Category: 54mm Toy Soldiers

Castings from IMPERIAL/DORSET SOLDIERS.

Visits: 65

Due to the long absence of REPLICA from the market (hopefully available again in January) I checked and ordered some unpainted castings from IMPERIAL/DORSET Miniatures to complete some units. Yes, I will paint them myself and hopefully you will see the results in this webpage in a month or two.

Just writing this lines to praise the understanding and help from my contact (Antony) who delivered precisely what I needed. All this is a suite provoked by the HELP of Paul Watson with another Ensign I sorry missed.

So here you have me, meddling with brush and paints at my age!… LOL… in fact it is perfect for my age… a relaxing hobby if one exists.

More in a few weeks (keep checking).

Lateral view of future Ensigns around 1878
Highlander Bugler (without arms) and two Pipers
Frontal view of the Ensigns to be (I will add right arm with flag myself)
They would look like this once painted…
My pic (and Toy Soldiers) of the 66th (Berkshires) last stand at Maiwand. (The last eleven counting the dog) Those who are also History Buffs will know that in fact there were several last stands that day, and many fugitives that reached Kandahar in a pitiful state.

You usually care about details in Wargames or Toy Soldier Collecting after reading a lot about periods in History. The Second Anglo-Afghan War is well documented. What I do not understand is the obsession with Afghanistan at all in modern times!… but I digress… I stop my wanderings at 1900 for many good reasons and will not comment about later times nor – God forbid!- current events.

Nile Gunboat

Visits: 60

Those asiduous in this webpage will recognise a recurrent theme… a lot of wargamers and modelers actually enjoy doing Nile Gunboats! Even yours truly indulged in scratchbuilding a tiny one in 25mm for my MINIFIGS (LOL) I must look in the vault to see if I found a pic… (a sorry example compared with those in 54mm).

Enjoy!

Very nice model and crew!

54mm Toy Soldiers

Visits: 58

I am currently in the middle of upgrading my units to 12 Infantry to play test AGW in my Table (it was longer than I thought to “clean up” the mess of my office)… Will probably confront my French Foreign Legion DORSET against British India Kakhi REPLICA… quite if the FASHODA incident had happened in Lybia somehow I do not have the heart (and time and money) to build a Prussian Army and “go to Dorking”… if you know what I mean… Now all depends on DORSET and REPLICA whom has to provide the missing minis to get those units to 12 Infantry per unit!. Enjoy

Ever popular scale I guess…

More British Guards

Visits: 57

Somehow a monotonous subject, but as the Imperial Guard Grenadiers the most popular ever with collectors and wargamers alike. You can not buldt a 54mm toy soldier collection eluding those I guess… neither your wargaming Napoleonic French Army will do without the other… that’s how it is and would be. Enjoy

Quite a rather good pic!

Lancers

Visits: 60

Always have had a soft spot for lancers… do not ask me why… I do not know for sure… maybe the fluttering pennants?

The pis is part of a much larger collection… see the Highlander Pipers on the extreme right.. And the “marks” on the shelve on the left indicate the old presence of foot toy soldiers… I think I have already posted other pics from the collector but today I have no time to check… Stefano Allorini! (have checked). Enjoy

Colonial British Lancers

Old one’s

Visits: 209

I guess they must be MIGNOT… but not a 100% sure about it!

Starting to work on a list for REPLICA and. IMPERIAL/DORSET (yes at the same time)… finally decided to adapt my 54mm “action” Toy Soldiers to AGW units… not much fuss at all… but 12 is the magic number for Infantry units! Thankfully Cavalry and Artillery are already OK. I will slightly tweak a bit the rules because I am like that… and the set encourages to do so.

A big thanks to Paul Watson (II)

Visits: 57

It has been a long time since I painted myself a 54mm miniature!… but here we are (well… me) doing it as if time had not passed by. The Heliograph party (2 figures) and the Regimental Colour of the Gordon’s coming quite nicely using Andrew’s Toy Soldiers as a very useful guide! On the pure painting side I am using too many tricks nowadays… old Humbrol enamels (not dried up), Vallejo I guess and Poska markers… and in the end Gloss finish to be sure!

On my last edited entry on the subject if all goes to plan you will see the final version nowadays still pending gloss varnish of course!

I do found more and more difficult to show my own pet subjects by fear of being boring and tiresome, you must understand that collectors and wargamers are in a state of constant doubt, what will I do next?, do I buy this or that (evidently enough budgets have limits), painted or unpainted (that means I will have to paint myself!)… is what I want available?… or affordable?… it is quite more complicated than you think… and my mind juggles and jumps from one option to another several times a day! Once a decision taken one goes to considerable pains to get the goal, sometimes considerably annoying everyone whom has items commercially available… more or less.

The actual three “new” additions on the foreground

Enjoy your hobby.

Close up of the group used to work the results.
Work in progress…
A week before…
Same as above…
Working place… if that qualifies as work… which I doubt!