Collecting Toy Soldiers – My Toy Soldiers & Me

The perfect gift!

Not much to ponder on or digress, that was always welcomed by me when getting gifts. And never mind the anti Toy Soldier movement post WWII… as if real wars were declared and fought by Toy Soldiers!

Enjoy.

Zouaves (French) but useful for the ACW too!… lol

Repainted for the better…

What a good paintjob can do for the castings (all of them) is wonderful.

Her Majesty’s Guards (or Household Division Troops) are a popular choice among collectors or simply aficionados whatever the level. It has much to do with that the daily exposure in such well know military procedures as the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace, The handing of the keys at the Tower of London, and similar at Windsor castle. The more “touristic attraction” the more popularity in children minds… So, let it be.

Hardly original subject… but a CLASSIC IMHO. As seen in Facebook.

Even with a bit of patience you can do it with Playmobils. (Those are my own).

By the end of your “collecting life” you would have gone megalomaniac (well, a bit). Those are mine.

There are no limits …

Imagination and craftsmanship on the tabletop. Nothing to do with the real thing of course… if you fire that gun it would go backwards?… NO of course it is a self reloading mechanism that remains in place and help reload… no limits I said… that is the stuff of legendary wargames!

Somehow creative… by DER ALTE FRITZ… seen in Facebook!

The long grey line

A very traditional Sunday morning I fear… but some pics deserve a post in their own right. Not much to comment I guess.

Going to start a new thread in the Proxies Department chez Baccus (6mm) in search of British Guards with Bearskin proxies (a la ALMA and INKERMAN) but to decide if I use 6mm instead of 54mm in A GENTLEMAN’S WAR wargame rules… there are units one fancies but not the whole Armies… and there is no better place to use them than in Fantasyland (but not FANTASY if you follow me).

Enjoy the pic.

Surely deserve a place here… as seen in Facebook HIRIART LEAD FIGURES.

Before/After

So, the old question arise… what would you do?… keep them as Historical Vintage Items?… or… Repaint and Restore?…

I must admit that when confronted with it in the past I opted, after thinking about it, for the second option. Even more I sold them once restored because problems of mixing up sizes and scales in 54mm with others manufacturers…

Was I right?… I do not really know… Those below are not mine… as seen in Facebook by Arno Durieux..

Quite old 54mm!

First Empire… Napoleone Buonaparte the “corsican”

It is funny what History “makes” of some figures or “personages”… the collective of wargamers (me included) focus on the uniforms (gaudy) the generals leading from the front (that was a nice thing) and other colourful items of the period (same can be said of the XVIIIth Century of course!) and we tend to forget the horrors of those real wars… there are some positive aspects as civil populations were not involved to a point (try to go explain that to a German city who suported “billeted” French Napoleonic Garrisons or for that matter to a Spaniard who simply wanted the French OUT! and did his/her best to make war -even the nasty guerrilla war- to produce that result).

Be that as it may Napoleon was one of a kind, an exponent of meritocracy (and ambition) post Revolutionary (1789) he reformed laws and promoted a more just living in France (generally)… the ideas of the Revolution are now widely accepted in modern democracies… but of course were a shock for old monarchies in Europe (count aristocrats IN)… Europe made war to Napoleon as a consequence (even if he favoured moving and striking first!).

A fascinating human being with lights and shadows but a high IQ. It is, of course anachronic to “judge” Bonaparte by modern standards with hindsight and all that jazz… he marked a period of History for better and for worse.

Nice Miniature by the way… as seen in Facebook!

PS: Passed the 110.000 visitors bar today… a solid third of them from the USA!…quite puzzled by it.

More from Graham Hilditch

Dear Graham does the most with a very few things… meaning soldiers, sailors and castle (or barracks) The essence is to take a tasteful pic… I could have eliminated the backgrond (see below) but it is charming as it is. Enjoy.

See?

Lancers for traditional AGW wargaming…

First two pics by John Firth and the last by John Clarke. All easy to see in Facebook if you go to A GENTLEMAN’S WAR group… I dutifully bought the rules by Howard Whitehouse… they are fun to read… but not what I do with 54mm Toy Soldiers… You need all sorts you know…

Those are very fine Toy Soldiers and excellently painted, I do not use mine with those rules, and I have to say they are more “historically collected” and only for display because I have them in 6mm too… and there is where I wargame…

The officer is out of THE PRISONER OF ZENDA… aka Douglas Fairbanks Jr.

Send a Gunboat!

There was a time when the Gunboat policy was efficient… that is MY time… As if you do not know it… not interest at all in modern times on my own particular selective pastime or hobby. Of course I am not an Imperialist in real life but those were romantic times…

In fact I think like the child I once was in matters of Toy Soldiers… not that I am not aware of modern times… I keep posted enough thanks… got my dose of real news every day in this mad world.

Reading and enjoying Kipling if you know what I mean.