BLOG – Page 30 – My Toy Soldiers & Me

Winston Spencer Churchill as a young lieutenant

I promised yesterday… so…

It was a poor attempt to “model with miliput” because it is never been “my thing”… but I was tempted to try to do a “Toy Soldier piece unique” (as I can not match the “true” Bill Horan’s in our miniature world).

It all started simply enough, I had a redundant arm with pistol… a couple of horses (Empty Horses David Niven would say in his memoirs) with no rider… and I asked Antony Spencer from DORSET SOLDIERS to send me a British Colonial Rider without right arm. Still planning to do a French ADC (mounted) for the other horse…

Once I got it… I decided to try my hand at what Antony Stevens does effortlessly, meaning adding binocular case and a haversack to a rather “plain figure”… I also worked a bit on the horse (which was already painted since many years ago) adding valise and equipment… I showed all that to you in a Post not so long ago (about end of December 2022).

Well here it is the result of my job in some pics… and YES he is standing on the stirrups!… not at a 100% satisfied but not bad for a first try since God knows when… Never thought “minimalist” Toy Soldiers would be so difficult to do!

Enjoy! (not so easy today!)

Some of my French Foreign Legion

A nearly forgotten pastime… (by yours truly)… painting your own figures… meaning buying the casts naked of paint… and DIY job… it was fun (again)… the toy Soldier style is much uncomplicated.

Thanks to Antony Spencer from DORSET SOLDIERS who understood perfectly what I needed and took the trouble to assemble the kits for me.

Curiously enough they mix very well with my old figures (they have decades in real time difference).

Thought you would like to see some of mine for a change!

Enjoy!

54mm DORSET figures (some painted by me)

Detail before painting bases green (Front row are “new”… back row “old”)

The whole new additions waiting Varnish…(Yes there is Young Winston too! more tomorrow about him)

Toy Soldier (Policeman), maybe my first one long time ago!

Vaguely 54mm, all in rubber/cautxuc… more than 65 years old (the figure… me going on 71… so it probably is nearly 70!… lol)… Original state and paint… paint that obviously peeled off from a non rigid material… played with by at least three generations consecutively and rescued before going to the bin… I used to make him run obstacles and tracks on the sheets of my bed… do not know how he survived so many crashes!… I remember having at least two of them… but also French Gendarmes by Norev (rubber too) and one in Aluminium (Quiralu?) the last two were with sidecar and had very “funny” figures on them.

A nostalgic way to close a forgettable year… hope the next is best!

Some of mine for a change!

It is not laziness from me at all… but sometimes I think they deserve a pic… after all they are the reason behind this Blog.

Guess which is the only one painted by me… lol

The rest are Andrew Stevens work.

Enjoy!

Dorset/Imperial “new” castings

I have a lot of ideas and pics to post this days… but those arrived yesterday and have got priority no matter what… My FFL order to complete an Army is underway and in good hands… simply ask Antony!… he will deliver… this is as silly as commending a good Restaurant… afterwards no way to book a table for you!… but he deserves it in spades… ask Scott Lesch if in doubt!

Hope you enjoy the pics as much as I do.

New Home

It was not easy to transport this part of my 54mm collection but it was worth the effort believe me!

After all I am going to play one against the other, and game them alone too (one at a time) depending on scenarios.

Enjoy!

The French Foreign Legion in a big cabinet at the ex-office… 99% DORSET

Same for the British around 1880 99% REPLICA

Improving sets with bits&pieces

Sometimes perfection needs a bit of variety… meaning that the REPLICA set was great but strangely enough the 4 gunners where a bit repetitive… 4 gunners in the same instance or attitude made 8 for a battery… so… with the passing of time I become obsessed by their looks and finally decided to add ramroads and bullets to them… see second pic. It was just a matter of ordering some bits&pieces to IMPERIAL/DORSET miniatures… and glue them on.

Now they look much better in my collection I guess… same to be done to an Indian Raj Battery (Only the bullets). There, now you know what obsessive collecting is… at least mine!

Enjoy!

Royal Artillery Set by Replica (Original)

More from IMPERIAL/DORSET MINIATURES

Since a very young child I was a fan of P.C.Wren, yes I was able to read at a very young age… since then The BEAU GESTE trilogy (in fact five books and some short stories here & there) influenced my taste for toy soldiers and have collected them in all kind of scales (see elswhere in this Blog). In 54mm my DORSET collection precedes the REPLICA BRITISH 2nd AFHGAN WAR at least a couple of decenies… influenced by A GENTLEMAN’S WAR wargame rules (Howard Whitehouse) I am nowadays squaring the collection into 12 minis units to fight each other (for fun and tweaking the rules a bit). Of course the minis are not only used for AGW… a lot of scenarios can be played with each Army alone… more of that one day.

I let you with two recent additions by Antony Spencer head of design at IMPERIAL/DORSET (and ALL THE QUEEN’S MEN too I guess).

Enjoy!

IMPERIAL/DORSET SOLDIERS Castings

I was rather laconic yesterday (health issues)… nothing to worry about too much I guess. It is not always fun to be seventy.

Today I will show you what excellent service means… You ask for some French Foreign Legion castings with a detailed note explaining what you want… then Antony from IMPERIAL/DORSET SOLDIERS takes the trouble to send you the pics of them TO BE SURE the match is OK.

You can not ask for more!

I will be back buying from them in a monthly basis… already other orders are on the pipeline. You can not have a better deal!

Enjoy!

Cabinet reorganization

It was a necessity… specially for the small cabinet… the “TOKIO Tube look” is gone… so are The French Foreign Legion and the late British Empire (Kakhi)… gone to my old office to play A GENTLEMAN’S WAR with them…

So there you have it, the part of the collcetion in action stances is gone back to wargaming in Andorra la Vella… and the “ceremonial part” stays in Pal.

About time if you understand me. Yesterday afternoon it was a lot of work putting the Toy Soldiers in boxes to be moved and reorganizing the display on the small cabinet… the whole of six shelves was “gone”… but the result is satisfactory… I was already told once in Facebook that my figures needed space to “breathe”… alea jacta est.

Enjoy!