Vignettes to end a collection…

Visits: 65

You must be tired of my wanderings, but that surely completes the big cabinet.

Now, if only Andrew Stevens admits orders in September I would be sorely tempted in adding three or four figures to the other cabinet…

Nurses and a Medical Officer (STEADFAST)
And the Military Policemen set by STEADFAST
Could not resist adding Lestrade (Plian Clothes Detective STEADFAST)

Last Touchs II

Visits: 47

Finally the Wagon is on its place… Steadfast Wagon and Ducal and Tradition mounted Officers.
Finished Collection on this Cabinet. A lifelong achievement…

I could still squeeze a couple more of Gordon Highlanders but all depends on REPLICA (read Andrew Stevens). I am quite satisfied as it is. And YES it took me years… 11 shelves: top 3 French Foreign Legion (in the 1st Cavalry and Mules Mounted Infantry); 4-6 REPLICA Second Anglo-Afghan second war; 7 Artillery; 8 Tel el Kebir; 9-10 Royal West Kent; 11 Colonial Cavalry. Nothing post 1900 interests me as a collector.

The whole setting.

Last touchs I

Visits: 48

I added two gunners on the left so to make a crew of 4, bought two nice guns (if guns can be considered “nice”) and completed the crews set with 3 more gunners… and added a sailor and an officer to the right. That was all I needed and they are at last in place. Tradition of London on the back (Two mountain guns on mules marching…). Enjoy (even if you probably had to zoom on them).

Guess it is better if I provide the zooms myself.

The finally completed Artillery set… thanks to Steadfast pieces.
Zoom 1
Zoom 2
Zoom 3

For those really observant… the “white towel” around the body of the Maxim is a putty “repair” because years and eons ago it came broken and I was unable to glue in place in other way… there… all explained.

Displaying your collection.

Visits: 135

The ultimate goal (for some of us) is the cabinets…

It seems a bit silly, but of course it is not… you are proud of your collection and what is the best way to show it?… a cabinet (or shelves)… sometimes the task of a lifetime span. This is my particular way of thinking (I try to keep the boxes too but first and foremost I like to display my collection). So I am all for this way of “showing” as this gentleman did on Facebook!

The Mess (I)

Visits: 148

Actually it means that the sky is the limit in 54mm Toy Soldiers… Facebook (MTSAM)

Of course the officer in the left needs to see his optician (not that he is going to ever acknowledge this)… A superb vignette that mixes manufacturers and a great scenery or setting. I found the “atmosphere” a delightful reminder of times gone by… More tomorrow maybe…

Military Modelling

Visits: 755

Crimean Highlanders 120mm aprox scale.

In my time I did indulge in Military Modeling, but not that much really, as I wrote in my book I have tried all the approaches to the hobby. Those chaps in Matt finish look very nice indeed but once you have finished them they are eminently “decorative” meaning by that there is no way to play “games” with them. Some I painted myself, some I bought already painted and based in a shop.

This is the biggest soldier I own and it is a china/porcelain item, quite big in fact, say 250mm. Quite a Chasseur a Cheval of the Imperial Guard from Napoleon. A very fragile thing,

I will show next a mounted officer from the Spanish Army in the same scale as the Highlanders.

1910 is a bit a late period for me but as long it is pre WWI it is OK.

And finally a Greek Warrior, Prince Valiant and Richard Sharpe all in 54mm.

I think they are from the Andrea Miniatures Range but not sure at all. 54mm. ( a greek hoplite, Prince Valiant and Richard Sharpe).

I stopped collecting them because they are quite fragile and when cleaning the bookshelves they are exposed to heavy damage, not if I clean myself mind, but sometimes the “hired help” are not careful enough. Did do some repairs on them several times.

Last but not least… Capitán Alatriste ( Vigo Mortensen), John Wayne (Fort Apache) and Gary Cooper (Beau Geste)…54mm.

I also have a Custer Last Stand model but I deleted the post Little Big Horn.

After 2016… (I)

Visits: 797

Full Union Army Baccus (and a bit of Rapier) 6mm is what I have mainly done using three Painting Services and only adding details myself (as some bits and flags ). 2020 pic.

By 2016 I had sold my 25/28mm collection -a hard but sound decision- , as a result of a deep crisis with that scale, I still like them mind, in fact I liked them so much that I already considered them Military Modeling stuff of the first order. The standards of painting had improved in a way that you can extend this to 15mm and lower, but let’s leave it at that. They are too expensive and beautiful to be handed and grappled (to do not say dropped) by uncaring hands. For me, by now they are minis to be displayed in cabinets. They seem to do some lot of skirmishing nowadays. The point is clear.

Since then I have built a small collection of 6mm, it is small because of the scale but also because I concentrated on some periods and I did not ” let myself go” as I did in my youth/middle age adopting now a more prudent way of amassing minis. They are mainly Baccus because of the sheer quality of the minis and because they suit my taste, but another reason is that the range -catalogue- is quite extensive (which permits proxies) and growing which is a bonus (and a temptation). But not exclusively, I have some Rapier ACW too. Curiously for such small things they do not seem to mix very well, but this is just a matter of taste, do your own thing, it’s ok. It is always a matter of taste and in my case of “numbers”, I own now more ACW minis that I ever got in 25mm -and have BOTH Armies when in our youth my brother build the Confederates and yours truly the Union- My 25mm ACW troops went to the collection of my brother and where reunited with the opposition once and for all. Even in 6mm there are differences of measure so check compatibility before buying. Adler seems to steal the show with Napoleonics (some say the are big-headed minis… but for what I have seen in FB they look superb), got problems ordering from them BTW, I placed a small order of ACW minis and after quite a long wait (for me) it got returned to them… was not refunded and that was the end of the story, I must say -philosophically- that”shit happens”, but emails from them are not in the same level of friendliness as Baccus one’s.

ACW is my more orthodox approach to wargaming.

Me going to 6mm was a slow process: I already had the Crimean Light Cavalry Brigade of Tennyson fame (Baccus Napoleonic proxies). But after a stop or pause of several years I steadily built other periods. First of all I ordered from a painting service -more about that in an specific post- Roman Republic and Carthaginian Units to use in a board-game grid of a very old game (Metauro) whose 54mm plastic original figures had disappeared from the Earth after several generations of my family playing with them. I was pleased by the look of them Baccus -Up to that moment I had doubts about the quality/presence of Infantry minis in 6mm scale!-

All right then, I went Colonial British Khaki, I specify so because I am not doing some of the periods I used to enjoy in 25mm and on the contrary going for some who were neglected for lack of time or cash or space. It is important to say for your info that I do not build the Opposition anymore, gone are the days of painting hundreds of Zulus, Dervishes, Fuzzy-Wuzy, Pathans, Afridis, Ghazis, Plains Indians and what not; I never preach or try to impose my ideas and do not believe in proselytism so as a mainly solo wargamer it is my decision and that’s that. Talking about “cash” I did self-imposed a condition to my wanderings, or several as it is: 54mm toy soldier collecting will not exceed the volume of the cabinets that exist (and not going to build more “cabinets”) meaning if I want to buy something… other parts must go to make place. And the funds raised by selling my 25/28mm stuff and a large part of my Playmobil Collection will pay for the 6mm venture (not that in the end I do not indulge in investing more in a monthly pocket money basis), but I seem to keep financial matters under control… more or less.

Von Bredow’s Death Ride in Baccus 6mm (the Dragoons are out of the pic because some sources say they were detached from the final Charge). They appear in another pic in this Blog.

So, Colonial Brits with Bengal Lancers and Indian Regiments, Custer’s 7th (only Custer battalion), The French in North Africa aka XIX Corps late XIXth Century were added to the Crimean Cavalry, also a one off Von Bredow’s Cavalry Brigade from the Franco-Prussian War (the famous Death Ride) and last but not least the ACW with both sides present, meaning Billy Yank and Johnnie Reb. The ACW was my first love and a period played extensively with my usual wargames companion, my little brother (ten years younger than me and steadily going to sixty!). I think it was the Prussian General Von Moltke who said he was not interested -in the ACW not the age of my brother- because it was an affair of “two mobs chasing themselves in the woods”, I respectfully disagree. I will detail why I love it in subsequent posts.