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A forgotten pic on the vault… I also forgot who was the gentleman who took the pic… but you get the idea… there are still places where the hobby is taken seriously and they dedicate space and cabinets to show beautiful collections… so… not all is lost!
Enjoy!
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It is not always that you can show the result of direct influence (not that I consider myself an influencer at all!) but it is funny to know Paul Watson built a unit of Highlanders as a result of lending a hand to a desperate chap (myself).
Enjoy!
As a bonus, because too much Gordon’s lately another couple of pics about vintage figures and where the Gordon’s fought too!… Just an alignment of planets I guess…
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One thing we have to have in mind is that nearly always the most unusual subjects in Toy Soldiers land become the more valuable and precious in the long run… and that from a silly old man who has passed his collecting life amassing British Guards!… LOL
Seriously delightful minis.
Enjoy!
PS: Incidentally passed the mark of 125.000 visitors yesterday… it keeps me going knowing someone looks at it!
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The Gordon’s REPLICA original set complemented by Paul Watson’s casts and still pending additions (to be also painted by me) from Imperial/Dorset… LOL
Got three more minis already primed and pending painting in detail… a bugler and two pipers with pith helmet from IMPERIAL/DORSET miniatures…
The Heliograph duo was a gift from Paul… one really makes friends in Facebook!
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I am a huge fan of what Francesco does with 28mm Perry’s… unsurpassed IMHO… those mini dioramas are full of action and tasteful display (and some are standard figures or minis!)… mindblowing standard of painting if you ask me… not my favourite scale anymore… but dear me!… he tempts me everytime I see his works.
Enjoy!
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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.
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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!
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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!
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Mind, for my Turkish readers they are NOT exotic at all… this is one of the pitfalls of the so called “civilization” the “foreigner” is “exotic” to say the least… and our “boys” the right one’s… so many REAL WARS have been born of that delusion that it makes your senses dull.
Nowadays I have not a single Zulu, Dervish, Pathan, Fuzzy Wuzzy, Boxer, Touareg, Boer, or whatever supposed foe to fight my Imperialist troops… I prefer to fight between two Imperialist forces… so, If you have the BEAU GESTE syndrome (you compulsorily collect French Foreign legion soldiers) and are a fan (stupidly enough!) of the British Empire… (The 4 feathers and all that)… I think it is better to make them clash (after all before the Entente Cordiale they indulged in it quite often enough) in the desert… FASHODA like but with a difference!… Kitchener had 1500 soldiers, and Marchand 150 (only 10 or 15 of them “white”… so it was no contest and a quite intelligent affair… with restraint etc. NOT for me … in my book of wargames a la AGW the fRench in Algeria expand to Libia instead of Morocco and the brits feel the Channel (Suez) menaced… perfect scenario instead of Dorking!… to be fair I already posses the 54mm armies and would have to start from scratch to do Dorking… (I do that with Playmobils a la Wells… firing Playmobil cannons etc)… hope my grandchildren enjoy the adrenalin and learn that the PBI never actually WINS a War… and 99% of Heroes are DEAD.
Uf quite a long “talk” today… really tired of “preaching”… was not my intention at all mind.
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From the vault… The Royals in Household Division finery… I have kept this pic for many days without knowing how to classify it!
Lets say (to be in the safe side) that HM The Queen Elizabeth II deserved a pic too, as it is she is also in my collection… and in many others I guess…
Enjoy.
