Those Daring Young Men In Their Flying Machines!

Some time ago, I promised to show a bit more of this beautiful wooden aeroplane. Well today is the day and I thought I would make it an 'Aero Special' and write about all of the air fleet currently flying from Apperley Towers.

This biplane was given to me by my very generous friend John Begg, after I commented on how nicely it would compliment hollowcast toy soldiers. John insisted that I give it a home here at Apperley Towers with my growing collection of old figures.

There is absolutely nothing to give us a clue about its origin. It is an expertly made model made from various hardwoods and metal components. Nothing about it suggests a mass made commercially produced model. The workmanship is meticulously precise and the result of many hours work. If I had to place a bet, it would be on a skilled craftsman producing it as a one off hobby project. There is little to date it apart from possibly the commercially produced plastic pilot, but its not new! My guess is 1960's to 1970's. 

 I will be only too pleased to give it a hanger to rest in, until its someone else's turn to look after it!

Here we see the oldest plane in the fleet. I can't recall where I recruited this one from but it seemed like a nice piece to add to my hollowcast collection. It is a fairly crude tin plate model made I would guess in the last 20 years. No pilot, no makers name, but I'm thinking China or the far East? 

Here aircrew are making some repairs or checks before flight. As with the wooden model,  have no way to actually put this one up in the air. Its construction makes it too heavy unless I build a really hefty flight stand. The alternative is to use a smaller 'stand in' during games, but I'm happy to use it as a scenario piece or just as a display piece in the cabinets.

This brings us to the newest ariel acquisition and in some ways my favourite of my little air fleet. This is the tinplate plane that I acquired at this years Plastic Warrior. 

This simply made tin plate model cost me £2 including the original Britains hollowcast pilot. Its a simple attempted copy of the Britains monoplane (?) made in the last 20 years, maker unknown. Its much lighter than the previous two planes and I decided early on that it would be put on a flight stand.

Now flight stands are an interesting proposition. A stick with a base into the underbody of the aircraft, is the normal way of doing them. In this case, I finally got to use a telescopic magnetic pen that I had bought many years ago with just such a use in mind. It cost a pound. It is a stainless steel, telescopic, pen sized device with a magnet on the end. It was sold to make your life easier when trying to pick up a small metallic object like a dropped screw. You took the 'pen' from your pocket, extended it to the required length and then picked up the screw with the magnet. Brilliant! Except how many years would you carry the damn thing around before the right opportunity to use it arose? 

As soon as I saw it, I thought of it as an extendable flight stick for a model aircraft. Well we wargamers are an inventive lot and can often see potential in all sorts of junk! I dug it out and found it attached really firmly to my new monoplane, so the die was cast!

Attaching it to a heavy base was the real challenge. It was then that I recalled that I had a Britains hollowcast tree in the spares box, which really was hollow! I opened up the top of the tree and found that the pen fitted almost perfectly inside the trunk. This mean that the 'pen' would not be visible. Additionally,  the tree would glue nicely to a base and being metal would make the base heavier and hence more stable. 

I then found other pieces of metal foliage and a lying tree trunk to add to the base, making it even heavier but also more attractive visually. The Plane was flying over a scenic woodland base which would look great on the table top.

More importantly the telescopic device meant I could alter the height the plane was flying to anywhere between about 6 to 18 inches. Result! I will admit to being more pleased than I should be with this little modelling project, but sometimes the fruition of a vision from several years ago, will have that effect. What do you think?

Tara a bit!

Post Script

Whilst researching the origins of a figure for my friend Michael, I spotted a plane which looked remarkably similar to my 'Britains copy'. The plane in question was by the French maker CBG Mignot. The cast engine and propeller is identical. I believe a new production run of this plane was produced in 1983 and I am beginning to wonder if this was indeed manufactured by them. I am still researching this and will update later! 

New Blog - Ratspike and Renegades

I have launched my new sci-fi and fantasy blog today.  I hope it will be of some interest to some of my regular readers. It covers a wide range of subject from art to books, lots of figures, games and  associated memories. All of it will fall under the general heading of Science Fiction and Fantasy. You will find that the products of Games Workshop feature heavily, but my Games Workshop interests are more what could be called 'Oldhammer' rather than the current, or even recent, production. I stopped buying new product almost a decade ago and focus mainly on pre 1990 figures and games. Click here Ratspike and Renegades to see the first post. I will post a second entry within 48 hours to give a better flavour of the somewhat eclectic mix that I have planned.

Hope to see you over on the other side!

Tara a bit! 

Plastic Warrior plunder !

The photo above is of a mule handler and his mule, a new figure set from Peter Cole at Replicants. This was one of three new sets Peter had for sale at Plastic Warrior . It is a fairly generic figure that could find use pretty well in any 18th and 19th century American conflict and I was happy to add one to my stash.

The second set is a venture into a new period for Replicants, with a set of  (French) resistance fighters. The set of 8 figures are not all new, the radio operator having been released last year. I believe it was an homage to Roy Selwyn Smiths father who was a radio operator in the merchant navy. Regardless it makes a splendid radio operator for a group of resistance fighters.  The two prone figures are a clever re use of two climbing figures which Peter made several years ago. The addition of rifles on their backs transforms them into two stealthy fighters.

The remaining five figures are totally new sculpts and a fine set they are. There is a man throwing a Molotov cocktail, a woman firing a rifle and a kneeling man firing a sten gun. The other two are my favourite figures, a man pressing a plunger on a detonator and best of all ,a woman holding a baby and pulling out a pistol from the babies wrap. All of these figures are in poses that we have seen in Hollywood films where the brave resistance fighters are ambushing a German patrol. 

Unfortunately the 2nd world war is not a period I wargame, so I bought two sets ! I see these  figures as the basis of either resistance fighters in my Royalist/Socialist civil war, or as a bunch of anarchists. Yes the weapons need a little tinkering with, particularly the sten gun, but they will pass otherwise for early 20th century fighters. 

Alternatively, they could be used as resistance fighters against a Dalek invasion! I just need a guy in a wheelchair to throw satchel bombs that don't work! 

The third release is my favourite! Peter has reworked his splendid mediaeval cart to update it to the 17th Century and the English Civil War. New wheels and a new carter figure and voila!

This is an extremely useful scenario piece and I bought two sets without hesitating. After the problems Peter had with making more copies of the mediaeval cart, I wasn't going to take any chances with this one. Highly recommended.

The mule handler was £4.50, the resistance set £16 and the cart £20. Very fair prices for great figures. Oh and Peter ,if you read this, please consider some Thirty Years War figures which would compliment your ECW range so well!

As a complete contrast, I picked up these splendid fellows for £3 each! Not sure of the maker but they are beautiful sculpts. They are to be 'Oliphants' in my 25mm Middle Earth collection. Large but not as stupidly large as the Mumakil in the film trilogy!

 Here we see three members of 'Jacks Jazz Band' recasts but nicely painted with two of the chairs that come with this set. I just need to find the rest but in the meantime, they will work as a trio to entertain my citizens! As a jazz fan myself, these appealed (£5 for the five pieces). 

The odd looking fellow at the back has a western string tie and a beer bottle in his hand. He will either join my western set up or become another citizen of the Empire and spend his days in the beer garden of the Flying Swan. The first of my 50p purchases!

These fine gentlemen also joined my collection for 50 pence each! A Lancer Officer and a special forces operative. Both will find a place in the barracks! These figures had all come out of  a box provided by Adrian Little. I had phoned him the week before Plastic Warrior and asked if he had any hollowcast and other lead bits he wanted to get rid of.  He did and bought a box of huge variety. 50p a bit he announced as I avidly scrambled through the potential treasures within! I eventually handed over more than £20 for a selection as varied as one could imagine. Some pieces were in great condition (as above) whilst others were damaged or devoid of paint....just how I like them. I have already passed on several pieces to friends but the following photos show the pieces still on my table.

Who wouldn't want a regimental mascot for 50P!

Hello sailor! Or in one case goodbye sailor as its destined for a boat in Michael Butterfields fleet.

Five mounted recruits. The Civil war officer just needs a tail on his horse and a repaint. A side project of mine is a hollowcast ACW collection. The other four figures will be stripped and await conversion/painting/recruitment into whichever new cavalry regiment needs them. Britains cavalry are so very versatile with often just a head swap needed!

Two fine and nice condition RAF chaps! The RAF features heavily in this post as you will see later.

More gas mask recruits for my early 20th century version of U.N.I.T from Dr Who. These chaps just about give me enough of the metal ones.

The smaller scale Hussar is a little bit of a mystery. I don't think its Britains but who knows! The scale is tricky, 45mm maybe? Its shown next to a gift from my good mate Brian Carrick of a French Cuirassier ( I now only need one more for my full regiment)

Here we see the best find and possibly the rarest Britains figure I own. This is a Britains pilot form their extremely rare aeroplane series. The Planes are very rare and expensive so there can't be many of the pilot figures about either. I shall still repaint him but love this piece.

Also in the box in three separate pieces, was this wonderful tin plate (actually aluminium I think) monoplane. I duly paid 50p for each part and have now reassembled the plane. Finding the pilot in the box was the icing on this cake as the previous owner had used the pilot in this little plane. (blue tac on pilots bum and the seat of the plane being the clue!) 

Before anyone says its a Britains plane I can assure you it most definitely isn't! A close examination identifies it as a model made maybe in the last 10 years. The stuck on paper roundels etc look very modern. It is a very simple design made of folded metal for the fuselage with wings just glued on! The engine and propellor are cast metal and there are nice little wheels for undercarriage. 

So two pounds for this extremely attractive, classic design toy plane, which will definitely be flying over a battlefield near me in the very near future. As I type I am in the process of making a flying stand to match and will post about it soon. I would like to thank Adrian for bringing this box of treasures along for me to choose from. He made an old man very happy!

These two figures came from another friend, Eric, at a pound each. Both useful.

Here we see three of my favourite acquisitions of the day. The Bishop of Hereford to go with my Robin Hood collection. This is a Benbros figure from the 1950's and had eluded me for some time. £5 and he will be put on a base but left in his original paint as its pretty well undamaged.

The lady is the very attractive Mrs Selwyn Smith as sculpted by her husband for the Timpo railway passenger set. I now have two copies of this figure in different paint schemes. Both are solid cast when they should be hollow, but do appear to have original paint finishes, suggesting they are not recasts. A little mystery costing £7.

The garden gate set is also one that has eluded me and I was very pleased to pick it up for £10 for the three pieces. This will feature in an all pre war lead front garden for one of the houses in my property portfolio! A delightful period piece full of English pre war charm!

I bought the Bishop and the gate from Colin Penn, but my spending at his stall didn't stop there!

I saw these beautiful Britains conversions and at a fiver each had to bring them home. Now technically these are Russian Cavalry. But in my 'Little Wars' world they and the banner look close enough to Prussian to join the command group of my growing faux  Prussian army. I shall repair a few chips and base them up.

I also picked up this French cavalry standard bearer for the same price. He will again join the faux French command group.

These figures were a gift from Brian Carrick. Fine recruits for my civilian population!

Last but not least, I was given a boxful of late first world war British Infantry by a generous Paul Wright, for which I have a cunning plan!

Well that's it folks! A splendid haul from another successful Plastic Warrior show. I hope to feature some of these acquisitions in a battle game report in the near future!

Tara a bit!

A return to the Blogosphere and another Plastic Warrior show report

Some of the exquisite conversions available from Dennis Donovan at the show

A return? Or did I ever really leave?  A few thoughts on this blogging lark

My last blog post was the 21st of April. Over 2 months ago! It seems like longer. Did you miss me? Did I miss posting? So many questions!

Its been an interesting experience taking a break from posting after 35 posts in just over 13 months. That may not sound that many, an average of just under three a month, but I think most people would agree that my posts are generally fairly substantial. I watch other Bloggers post on an almost daily basis , but obviously they are often fairly short posts as a result. This is not a criticism, merely an observation as there isn't a right or wrong way to engage in this pastime. My own preference is for more substantial posts, but I also still enjoy some of the well chosen 'single photo with pithy or amusing comment' type of post. There is room for all styles, only the content matters!

Once I had started the blog, I definitely felt under pressure to write something relatively regularly, but I'm not sure why? Why do we do this in the first place? In my own case, I just wanted an outlet to express my thoughts and ideas on things that interest and amuse me. I also missed the creative art of writing, which was a big part of my professional life. 

I didn't start the blog with any expectations in relation to readers comments, but for me at least, the comments now make it worthwhile and somehow complete. I see blogs that have been going for years with barely a comment and wonder how that can be satisfying to the author. Without comments its like shouting into the wind with no reply. So can I take this opportunity to say a big 'Thankyou!' to all the people who take the time to let me know what they think of my efforts...its really appreciated! (It has also made me comment more often on other peoples blogs, as I now appreciate what a few words can mean). 

Its possible to form friendships though blogging as well which is immensely satisfying.

I know that I have come very late to this blogging lark and in some ways its definitely dying out in favour of vlogging on You Tube and other platforms. There are advantages to those videos and I enjoy some of them, but you would probably hate my Black Country accent and I'm definitely not glamourous to look at either! I think we are all better off with just my written words and amateur photography! I also like the ability to revisit interesting entries and enlarge photos to look in more detail .This is a lot more difficult to do with videos.

I raise the question above, as to whether I've actually been away. The reason I say that is that I have actually put together 9 blog posts at the time of writing these words, none of which have yet been published. Most of them are for my soon to be launched 2nd blog, 'Ratspike and Renegades' covering my interests in fantasy and sci-fi gaming. This will be launched in the very near future and I hope that at least some of my regular readers will find the content interesting. 'Watch this space' as they say! So I have been busy doing some posts, in between family matters and a difficult period with little sleep due to a flare up of osteo arthritis in my knee which lasted the best part of 6 weeks! Its a bugger getting older eh?!

Anyway enough of this rambling.....on with the (Plastic Warrior) show!

Richmond again and the Thirty Ninth (?) Plastic Warrior show!

My good mate John and I set off once more at 5.30am on Saturday morning and just over two hours later were outside 'The Winning Post' pub in Twickenham/Richmond. This has been the regular venue for the show for a good few years now and is a decent venue ideal for our needs. The pub itself has featured in at least one film 'the echo of Diana' and more than one episode of tv programmes such as the Sweeney and Minder.

Once the tables were set up ,everyone set about buying and selling (mainly) plastic toy soldiers. 

It was a familiar sight and one that I relish every year! The fun of hunting for those figures that you are searching for and even better, discovering the figures that you hadn't known existed or expected to find! This year again didn't disappoint and I came home with lots of new recruits for the forces here at Apperley Towers. 

John and I were behind our usual table on 'wargamers row', a short run of five tables where Brian Carrick has managed to place the wargaming contingent together. This is great as we all have lots in common and are never short of things to chat about when manning our tables. Thanks to Brian, Paul, and Tim for your company. 

A lot of the faces are very familiar, collectors and sellers that like us have attended the show regularly for over 30 years. It is a pleasure to chat and catch up and a side of the show that I personally love. Sadly we are all getting older and there aren't a lot of young faces coming through the door, but that's the way of the world I suppose. 

I took a few photos so that you can get a feel for some of the goodies on sale on the day.

I hope you get a flavour of the show from my badly taken photos, but as you can see there was a huge variety of figures for sale and some quite unique conversions. My next post will focus on my acquisitions, where my sons and heirs can see what their father wasted their inheritance on!

I heartily recommend visiting this show next time if you have never been before. You just never know what you will find. If you are interested in plastic toy soldiers generally, can I also recommend a subscription to Plastic Warrior magazine....my favourite read. Its great value for money and full of interesting articles about the history of manufacturers and the ranges that they made. It also covers a lot of new output from current producers which is particularly useful.

I hope to meet some of you there one of these years!

Tara a bit!