A Welsh Rebellion! 

(or the founding of the Free Welsh Volunteers!)

Snowdonia snipers!

My imagi-nation forces have evolved into four contingents. The two faux British factions represent the Royalist forces and their opponents the Socialist rebels (armies red and khaki). The Socialists have an ally in the form of my faux French forces, whilst the Royalists are (hopefully) supported by my faux German forces (armies blue and grey). These four armies are largely formed, although I continue to refine the units and add items as opportunity and inspiration coincide. 

I have for some time wanted to expand these forces with the aforementioned 'UNIT' project and a 'Boer' type force. The Boers themselves would not fit into my imagi-nation world as it is confined to the British Isles with allies from Europe. It struck me however that a Boer type force could very well represent a force of volunteers fighting for a 'free Wales'! After all, the hills and valleys of Wales are ideal for a mobile guerilla type of warfare, utilising horses and ponies for mobility. 

This also gave me the opportunity to utilise a number of lovely figures from my favourite toy soldier manufacturer Replicants. No, not Boers, but various American Civil War figures (particularly some confederate sculpts), and a number of other 19th century poses from various sets Peter has released. Added to these I have a box of the Boer infantry from 'Armies In Plastic'.

,

Whilst I was planning to use a few hollow cast models for artillery and cavalry, I have now decided that  this relatively small force, will be almost exclusively plastic. The design and style of the plastic figures, doesn't fit well with the more rigid hollow casts.  After some minor conversions, I have now started to paint some of the figures for this project and thought I would show the first few efforts here. 

Replicants Napoleonic 95th Rifleman (Hagman?), slightly converted and recruited into the FWV

 I have plans to go for about 36 infantry, 12 mounted figures (to represent the mounted infantry), a small gun with crew and a command group. Somewhere around 55 to 60 figures in total. So far I have prepared the 36 infantry and the command group. I need to convert some artillerymen and purchase some mounted figures. This last unit is a bit of a challenge as I can't immediately think of a suitable figure range, apart from converting American civil war cavalry and mounted cowboys?

CIV regiment and staff

I did originally intend to use my 'slouch hat' (CIV) mounted figures that formed half of the mounted force in my army khaki. The more I looked at them however, the less I wanted to make them look more irregular. I like them as they are and a spin off  from this project is that I have expanded the 8 original troopers to 2 squadrons of 6 and added a 13th mounted officer to the staff group of the army. A kneeling figure with binoculars has also been added and I am very pleased with the outcome. I could still use the cavalry as 'stand ins' with my 'Free Welsh Volunteers' (FWV), until I have recruited some suitable replacements.

I will need some mules as well for the light artillery piece. In an ideal world, a Britains mountain artillery gun and pack mules would be the solution. I just need to source a set at a reasonable price! Good luck with that I hear you all say! Until then, I have a small gun and a couple of plastic pack mules which will do just fine.

Command

A few thoughts about blogs

I think  I had 14 followers. I now seem to have 13. If I was of a different disposition, this might be slightly worrying, but fortunately I don't really mind. I started this blog to share my toy soldier frolics with like minded individuals of whom I suspected there would be a very small amount. We are a niche, within a niche, but we are all passionate about our 54mm madness and toy soldiery. As long as my blog articles entertain and appeal to you, my like minded friends, I don't mind how many followers or views I get. So, whoever unfollowed me, I'm sorry to see you go, but I'm sure you had your reasons and you will always be welcome to return!

This thought does bring me to a topic which may be sensitive in some quarters.....blog adverts! Is it just me? I find adverts sometimes too intrusive. I don't know much about this topic, but I assume the adverts are a choice made by the author of the blog? Is everyone else is ok with adverts? I'm curious what you all think? 

My second blog is now set up but will not be launched for a few weeks. The working title is 'Ratspike and Renegades' which may mean something to those of you steeped in early Warhammer and Games Workshop terminology. It is a blog dedicated to my 25mm sci fi and fantasy activities and I am thoroughly enjoying writing articles for it! I don't think it will have a detrimental effect on this blog, as it will consist of shorter single articles, which won't take as long to write. I hope some of you will find my efforts there of interest as well, but I suspect I will mainly attract a new audience. Anyway, you will hear all about it here first, as someone once said!

Tara a bit!