Category: NEW

REPLICA… My new sets of 54mm Toy Soldiers

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Box 1
Box 2
Box 3
The two sets of Victorian (SIMKIN TIMES) Cavalry
Thee Highland Brigade

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

Coming soon…

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

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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!

British Colonial Collection of Toy Soldiers circa 1880 Maiwand-Kandahar in 54mm

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The “square” formation is only to show the Toy Soldiers in a single pic. Cavalry had not use at all “inside”. But even more important the “square” as such was not used at all intensively at that time… so you will forgive the artistic license!

In fact the purpose of this “parade” was to count them all, stop adding more troops without sense of perspective… and find where to put the two machine guns newly commisioned!

Vast majority of them are REPLICA METAL MODEL SOLDIERS (Andrew Stevenson), complemented by DORSET SOLDIERS (Antony Spencer) and even 4 Gordon Highlanders done by my friend Paul Watson in a moment of yours truly deep anguish!…

Enjoy!

You must read Major C.E. Callwell (Royal Artillery) opus SMALL WARS (Their Principles & Practice).

Quite aerial view.
Maybe a better shot!
Another perspective.
Indian Mountain Battery.
Corps of Guides
Gurkhas
British Guards
66th Berkshires
Bobbie (the dog) is purposefully misplaced! (it should be with the 66th!
Gordon Highlanders
Commander + British Artillery.
Just to say farewell…

Those are in the offing…
The Maxim with wheels too!

FREE BOOK : MY TOY SOLDIERS AND ME (second edition revised & updated)

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You can download for free on the top right column clicking on the cover… it would take a minimum of time (about 3 minutes) because of the original colour pics (BTW the captions of them are silly printed at the end of the book… I do not know why but in 2016 it seemed a good idea!).

To cut a long story short one day I read you could edit and publish a book quite easily! (autoedit a book using createspace)… just on the point of ending my professional life as an architect I decided to write a book about my experiences with Toy Soldiers (my daughter counseled that better than writing about urban planning&landscape because I would hurt less people).

So I did, for a while I sold copies through amazon.com and amazon.co.uk (and even a Spanish version in amazon.es)… guess that I sold around two or three hundred copies including the kindle version. So far so good.

Then the IRS started pestering me about my supposed benefits… the correction of the English version costed far more that the pitance I got from the book returns… and I simply retired the copies from createspace. No vanity after all… it was fun for a while.

Then one day I asked my eldest son (a computer engineer with a doctorate and several masters I do not know how to explain myself…) if it would be possible to hang in this present webpage a downloadable free copy… and he said yes no problem!

So, there you have it!… the first drafts date back to 2006 or 2008… it was first written in Spanish (my maternal language)… and I assure you nobody was interested in Spain at all!… LOL… So I translated it myself to English (where the hobby still exists… I thought!) with awful results (the black cover first edition) and then once the critics in amazon said it was good intentioned but ilegible… I decided to put a remedy and then I paid for the services of a profesional corrector (something the IRS does not take account for). and there you have it.

BTW I pay my taxes in Andorra dutifully!

What happened after 2016 is in the Facebook Group under the title (obviously) MY TOY SOLDIERS AND ME…and this webpage/blog.

Enjoy!