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....
 

Plastic Warrior 2024

Last Saturday was the Plastic Warrior show in Twickenham, West London.  As usual, I filled the car with high* quality items and drove down on the Friday to stay over with Paul W.  I had spoken to Bob Cordery a couple of weeks previously and called in to see him on the Friday afternoon.  

Despite various health issues I found Bob in a typically positive mood.  As he's not currently mobile he would be delighted to hear from friends, so if you have his contact details please get in touch!

Because I was heading to see Bob and had plenty pf time I decided to try - for the first time - the Woolwich Ferry.  This turned out to be very slick and offered some different views of East London. Certainly better then the massive detour of Dartford or the horrors of the Blackwall Tunnel.

 

The show itself was very well attended - Brian Carrick tells me there were 50+ trade stands booked and all seemed to be doing brisk business.  I certainly shifted a LOT of stuff and bought commendably little.  I'll reveal (or should that be confess?) my purchases in a future post.

Good too to catch up with friends - Paul W, Jack, Graham, Anthony, Brian, Evan and others.

The stands were a mix of traders and individuals like me thinning down collections.  While the show is mostly about 54mm plastic soldiers, there's no telling what you might find.  A great show as always and rather busier to my eyes at least then last year.  Very well done to Paul M and Brian for organising it all.

33rd Battle of the Isonzo - part 3

 

The Alpini assault was followed up by two companies of Arditi assault troops.  Meanwhile the Bersaglieri battalion moved up, encouraged by it's very noisy band.

But down the hill came the Austrian reserves and further unpleasantness ensued.

The Arditi took the position - just - but here come the stormtroopers!

The Bersaglieri managed to see them off - at a cost...

...and soon the rest of the battalion surged up to the top.

Just in time, the Austrian CO skulked off with his mountain gun battery...

...while down below the Bersaglieri band practiced for the surely inevitable victory parade.

A very entertaining game to run - well done to all the players for entering in to the spirit of the thing and for donating photos.

And finally: 

In the comments in the 32nd battle (see here), regular reader Brad DeSantis mentioned that his grandfather had fought - in the Alpini - during the Great War.  I duly named one of the figures as Caporal Maggiore Victor DeSantis.  Not only was he (the figure) present at this battle, but unlike a lot of his chums, he survived!  A small tribute to his service.

Czecho engineers and traffic controllers

Having established a probable need for more Warpact bridging kit I had a rummage in some boxes to see what was in stock.  Quite a bit as it happened, including a Skytrex set with Zil lorries, pontoons and roadway sections.  I painted them up a Czechs as I have plans for a couple of games where they might have a role.  I used the roadway sections to form a deployed bridge and couldn't resist adding a traffic control detachment with an H&R UAZ-469, a motorcyclist and of course a man pointing!

 

33rd Battle of the Isonzo - part 2

 

The Italian attack was led off by the Alpini battalion - off they went, dodging between the shellbursts.

Meanwhile, atop Hill 177 an  Austrian company was comfortable in it's trenches...

...until they fell victim to a well-aimed (or just plain lucky) Italian stonk.  Ouch!

The Alpini seemed to be doing well, as their timing skills were put to the test...

...but the Austrians weren't giving in easily.

From the valley it looked a very big hill!

Casualties soon mounted in among the Alpini.

Eventually the Alpini prevailed, but as they consolidated their position...

...the Austrians moved forward their reserve company.

Were the Austrians about to counter-attack?

        Would the Italian artillery ever hit anything else?

                    Find out in part 3 coming soon!

33rd Battle of the Isonzo - part 1

 The earlier, 32nd battle (see here and many other posts), was a fun game to run and play.  Having added to my Italian forces last year, another visit to this front seemed timely.  Thus it was that a few of us gathered to wonder at my latest creation - an even bigger tabletop mountain!

The Italian starting positions are in some or all of the woods nearest the camera, The Austrians are atop the alp.

Italian Brigade HQ admiring it's quarters.

All the old favourites were here - the Italian soup kitchen.....

...and the Austrian senior officers' latrine!

Having set up and issued briefings, the next step was some air recce...

...the Italians found what they were pretty sure was a mountain...

...while their opposite numbers were able to hazard a guess that an attack was imminent.  Well done chaps.

The Italian heavy artillery batteries firing from off table.  Or another table.

This was the debut outing of a rather lovely FIAT lorry.

Meanwhile, uphill, the Austrian gunners sneak forward a mountain battery.  What a rotten trick!

The opening bombardment.  I made both sides' gunners fire blind- the Austrians from behind the mountain and the Italians from behind a screen.  The results were entertainingly erratic.

A commanding position!