My Toy Soldiers & Me

Graham Hilditch’s 42mm Conversions (as seen in Facebook)

Quite a fascinating subject… how to build a staff around a single basic model, and that in 42mm (Britain’s smaller scale)

I have always admired Mr. Hilditch work… you can see other examples of his output in this webpage.

I think he would be glad to know that REPLICA (read Andrew Stevens) has a range of 42mm available again!… quite Britain’s style if you ask me!… so those who love that scale are in for a good time…

Enjoy!

They are all conversions from a single original mini.

Graham Hilditch’s 16th Lancers (42mm).

It is not the first time I Post his work, always in 42MM… but it always looks superb.

He usually uses that scenery as a background… that works very well with Infantry… and those lancers (the 16th) have had to manage to lower lances to negotiate I guess. No kidding.

Wonderful display.

Enjoy.

Graham Hilditch’s Band!

No Band of Brothers I guess… but a tour de force! doing or printing in 3D those instruments in 42mm is an small wonder. Congratulations on a job well done!

Enjoy!

Britains style B scale Cheshire Regiment band. As Britains never made smaller scale 42mm band figures, these are all converts and homecasts. Musical instruments in this scale were difficult to source. Some are scratch made and others 3D printed.

Rifles from Hilditch

Less than 54mm (series “B”) and still impressing.

I was personal yesterday, maybe even too personal… well, I can always edit the thing if I want… I do not know if being too personal is a bonus or a malus…

So, today let’s go back to the main line of this webpage… toy soldiers and those who enjoy them.

Dear Graham does the most with a very few things… meaning soldiers, sailors and castle (or barracks) The essence is to take a tasteful pic… I could have eliminated the backgrond (see below) but it is charming as it is. Enjoy.

See?

Toy Soldiers Britain’s smaller scale

I have always collected 54mm traditional Toy Soldiers… but you can not denie those smaller figures are charming too!

Those are from Graham Hilditch.

Some sailors marching. (Pic seen in Facebook)

Graham Hilditch: Back to Barracks

Hilditch’s own (42mm Series B Britains painted to a high standard a la Dilley!)

Got other pics to post but this one appeared today in Facebook and got my eye… you can do much worse and not much better. Enjoy.

Graham Hilditch Toy Soldiers: Smaller than 54mm but great!

Graham Hilditch own “B” series… as seen in Facebook.

They are NOT 54mm there is even a pic that shows the difference in scale somewhere in Facebook… but I liked this one… around 42mm and painted Dilley’s way but not from his collection (Graham Hilditch’s own). Awesome!

45MM scale. BRITAINS “B” scale. Edited 2025

Not as much known or collected as the “classic” 54mm. But full of potential.

Have some posts collected under year “2022”.

Enjoy!

See the diference? (BTW fantastic painting job by Graham Hilditch)

ZINDERNEUF (as in P.C. Wren’s)

Not all of the restrictions of the pandemic are a boring thing, in fact it has given me time to do things I have done on my mind for several years and never materialized because of lack of time and sheer laziness. The normal live I live keep postponing those things ad infinitum.

To begin at the beginning, I have always had a set of building bricks called EXIN CASTILLOS, it was a wonderful Spanish toy of the sixties, I played with them and build castles, so did my children when young because I purchased sets for them (nowadays have done so with my grandchildren too), one day of “cleaning up” at home I rescued the discarded sets of mine&my children from the list of things to throw away, put them in a box and stored them in my (then) office waiting for better days.

Fort Zinderneuf, a lonely outpost in the Saharian South manned by the FFL, if you have read P.C.Wren or seen the films not much explanations required. 54mm Dorset Figures.

In the meantime my collection of Dorset Soldiers (thanks again to Giles Brown) was slowly growing up and the French Foreign Legion in action poses (mainly) occupied three shelves of one of the cabinets in Pal. So, one day I took the box from my office, cleaned the plastic pieces with soap&water and produced a mini ZINDERNEUF in 54mm to play with my Dorset Soldiers set. On another trip I had brought to Pal my camera/tripod etc.

Here you have the full set of pieces, I did not use the circular one’s neither the too Dark Ages bits for ZINDERNEUF, but I always sort them out before “building”

This is the result: a solo game I play against “time”, will the arabs kill all the defenders of the fort before help from Tokotu arrives? Will “Beau” and “John” survive as long as in the novel?.

Quickly built… nearly exhausting the supply of rectangular pieces.

By the way, if you considere the BEAU GESTE trilogy (in fact five books and some extra short stories!) too old fashioned for you, you simply pass…

Now, that was fun!, it has been years since I did a model with those blocks!, it’s like riding a bycicle… you never forget those tricks with the bricks.

I have done it in 6mm (still in my Baccus collection), 28mm (To The Redoubt… sold), 54mm (Dorset Soldiers) and in 75mm with Playmobils (now in the collections of my grandchildren).