My Toy Soldiers & Me

21st Lancers at OMDURMAN

Winston Churchill rode with them at Omdurman… a favourite subject of Britain’s factory and others…

Enjoy!

The complete set once the last three figures arrived (Antony Spencer (DORSET SOLDIERS) did the arms conversions of Colonel Martin-Standard-bearer-and Young Winston)

Here is easy to see the work on the hides colours of the horses (originally all black).

My Own 6mm Unit (any British lancer Regiment)

I am doing a 54mm UNiT too, using “NEW” Britains (Centenial series), and YES I do paint the horses because all black is much unrealistic! Nearly finished nowadays (see the first 4 pics).

As Dan Allen once said my collection is basically Toy Soldiers… but I have some Policemen (notoriously the Royal Canadian Mounted Police)… so… I’ll give you on my birthday a couple of motorbikes with them… a joy to paint… specially the dial.

Enjoy!

And my last British Dismounted Officers

Due to my strange ways of collecting I had a number of horses without rider (because they were meant to be there when the chap dismounted I guess… “Empty Horses” as David Niven mentioned in his memoirs a Movies Director saying so – too much of a gentleman to say who – well… to cut a story short I am a firm believer in symmetry at the start (not that you can not game asymmetrical games of course!… but better have the option)… so if the French had two dismounted ADC’s… the British needed them too… life is like that… sometimes years pass between one action (buying stuff) and the other (completing collection)… LOL

My work… thin layer of plasticine to make boots instead of puttees… using DORSET/IMPERIAL FIGURES CASTS.

Charles Saganne

Or my newest French ADC (finished) see previous Posts… IMPERIAL MINIATURES (Thanks to Antony Spencer).

Curiously the idea come to me “in the making”, I was an ADC short in my collection, but the idea of using the character Charles Saganne (from the French film epic FORT SAGANNE) was not in my head at all… and then after priming the figure and consulting book of uniforms… Officer of Tirailleurs Algeriens if you please… the jigsaw pieces in my mind falled in place.

Enjoy!

A matter of ADC’s

I must be boorish today talking about me projects… you see I am still “squaring” units, so while DORSET SOLDIERS does the last 16 soldiers to complete ny British Army (Khaki)… I am doing some odds and ends because of some old horses I got (do not remember why at all)… First I did Young Winston (see elsewhere in this Blog)… now I am working on Charles Saganne (Depardieu) as a French ADC (mounted) … he is already primed for paint… and his horse has got a new “rouleau” just for the fun of it! (I am getting better with plasticine or milliput)

More to the point a couple of dismounted ADC’s for the British Army (see pic).

And what is even much more fun a couple of motorcycle riders! Full circle I guess (they were my first toys those kind of chaps!)…

So … try to Enjoy!

Primed and prepared for painting (see horseman on the left)

On a more sunny job I corrected the medals on my French General! Count that as a bonus against boredom.

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!

Work in progress and finished!

OMG! getting out of lead to paint again!… UK Postal Strikes!… yipee!… what else can go wrong I ask?

REPLICA figures painted by Andrew Stevens (much better painter than me) used as “models”… sometimes I think I am a silly ass and should have concentrated in other model like Brigitte Bardot if you know what I mean… my only consolation is that my collection of models do not age up…

Will add pics this afternoon of the job finished.

Enjoy!