The battle of Dorking is the fundamental or quintessential scare of the XIXth Century in Britain, based on the book namesake after 1870… the Prussian Army concerned a lot of the fears on the Island (silly without a Navy who could slip the Royal Navy at all of course!)… but the scenarios you can build around the them are FUN!
I am currently waiting for three parcels to arrive to complete the small units I need to play them. The British are finished but the Prussians lack Cavalry and some “touchs”.
Enjoy!
Basic Prussian unit (still in process)Another one…Still organizing those…two units that with a simple change of hat become French Foreign Legion… LOLAbove the British… below the slow building of the Prussians…
You know I am a 6mm orthodox (more or less) solo wargamer… a collector of 54mm Toy Soldiers (part of them used in traditional old style games)… but also a Playmobil fan with my grandchildren. Let me explain why… probably you do not care at all for those german toys (mainly quite pacific oriented!)… but some of us perversily used them in wargames and role-playing… LOL
As always a picture is worth a thousand words so here have some… have in mind I collected Playmobil soldiers mainly for years without knowing they could be dissembled and rebuilt exchanging parts!… quite easy once you know how… the method of kitchen scissors and a towel is my own as seen in YouTube!
Lets start with the US Cavalry (You all know I have a fixation with the French Foreign Legion thanks to P.C.Wren) but this is not my only obsession… John Ford and John Wayne (and Richard Widmark, Ben Johnson and a lot of other mainly from Ford’s stock company) plunged my young imagination into it… as Errol Flynn of course!
Well, here is a theme overdone by Playmobil thanks God! See some pics:
A tyiycall US Cavalry Trooper (1876) 7th Cavalry. Black hat.Same as above dissembled (18 parts you can exchange at will) The only part not Playmobil standard is the resin carabine hand painted by me. Steiner models produces a range of weapons.
The head act as a plug that keeps the lot together (german engineering), actually a great idea that permits personalization.
A typical Comapny of US Cavalry.
More pics:
Same figure with kepi and saber goes to the ACW and the Michigan Brigade in a flash!You like the Cavalry trilogy? a change of hat and there you are… as you have deduced the choice of weapons is a must… saber, revolver, carbine… you name it… bugle etc.Another hat and the Apache wars comes to mind!
Many times only a change of hat does the trick! In subsequent entries you will be introduced to my battle of Dorking outfit (not related to Dorca at all) and will see how my French Foreign Legion Playmobils double as Prussians with the change of hat!
More will follow.
Enjoy!
The whole 7th (nearly sold them once! happy I did not.)
Playmobil has a policy of not encouraging War Toys or Wargames (idiotic if you ask me when the most popular sales are the Pirate Ships… nothing worse than pirates in my book… and also produce Imperial Romans and even a Circus (Roman you know)… hundreds of fans indulge in making for themselves Napoleonic Armies (a forever popular addiction)… why Playmobil do not produce sets os soldiers or Military Bands eludes me completely… after all they do the pieces that you can collect bit by bit and then mount on… the most difficult part to get are Hats (some astute manufacturers in resin do) the rest is fairly easy to get. There are even flags adhesive manufactured! So there you have it we have those Armies after all… and Playmobil can manufacture James Bond Aston-Martin etc. Toy Soldiers are NOT their forte (a part from the ACW which they did!… and a lot of soldiers to do AWI/7YW… and cowboys and redskins)… a strange world we live in.
When Russians are made through customization…Paulowski Grenadiers
Well, this is a pic from ebay (and not a very good resolution) but once the parcel arrives I will substitute for another one… yoou get the idea I guess.
Pesky PrussiansBetter resolution on the General. (Quite true to size)
I once sold a collection of ACW Playmobils because I did not want my grandchildren to fight brother against brother… LOL… if I had new they will enjoy playing videogames with plenty of shooting and killing with machine/laser/guns… oh dear!… I feel like a Neanderthal sometimes…
Recently have bought Playmobils (AGAIN) Prussians to fight the Brits at Dorking à la Wells… missile launched from canons… hope that the smaller of my grandchildren will appreciate… have my doubts (sometimes he thinks older than me).
Enjoy.
Big Table of course!
See the chairs!… For ONCE! this is not an estatic DIORAMA!… I thought I was the only fool that indulged in that!
Excuse me if you have already seen this pic (my own for a change) 75mm Customized Playmobil (Just the headgear I guess)
Congratulations to the British. The civic attitude was paramount and those public and privately professionally involved gave a lesson on “how it is done”. There is no better example to compare. Long live the King!
This webpage would again be alive as from today with the usual business of giving you your daily ration (or dose) of Toy Soldiers. Cheers.
The Line Units (Clicks Napoleonicos España)… great conversions!
Most of you would not be interested at all but Playmobils are FUN to customize… 75mm means your fingers are able to do it without much trouble or craftsmanship… the results are great but a bit on the expensive side… those who do enjoy making very big DIORAMAS… you need all sorts as you already know.
When Russians “saved” Europe from Napoleon! (1812)… Playmobil
Click Napoleonicos España does an excellent job converting and customizing Playmobils… of course those are not commercially available… Facebook as usual.
I never indulged in that (well, only two figures) because I did found the task herculean and complicated… but diorama makers do it to perfection and you must be aware of rhe cost of it too!
I think they represent a Swiss Regiment (Asociacion Napoleonica Española) seen in Facebook!
When I got my 25/28mm crisis (a deep one) that produced the effect of selling my whole collection on that scale (but for 3 or 4 sentimental minis) I was distraught… I was still reading History and Historical Fiction but wargaming in 25/28mm had lost its appeal… I thought my wargame days were over… I toyed with Playmobils as a distraction mainly having my grandchildren in mind (not that I had much success with that) but the original idea was there. For nearly a decade I collected, converted, added stickers, bought special headgear and weapons and what not… to get the Playmobils the trade mark NEVER PRODUCED!… LOL… in fact I was recreating, in the end, my old 25mm collection in 75mm… but it was FUN!… and there were “things” not possible to do with metal minis as mounting a horse or dismounting at will, getting weapons in hand or not, magnificent sailing ships, skirmishing games were possible and periods like the Lace Wars (Tricorne era… a la Charles Grant) which I never indulged on in 25/28mm were a joy to toy with (that part of my Playmobil collection is in the respective hands of my grandchildren). Of course at the same time I rediscovered 6mm (1/300 in the old days) and went wargaming again. Not that I stopped ever collecting 54mm Toy Soldiers mind…
Today’s pic (extracted from Facebook) is an example of what I mean… probably german readers will love their toys… if really interested see posts about Playmobil and Playmopics in this web page.
Customized Ancient Warriors (Facebbok source)… see what I meant?
