Collectors – Page 2 – My Toy Soldiers & Me

John O’Brien Figures (mainly Rose)

I know… I know… they look a lot like Military Modeling… great quality if you ask me.

Enjoy!

54MM Toy Soldiers NEW BRITAINS (modern… but more than 30 years old!) Centenial sets of the nineties

I am nowadays buying some of this sets to hurriedly complete some projects (British SIMKIN times Army and others…).

I can not wait for the more traditional way of collecting. Probably some of this units will be “embellished” with paintjobs in the near future… I can do that mind!

Just thought to mention that for me the only “toy soldier shop” available nowadays is ebay… and that’s that… nearly instant satisfaction… at nearly 73 years old is what I need in spades!

Enjoy!

Recent arrivals… the General is a Dorset figure…

British Hussars (two of them would be “converted”.

54MM Toy Soldiers from REPLICA… My new sets

The two sets of Victorian (SIMKIN TIMES) Cavalry

Forefront 6th Dragoon Guards (Carbineers) and 16th lancers in the rear rank. Pic “in process” by Andrew Stevenson.

Finally here! (meaning ANDORRA)

They are part of a larger order… but Cavalry always have an extra appeal to me.

In 2023 (by the last months) I placed an order with Andrew Stevenson (REPLICA METAL MODEL SOLDIERS)… this is part of it.

Intended to be a part of a little British Army to play AGW (Yes you’ve guessed right I will of course mess with the original rules!)

Never thought the vast amounts of patience needed nowadays to collect “la creme de la creme” (si j’ose dire)… days, weeks, months, more than a year sometimes… but well worth the wait.

The problem (main) is not the wait itself… it is my age LOL)… time is now an issue…

You can not “hurry up” Andrew… he is IMHO an “artist”… multiple interests…. multiple ranges…. multiple novelties…. multiple objectives… he also collects!…. whatever… Probably the best if you are affected by BRITAIN’s nostalgia… I have never indulged in collecting “antiques” if you think pre-WWII (or WWI for that matter) Toy Soldiers…. do not have the time… neither the money (or budget)… neither the interest (pure or purist). On the contrary I do collect NOW the Centennial sets by Britain! (You need all sorts you know…).

The use of REPLICA models in wargames is a bit of an heressy as I considere them “collector’s items” on their own right!. But boy do they bring “class” to your tabletop…

Enjoy the pics!

Cheers

54mm Toy Soldiers from Tradition of London (Ceremonial Troops)

I have been collecting sets from Tradition of London from decades… I was actually a bit distracted by others periods and scales… but they are always on my mind.

I recently put an order to give a bit of colour at one of my cabinets and Erik supplied (quite fast!) the following set: 1 Officer (British), an NCO (Indian) and two lancers for 4 Regiments with different uniforms… so far so good.

Once the parcel arrived one of the lance shafts was broken above repair and so I contacted them. A replacement is on its way… EXCELLENT service and Communications…

As I loath to gave anything away I did a bit of repairing on the “broken” lancer and he has been raised in rank (twice…LOL) and decorated… and sent the pics to Erik if that can help other customers…

Here are the pics of the little tale…

Enjoy

See broken lance above left.

Detail.

Inspected and small “retouching”

Raised to Corporal (and out of bits of the lance to have a pacing stick)

Raised to RSM and decorated… I did not want to threw it away you know… I try to never do that… sometimes looks good enough!

Finally the replacement (FREE) arrived and the set is complete. Thanks to Erik from Tradition of London for an excellent service.

TRADITION OF LONDON: Royal Canadian Mounted Police: Regimental Sergeant Major 54mm small conversion

Curiously enough this cast (unpainted) was one of the first minis I ever painted myself (as it was mean to be… red tunic & all… and there it is still in my collection). One day I noticed I did not have thought of buying from DUCAL a RSM… so… I bought from Tradition of London the kit again and have painted in a new version with pace stick (a bit of steel paper clip).

There you have it hope you like it.

There… it only lacks the gloss finish… will add when dry!

Gloss varnished… project finished!

REPLICA Season Greetings!… + the real thing!

Find hereby some delightful vignettes done by Andrew Stevenson from REPLICA METAL MODEL SOLDIERS.

There are several years specials (for X’mas) mixed up.

Quite peaceful if you ask me…

Enjoy!

And now some real toy soldiers after the sugary season… original subjects to say the least!

54MM My DUCAL Collection…Some close ups

Was bored while they were doing repairs of the garage door… after all 30 years for a motor is enough… so they had to change it!… meanwhile I took some snapshots with my mobile phone to pass the time.

Here they are.

You’ve seen the cabinets many times before… but this is a new approach I guess…

First I did the RCMP Band… and was pleased by the pic…

So I went on and did the Grenadier Guards Close-up.

The Band of the Scots Guards (Pipes and Drums out of the pic)

A clse-up of my staff car (Dorset Soldiers)

And finally King Charles III (A REPLIC Cast painted by me) new addition to command the Household Division after the regretted dead of Queen Elizabeth II.

54MM from DORSET SOLDIERS… my yearly order has arrived!

I will replace (finally not) those pics with new one’s “out of the boxes” when coming back from holidays… summer is hot even in Andorra!… done partially!

So for the moment just enjoy like this… fresh from the parcel!

I even did not take pics of a drummer and some dogs!

In a hurry it was… mind!

2025 order has been placed already (French Chasseurs of the Line aka light Infantry; two units of French line Infantry, a mounted ADC… and a special “Mildred Natwick” as cast in SHE WORE A YELLOW RIBBON)

Have added new pics…

And an interesting experiment… with chatgpt.com (that was before changing a bit the order)… LOL

I will replace those pictures with new ones “out of the boxes” when I return from my holidays. Summer is hot even in Andorra! I’ve done it partially, so for the moment, just enjoy it like this—fresh from the parcel! I didn’t even take pictures of a drummer and some dogs; I was in a hurry, you know! I’ve already placed my 2025 order for the French Chasseurs of the Line (light infantry), another unit of French line infantry, and a special “musique de la Legion.” I’ve added new pictures as well. (Same text using chatgpt.com). LOL

The “missing drummer” completes the unit! Thanks Antony!

Deployed too!… I searched for this fellows since I saw eons ago Lives of a Bengal Lancer and Gary Cooper blowing his whistle deploying the machine guns… fantastic job by Dorset Soldiers!

French 75mm guns, British 13 pounders and machine gun with carriage.

54MM Toy Soldier (a cast from REPLICA): HRH King Charles III

Finally decided to change the command figure of my Trooping the Colour display.

It took me almost two years to decide.

HRH the late Queen Elizabeth II has been moved to another shelve. She is still on display, but certainly not on a central role.

Time moves on.

The new figure (a REPLICA cast) painted by me.

6MM Unorthodox basing of minis in 60x30mm stands. Baccus Army of Northern Virginia

Made some pics today showing variants or different ways to base minis in a standard 60x30mm stand.

All minis are 6mm Baccus and the buildings are all Leven.

After building a collection of brigades in an orthodox way (meaning two lines of 12 minis and 4 skirmishers forward… as recommended on the most popular rules). I started to think that what really mattered was the Brigade stand per se. So it existed leeway to the way you could glue or organize the minis on the stand to add aesthetic effects and variety.

Here is some of the results. I used the Army of Northern Virginia for the pics but the Army of the Potomac has the same treatment in my collection.

Hope you enjoy.