Yes I'm attempting it next year !

 

Me and Charlie will be having a go again at this next year . Charlie (the dog) is coming up 11 next year and is slowing down a bit (and is VERY resistant to walking in the rain - so am I ) so it will be a greater challenge - we will see how we do !.

A Christmas game

 

Here we see 'A' pondering his next move in our Christmas game . We used my Wofun 2D SYW collection and the Honours of War rules, and I was soundly beaten using my Cavalry too aggressively , sadly as normal I forgot to take some more photos as the action grew hot .

I got these two books for Christmas , I've only dipped into them so far , but both look jolly interesting .

Old dog and New tricks.

 

Here we see the author resplendent in his new 'hobby apron' ! , after ruining numerous tee shirts , trousers and shirts with glue.and paint , Santa Claus (my dear wife) brought me it for Christmas with strict instructions that it must be worn on ALL occassions ! . 

PS the fleece is another present from Santa as well !

A Merry Christmas to all in Bloggerland.

 

Thousand miles in 23 completed !

 

Well with todays trudge through some very soggy and muddy fields, me and Charlie completed our "Walk a Thousand Miles" Challenge ! . I will be signing up for next year's one in the New Year .

Toy Soldiers in Art (?) No. 11

 

Found on the William Britians Facebook Group . The West Somerset Yeomanry learn the rudiments of scouting with the aid of  Britains figures , taken from the 'Navy and Army Illustrated' 1898 . The chap on the bottom right looks disappointed that he can't shoot the figures with his Martini Henry ! . (click on photo to enlarge)

On the painting tray at the moment.

 

Trying to clear up some loose ends on the painting table before the Christmas celebrations . There are some 40mm Irregular figures and explosions which have been in my 'to do' box for a while and the couple of 54mm Lifeguards that need repairing and painting . With the bout of wet weather this week I should be able to get quite a bit done , ..............

Lincoln Logge 'King of the Wild Patio'

May I present Lincoln Logge self styled 'King of the Patio' , here seen with his Patiogonian Indian companion Tonto . 

Lincoln Logge was the first European to cross the Great Patio and the discoverer of the Great and Lesser Ponds , here seen overlooking what is supposed to be the Lesser Pond.

Here is the only contenporary photo of Logge that I have been able to trace . Ned Butline the famous 19th century Western promoter wrote a Dime novel called "Across the Greate Patioe" which sensasionalised his exploits - Logge was incapable of telling the truth and fantasiesed his exploits on the Wild Patio to a great extent.

Here we see Logge meeting 'Escargot  Killer' the famed Patiogonian Indian Cheiftain , Logge served as a scout for 'Red Army' during The Great Patio War ., and should be appearing on the tabletop soon.

 

Cleaned up nicely .

 

Fresh from the stripping process and smelling pungently of Dettol , my two Life Guards and the Davy Crockett type . The cavalry figures need quite a bit of work doing on them , one needs an arm casting to replace the missing one and the other needs a sword blade adding , both horses need tails adding as well - so quite a bit of work needs doing to them. I'm rather pleased with the other figure , thanks to Brad identifing him as a 'Lincoln Logs Pioneer'  , I knew nothing about this firm which seems to be a bit of an American institution - The Birth of Lincoln Logs | HISTORY , so I'm looking forward to painting him up as a bit of genuine Americana .

Next up for the Dettol bath .

 

Hunted out the two spare Lifeguards to go with my Lancers , and they are rather worse for wear - both horses have missing tails , one of the figures has a missing arm as well , so quite a bit of repair work to be done on them . I decided to strip the paint to help with the rennovations and painting. Whilst rummaging around in my spares box I found the rather unusual David Crockett/Mountain Man/ Pioneer figure and as he has hardly paint left on him I decided to give him a bath as well. We will see how they look in a couple of days once the Dettol has removed the paint from them.

Britains hollow-casts finally based up !

 

So I've finally got my 54mm Lancers based up , it's taken a while as I had to send for some more bases and various 'real life' issues have intervened . 

I drilled some depressions for the hooves to fit into and put a dab of Hot Glue into the hole and fixed the figures to the bases. I find you have to base these 54mm Britains hollow-casts otherwise they fall over and knock  the surrounding ones over domino like ! .

Here they are going on a Winter patrol overlooking the Great Patio where the vestiges of the last snow fall can bee seen .

I think the Trumpeters might be relegated to HQ duties and replaced with a couple of Officer figures ,  I  might have a cuple of Hollow-casts Cavalry figures that may be suitable .

Tis the Season

 

Well things have not progressed very quickly here - 'real life' and Seasonal doings have somewhat curtailed my painting and hobbying . However whilst accompanying MrsK to a 'Christmas Fayre' I was able to purchase these fine chaps -about 5" tall and brightly painted very Toy Soldiery indeed !.

A bit of basing !

 

Have noticed that several of my fellow bloggers are busy basing/rebasing figures and this has encouraged me to base up the Lancers (.: Just when you thought it was safe to go back onto eBay. (tonystoysoldiers.blogspot.com) that have been waiting for bases for quite a while .- note to self - Hot Glue Guns when switched on produce VERY HOT glue !! (ouch) (Mrs K on hearing the swearing says "what have you done now !") Results to follow on next post.......

A glimpse of mass production figure painting from the past.

 

No ! - not a picture of Mrs K busy painting my figures ! but a photo from Facebook , annoyingly I can't remember where I stole it from , so can't tell you  anymore info . Think she is painting Cowboys and the Cavalry look like Lifeguards , probably the Britains factory from the 1930s-50s ? going by the hairstyle and dress.etc, hate to think of the lead toxicity of the paint being used ! 

I've been to see Napoleon on the silver screen .

 

Well I took myself to the cinema to see the latest film - Mrs 'K' said it was not her sort of thing so I went alone and took advantage of my Pensioner status at the box office.

A clumsy attenpt at a selfie - I lack the dextterity and have short arms for this sort of thing - note the tub of popcorn a must have on a visit to the cinema and of course almost eaten before the film starts as usual.

The film starts - I must say I enjoyed it - it's NOT Waterloo ! as a lot of people are unfairly comparing it I think. Very moodily lit and the settings looked right , I didn't start button counting when it came to the uniforms and the battle scenes where a bit 'rugby scrumish' I'm afraid but overall it was a great period piece and I would watch it again . 

A contemporary view of Napoleon - I would say it was a brave attempt at a massive subject which  was always going to be a bit crammed onto the silver screen .8/10 I think .

Toy Soldier in Art No.10

 

I'm told the young people call them memes (!?)

PS wait till she finds how much he spends on them 

PPS and how much room they take up in the house 

PPPS or how much of his waking time is taken up thinking about them 

 

Just when you thought it was safe to go back onto eBay.

 

Several posts ago I said I didn't need anymore 54mm figures , then I happened to notice the above figures on a 'Buy it now' option on eBay , they were about £24 ! , I couldn't resist and immediately bought them ! . I think that the low price and 'But it now' option was because the seller was not generaly a Toy Soldier dealer and just wanted a quick sale .

I had never seen the classic Britains Lifeguard figure with a lance before and assumed it was a modern conversion .

I asked for more information on the 'William Britains Toy Soldier Collector' Facebook group and was told they where part of the above set 'Musical Ride Household Cavalry' issued between 1954 - 1963. I'm rather pleased with them but will need to add bases to them if they are to take place in tabletop battles .

I came across this quotation which is perhaps a bit to close for comfort for myself ..........

Toy Soldiers in Art No.9

 

 Never happen!, 

1930's German Toys .

 

Found on the 'Military Toys from our Childhood' Facebook group , Would say German 1930's - click on photo to enlarge.

Starting painting my 40mm SYW-ish .

 

Started painting up my 40mm homecast French SYW , it's been a while since I painted any of these figures and I don't think I've got the shading right on these figures , hopefully the next batch will be better. These will be varnished when I get them all done.

Here's the rest undercoated ready , sadly the undercoat shows up the casting inperfections - hopefully a coat of paint and a couple of coats of gloss varnish should hide all the mold lines.

Fruits of the castng pot .

 

Having 'fettled' my mold I brought my casting pot indoors (it being cold outside in the shed) and started warming up my metal in the kitchen - my wife passed me by and said "you won't burn the house down will you !?" * 

After a few false starts , I started getting some good castings - the Godess of Homecasting smiled on me and I have enough figures for a small unit now. 

*you'll be pleased to know I didn't .

A return to folly (sic)

So I have decided to add another unit of infantry to my 40mm Homecast SYW-ish collection . It's been ages since I cast any figures up so this will be a nice change of pace . I've been cleaning up some of the castings and adding a couple of vents to one of the molds which wasn't casting properly . 

It will be a company of the Volontaires Estranger, a unit of French Light Infantry with rather acttractive green facings . The molds are a selection by Prince August. I hope to get the other castings done in the coming week.

 

Toy Soldiers in Art No. 8

 

Found on the interweb - Mrs K has not fitted one to our house - yet !

Trouble in West Toieland (part 2)

 

Hodge gives his opinion of my tactical skills - he's not allowed in the gaming room as he chews things - so was evicted swiftly.

Brigadier Pettigrew is injured whilst trying to bolster the Cadet's moral as they take more casualties from the Jaegers.

Reinforcement arrive for Army 'Blue' as the left hand unit of Cadets deploy. In the distance the Chasseurs see off the Hussars but come under artillery fire .

The striken field towards the end of the game . Interestingly the 2 'cameo' figures never fot a chance to get involved.

The Cadets charge the 'Blue' infantry causng casualties but are driven back - 'Blue' was having a run of lucky dice throws and card draws at this point with 'Red' army powerless to respond. More 'Blue' reinforcements arrive down the road on the left.

End game , the Cadets on the right flee with the remnants of the Chasseurs retreating through the village followed by the Cadets in the center . With the majority of the army in flight the Cadets on the left fall back as well . An overwhelming victory for 'Blue' Army , they had a fortunate run of cards drawn plus some accurate artillery fire and shooting from the Jaegers which meant 'Red' Armt never really got a look in . As it was the Cadets first action the curse of the newly painted figures must have struck again !

Trouble in West Toieland (part 1)

 

As they approach the village the 'Red' force deploys with the Cavalry moving through the village and the Cadets going left and right . Notice the 'Blue' Jaegers have managed to move up to the wall on the right due to some crafty playing of cards and some high dice scoring for movement.

The Chasseurs deploy to face the enemy Hussars .

The Cadets moving up the road through the village are hit by accurate Artillery fire before they can deploy !

Likewise the Cadets on the right are peppered by rifle fire from behind the wall as the form up.

The 'Blue' army Hussars charge the Chasseurs who countercharge and drive them back . Part 2 to follow......... ......