Luiz Fleury collection Sudan/NWF and French Foreign Legion 54mm

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If you want to see the full collection of pics try to join the International Toy Soldier Club (ITSC) club 93 members but growing and if I may say so great quality (not talking about my contributions). And there you can comment and post and interact with other members.

Enjoy! I did

Mounted Officer.
A good observation post.
Very good DIORAMA.
Nice Artillery vignette.
Guess he is attracted by the same themes as me!
British Khaki Colonials is also a favourite of mine
Excellent mix of manufacturers

Of course one advantage is that as long as your scenery is a bit neutral it can be used very easily in the NWF and in North Africa.

See the French Foreign Legion pics below.

Legion on the march.
Smacks of March or Die… but who does not!
I thought I was the only one indulging in FFL manning Artillery!… suddenly I do not feel alone
Excellent models (or Toy Soldiers)… I guess mine are a bit more on the Toy Soldier side
Fantastic scenery and backdrop.

PLAYMOBIL: Playing with Playmobils was and is a rewarding experience (II)

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We checked all the figures, added a few lost items (very few), did some changes of headgear (mainly ADC’s), took a lot of pics, and enjoyed the time.

Their collections are in great shape as you can see in the pics. Armies usually have 4 line Infantry Units (regulars), 1 Light Company, 1 Grenadier Company; two units of Cavalry: Light Dragoons and Cuirassiers; Artillery (a couple of pieces); Sappers, and even a Doctor and assistants. Actually the Armies also have a mounted spy (masked) and a Religion Priest. Plenty of Generals and ADC’s too of course. Mainly the figures are straightaway from Playmobil figures and pieces (you are really spoilt for choice in the “tricorne period”) and apart from some resin headgear variations for the sake of shaking a bit the “uniformity” it is fairly easy to build your Armies. Old School Wargaming is probably the best approach IMHO

BTW the Red Army (British) is in the hands of the younger of my grandsons, but I do not mess with it because he is too young to take it too seriously and has to parade them a few years more I guess.

I reread the rules “Three Inch Glory” wargaming (XVIII Century) available for download free in google, recently they added a skirmish rules for 10/12 figures I must read too!

As usual an image is worth a thousand words, so here they are.

Enjoy

A set of rules (the only one I know).
The back of the headgear of the Grenadiers.
A basic unit, a company of regulars of the “white Army” (Spanish or Austrian is just a matter of clipping the right colours in the hands of the standard-bearers)
Sorry for the “angle” but it was the only way to get a pic of the table.
The White Army Light Dragoons.
The White Army Cuirassiers.
Cavalry Commander with guidon bearer.
The Grenadiers of the Blue Army (French or Prussian if need be)
The basic Unit a regular Company of Infantry.
In the front facing left the Cavalry of the Blue Army (looking right you can see the backs of the White Army Cavalry Units).
A close up.
The Blue Army Light Dragoons (resin helmets by Javier Jimenez – MALONE-)

The Blue Army Cuirassiers.

The Blue Army Colours (French in this case)
A French King with dog. (In fact is based on a Prussian King figure!)
The White Army Colours (Spanish this time)

NEW SETTINGS FINISHED. Cabinet almost full

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After a shuffle of space in my ex-office… all begins to fall in place.

Cabinet has been reorganized, and now the British are on the right of the picture and the French on the left (seems apropiate somehow…)

The Armies (both) would be completed this year 2025 I guess… and then all hell will break loose… Not exactly Imagine-nations, but certainly imagination will run free (NO ENTENTE CORDIALE AT ALL I FEAR), I only collect what I like so it does not matter to me to pitch them against each other from time to time. I do not collect Russians or Prussians or other more exotic Armies… I stick to what I know best and that’s that.

Enjoy.

New ubication of the small cabinet.
Detail.
French Foreign legion Units (and French Artillery).
The rest of the French Army (still expecting reinforcements).
British Army (SIMKIN TIMES). It lacks the Naval Brigade.
The British Cavalry.
British Kakhi Army (Colonial NWF/SUDAN etc)

A GENTLEMAN’S WAR WHAT IF SCENARIO: FASHODA (gone the wrong way) (I)

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Maybe in 2025 you will see “FASHODA GONE WRONG” an Old Toy Soldiers & Old Wargame entertainment (SOLO). 54MM AGW affair using British and French Colonials (NO entente cordiale… LOL)… in fact I am pretty sure that this one would be my next wargame (Old School).

You see I do not like to “kill” natives or indigenous people in my wargames… I do not collect them as “cannon fodder” (Not even in 6mm mind!)… One thing is collecting miniatures (read Toy Soldiers) and the other is not being aware of the more grim aspects of colonialism (as if Persian, Greeks and Romans… to name a few were not “colonialist” or “conquerors”)… BUT here is not the place for discussing seriously the inhuman race.

Get a sight of the troops that would be involved on the pics below. All the affair would be precipitated by the French Commander in place… General Armand d´Hubry et Nemesis desire to win the Legion d’Honneur…

Finally finished Army (The armoured car is a secret weapon proptotype only used in the NWF)… same as the Indian Army Units (Guides&Gurkhas)… Bengal Lancers not going to FASHODA either. This pic shows the full Kakhi British Army in its proper cabinet next to the wargames table).
French Troops (99% by Dorset Soldiers and a REPLICA General!)
More French XIXth Corps d’Afrique.
British and Allies (meaning Indian Raj Troops) by REPLICA and Dorset Soldiers.
The British “proper” minis…

Of course, after that incident and its consequences either Calais or Dover would be involved in a messy action… follow that here website for more!

Britains Little Army (soon to be reinforced) is awaiting the second battle as a consequence…
Much more recent picture!

Cheers!

My very first Toy Soldiers… they are more than 70 years old… the rest was the “follow up”

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In fact 70 years old and a bit… The state is original… those are the rests of the original paint… on anything not rigid (or even quite rigid) paint peels off I am afraid. Those three are all what remain of my big box of infancy…

My maternal grandfather used to play with me back then… that been the case it started a life long love for the “Mounties” only slightly superior to my obsession with the French Foreign Legion as a result of been exposed to BEAU GESTE (The book if you please)… and of course the Guards Regiments (Horse and Foot)… my parents always looked North from Spain… anglophiles but also liked France. My father even studied in Liverpool before the Spanish Civil War made a mess of a lot of things…

Lucky me I was born in 1952… so wars were a thing of the past… or in far away exotic places (Korea, Vietnam, Falklands,Iran, Irak, Afghanistan)… not in Europe anymore (well the Balkans)… and mainly USA wars (sometimes with staunch allies at his side)… the XXth Century was the USA Century to be sure…but we lived a long peace.

Enjoy,

RCMP REAMSA rubber/cautxuc soldiers of aprox 45mm scale

That lead me later to this of course… Collecting 54mm gloss toy soldiers come many years after… and they are DUCAL (99% of the set, Tradition of London 2 figures, 1 REPLICA -a cast that is now once painted my personal avatar- and 1 an iconic BRITAINS)… you need all sorts you know…

The full collection.
Detail of the last addition by myself (converting and painting)
Finally got one of the iconic Old Britains figures (well, maybe not so old… but iconic not the least)

ROY DILLEY ARTWORK

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On the border line between Military Modeling (Scale Models) and Toy Soldiers (of the best quality), IMHO over the line and much more models than “toys” sure enough.

He did those works (artworks) in the fifties… with very limited materials at hand, to say nothing about paints and brushes.

A pioneer and a master of so many that he has become “the reference”.

Today he would have been a hundred years old and his heir Tony (see other posts about his work) posted those pics in Facebook.

They do not need comment or words from me… I just framed and polished a bit the pics.

Enjoy! (And get a copy of his book).

REPLICA special comission for James Opie. 54mm Toy Soldiers

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If you do collect 54mm Toy Soldiers it would be a good idea to join The International Toy Soldier Club… really good company!

Look one of the last Posts there… A highlander late campaign uniform (kakhi) full Band (Band + Fifes&Drums)… done by Andrew Stevenson for a customer no other than James Opie of worldwide fame expertise on Britains Toy Soldiers.

A fantastic set (bespoke… so unique)…

Enjoy!

The Band
The Pipes and Drums.
The full set.

REPLICA does a magnificent set (a la BRITAINS) of the Royal Navy in 54mm

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Published in the web of the ITSC (The International Toy Soldier Club) this is an awesome set done by Andrew Stevenson for a customer (a lucky customer I will add full of positive envy!).

It reproduces one mythical set of Old Britains with figures ad hoc (many of them Britains never did I must clarify!).

Never have seen something so awesome in years of collecting.

Enjoy!

Naval Gun on wheels… for landing party.
Royal Marines Light Infantry… and Bluejackets pulling limber…
Second level of the box!
Command and Signals.
Great landing party!
Medical station.
Firing line.
The massive box and the superior tray… Awesome!

54MM BRITAINS (New Centenial Series) Scots Grey’s set (bought 2 sets in ebay.co.uk)

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It all started last winter… (2024)… I discovered a lot of sets of NEW Britains I did not knew about on ebay.co.uk! (not easy to buy them because a lot of ebay sellers do not send to ANDORRA!… only the really good businessmen among them (some of them real gentleman!… mind!).

Afterwards of a lot of madly buying (feeding frenzy when applied to sharks)… I decided to buy Norman Joplin’s book about those sets… the normal thing would have been the inverse procedure. A quick read showed me that I had not done so bad after all… BUT… introduced me to sets I did not know existed at all… as this present Scots Grey’s set (2 sets I bought from the same ebay seller!).

Well, in less then 24 hours after their arrived in ANDORRA… I have already converted a sergeant into a trumpeter… could not avoid the temptation…

Enjoy!

One of the segeants has been converted (quickly) into a trumpeter…
Lateral view.
Only had to change the arm and paint the plume red…
The main reason behind buying those sets… magnificent sentry boxes!

54MM Toy Soldiers from REPLICA! arrival of a brand new parcel!

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Not complaining at all because the order from 2023 arrived on 2025!… quality compensates in spades.

The “cottage” industry of Toy Soldiers has that… limited production… long queueing… but SATISFACTION!

The Toy Soldiers Britains never did… not in its heyday (classic times)… not in his centenary sets either… bespoke orders… simply fantastic output.

You can also buy from him… see replica metal model soldiers in google or email “HQ@replicametalsoldiers.co.uk” HQ@Replicametalsoldiers.co.uk and just wait to be satisfied… it helps if you are not in your seventies like me!

Enjoy.

Line Infantry Charging!
Rifles firing.
Royal Fuziliers…
“THE” General… of REPLICA’s fame!
And something completely different… an armoured car (Rolls&Royce) if you please… a model a bit late for my period… but I guess the fact that is a secret prototype can adapt well to my needs!