Plastic Warrior 2024 - the purchases - part 1

My acquisitions at the show were - to say the least - somewhat diverse!  But then such is the joy of the PW show.  In no particular order, we start with this nicely painted plastic Soviet VDV trooper.  He needed the paint on his boots touching up and I've varnished and based him.  Cost?  Er, 25p....(he was in a £1 for four items rummage box).

A box of high* quality items.

Near my table was a chap with a load of these Hing Fat figures.  While not the last word in fine detail they are useful figures for adding variety and for conversion work. And at £5 for three sets it was rude not to.  Above - the North Vietnamese - they look a lot like WW2 British with different hats.

WW2 Italians - a really nice set.

Hello sailor!  A ready made crew for a small boat.  Not I need to build the boat...

Another refugee from the rummage box was this nicely converted Cold War Brit.

A bag containing a dozen or so Atlantic Italians - Alpini and Cold War paras.  

Three metal pilots cost me £10.  This US in Vietnam chap...

...and two WW2 Luftwaffe officers.

A welcome find was this bag of half a dozen Cherilea Elizabethan figures.

A fine bag of tat labelled 'Pacific War' contained a dozen each of the Hing Fat US and Japanese figures (useful for conversions) and a horrible green plastic landing craft.  Hopefully some grey paint will turn it into a merely horrible landing craft.

One more purchase still to reveal - stay tuned for part 2....
 

Sdkfz 10 - sows's ear to silk purse?

This Sdkfz 10 was acquired in a box of tat and has seen service in several games.  While fundamentally quite a nice model it looked like the plastic tat it is!  Painting it, therefore, was an easy decision.  I went with an early-war look and I'm very pleased with the result!

A tale of some toys.

 As I’ve had a few questions about the vehicles used in my recent WW2 game (see here Link), I decided that a separate post was in order.  Here then, is the eclectic selection.  

All three T34s are 1/56 scale plastic kits by Rubicon. 

The Lone Star Carriers were covered in this recent post ( Link) They scale out at 1/40. 

BA-64 is a Tamiya 1/48 scale plastic kit. It’s a lovely little thing. 

Kubel is plastic & diecast by Victoria in 1/43. 

More 1/48 Tamiya kits - above the Horch kzf70, below the Steyr 1500A.  Very nice kits. 

Here they are in company with (centre) a Solido Citroen C4 van. 

The Panzer IV is on the face of it a fairly nasty toy, but after ripping out the friction motor and repainting it looks fine. Slightly smaller then the early war Solido Panzer IV which is 1/50 scale. 

The Corgi range of 1/50 scale military vehicles is usually very expensive but they occasionally crop up at palatable prices.  They are lovely -  none more so than this Panther.  A better model than the still very nice  Solido version which is a bit too wide. 

The diecast and plastic 1/43 GAZ-67 is from one of the partwork ranges.  

Finally, this Sdkfz-10 with 20mm Flak gun came in a batch of other stuff some years back. It is both nasty plastic tat and a rather nice model. I think it would benefit from a repaint.  

Terribly tatty toy tank titivation

 

A while back I acquired a pair of nasty plastic Abrams tanks in about 1/50 scale. They can be seen in this post from 2016. This second - and mismatched - pair followed and were undercoated in black many months ago. I noticed them this morning while looking for something quite unrelated and decided to threaten them with the dangerous end of a paintbrush. 

A few hours later I devoted 20 minutes or so to the paintwork and here is the result. They’ll do. 

My painting reference. Well, more inspiration than reference really as I can’t claim to have followed any pattern. 

Petrograd Nights - the toys

Following a torrent* of requests for more information on the toys used in the Petrograd Nights game, here it is. 

First up - the Tsarists. I used my Charbens recast Russian guards. Their eccentric poses are always a joy to behold!

Two regiments of sailors were potentially available - all Armies in Plastic WW1 Russians. 

The Mensheviks. Marx(?) ACW figures painted for the mid-19th century Italian wars. No wonder they look confused. 

The Bolsheviks (boo, hiss). More ACW types fresh previously used in Italy, with a Replicants officer. 

The conservatives were clearly a wealthy faction as they had the only metal toys in the game. I picked these guys up already painted on eBay last year - I think they may have originally been Boers. Their previous outing was the rather less classy business of fighting for the Commune in 1871 Paris last year. 

The Liberals. More AIP WW1 Russians, this time in dark green.  They don’t look all that liberal to me. 

The last photos are all of the Social Democrats. These were all from my Spanish Civil War militia box and were a real mixed bag, from several manufacturers. This pair are AIP WW1 figures. That on the left is a German with a head swap. 

Replicants ACW and Marx WW2 Japanese. 

And finally - none other then the legend that is known to my regular players as ‘Sophia Loren’.  As seen last year in 1871 Paris and 1936 Madrid. She’s a scratchbuild (not by me) largely made of filler. 

  * at least two

I can’t believe it’s not bunker - part 3

The bunkers are now painted and complete. Here - in these hastily posed photos -  we see some of the comrades skulking bravely behind their mighty concrete walls. Well, OK, flimsy plastic but best not mention that to these chaps. 

I can’t believe it’s not bunker - part 2

The high quality Soviet bunkers have been based  - otherwise they were rather wobbly - and undercoated in black. More paint will be applied when this coat dries.

I can’t believe it’s not bunker

I spotted this ancient margarine tub heading for the bin a few weeks ago. “So what?” I hear you cry. Strange to say, it put me in mind of photos of Soviet WW2 pre-fabricated concrete MG bunkers I’d been looking at. Having successfully rescued the thing I at once set to work to produce yet more of the museum-quality terrain for which I am rightly famed.

The first step was to cut it in half....

...next I cut out the vision/firing slits. These are quite tall so as to accommodate both kneeling and standing firing figures. Stay tuned for the next thrilling episode!

Birmingham Toy Soldier Show 2019

 On Sunday I again visited the Birmingham show and had an enjoyable day out, this time accompanied by Graham E.  As well as picking up some random toys at attractive prices I met up with several friends - so hello again to Mike, Anthony, Graham A, John and Mike C. As a bonus, we had a very smooth journey in both directions.
Well done again to the show organisers, traders and punters.
Above - the green figures are Black Cat Napoleonic Russians - very rare and beautiful figures. Do I need more Russians?  Er.....  I also found three Barzso 18thC Highlanders.

Approximately three feet of stakes makes me think it might be time to revisit Agincourt. The (1/32) figure is there for scale.

I’d chucked the rest in a box before remembering to take photos. Three Timpo wagons - all a bit tatty, a pair of broken Timpo guns and a quartet of ancient/medieval twangy things. And a still bagged Timpo Gatling. Oh, and a tent.  It may be tat but at least it’s cheap tat!

Essential purchases from COW

Better late than never, here are my purchases from the informal bring & buy at COW. There are always some books - the first is every bit as dodgy as it looks and has already been read and put in the surplus pile. 

I’ve still not had a rummage in this box of old 25mm medievals - they were comfortingly cheap though!

David Crook provided these 25mm Sea Peoples figures for an excellent price. Free!

DC also very kindly gave me this splendid book from the collection of the late Eric Knowles. Toy soldier porn of the very highest quality.

The seemingly bottomless boot of DC’s car also yielded this box of dodgy 54mm ‘modern’ figures. I’ve kept a few (and the palm trees) and passed the others to Ian Drury. 

Finally, there is this box of high quality plastic. There are three tolerable Humvees in there, plus a tank transporter.