World Toy Soldier Day (who knew it ?)

 

World Toy Soldier Day ! - well I'll be d****d ! I didn't know it was a thing till I read it on The Duchy of Tradgardland: What l did for World Toy Soldier Day… as it happened I was in shed doing some casting as the weather has turned pleasantly mild and I'd tidied up the work bench of all the clutter that had accumulated over winter .

Some of the Prince August moulds can be a nightmare to cast from , but this little one for head in 54mm is a gem and works every time ! 

Some of the fruits of the casting pot . I need enough for six figures to round up my 54mm 'Red Army' Rifle Brigade unit to twelve models . The Goddess of Homecasting smiled on me and they are ready for cleaning up and glueing together.

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Toy Soldiers in the sunshine.

 

Got the Schiercke casting varnished and taking advantage of the early morning sun took them into the garden for a photoshoot.(.: Finding an oddity .)

I've always thought that the larger scale figures look at their best outdoors in an natural enviroment .

I'm very pleased how they have turned out and although to larger scale (70mm tall) to grace the wargaming table they will take pride of place on my bookshelves .

A before photo - a great improvement to their martial pride  .

Come listen to the Band !

 

As I mentioned in a previous post I bought some figures from our local Bric-a-Brac shop . I also bought these Bandsmen , they were obviously painted and based by the same person as they both have the rather chunky bases . As you can tell from the missing paint from the ankles they are VERY  bendy being made from pure lead . 

In some ways it was a bit of a shame to take them off the base which someone had spent a lot of effort on , but here they are on their new bases , I will be undercoating them and then repainting as Prussians , more when I get around to painting them.

The Henry C. Schiercke casting catalogue from the 1930s (?)

 

Found this complete catalogue online 

I do like the 'Pressure Cannon' !

Getting paint on lead .

 

I've finally got around to painting the odd lead figures I mentioned in the last post . I've painted them as French Chasseures a Pied of the late 19th century.

I will get them varnished when I've got the other four done .

I did a bit of searching on the internet to try and find more about the figures and this so far is the only photo I have found of them and the mould they came from . It is from over fifteen years ago , they are quite distinctive as their rifles are being carried slung and not shouldered as normally in toy soldiers of this era, are the moulds made by Schnieder ? I will try and investigate further .

PS 

Found this on the internet - figures circled -

From this catalouge , more info later.

Finding an oddity .

 

We have a shop in town that sell off house clearence items which varies greatly in quality and type (ie bricker brac to junk ),  I found these figures about 75mm/3" tall made from pure lead (they bend very easily at the ankles) glued to a hefty block of varnished wood . 

The first job was to carefully remove them from the base (luckily they were not fixed to securely) and rebase them on some thin MDF . I'm going to repaint them , I think they look like French Chasseures 1870ish and they will be for display only as they are such an odd size and don't any of my other collections. I have no idea of the manufacturer but look home cast 

 

Toy Soldiers in Art No.34

 

I found this postcard advertised on eBay several weeks ago , it's obviously a young German girl wearing a picklehelm . On the table there is a large model cannon and some largish toy soldiers which are partially  hidden and I'm afraid I can't make them out . The drum also looks very Prussian so probably from the turn of the century (1900ish ?) .There is some writting and print on the bottom - could it be Gretha ? and I wonder is Amst is short for Amsterdam ? - a mystery ......

Irregular Miniatures , a homage .

I've been thinking about all the Irregular Miniatures I have bought over the years and have decided to put up some photos of the figures I have bought and painted and played with over the yeats . The above are 40mm Turkish cavalry I have used for my Immagination collection.

Naval machine gun and crew in 40mm

Greek infantry and a personality figure made up from their 40mm bits and pieces range.

French Hussars in 40mm again for my Imagination project .

Irregular 40mm in combat again from my Balkans Imagination collection.

I have used Irregular 28mm for most of my Italian wars of Unification , here are French Zouaves.

Sardinian Lancers 

Austrian Grenz regiment, they do some cracking figures don'tthey !

Papal Zouaves 

Garibaldi volunteers 'Red shirts' . This is just a tiny selection of the figures I have bought from Irregular , I am so dazzled by the quantity of figures in many scales they have produced , probably unrivaled in wargaming history .

 

 

End of an era.

 

It is with great sadness I have just read the news that Irregular Miniatures are finishing trading in March as Ian Kay is retiring . They have been running for 45 years and for most of that time I have been making orders to them and recieveing them promptly with their superb mail order service . A great loss to the hobby and I do hope somebody else steps up to continue their manufactor . I would like to wish Ian a well earned retirement and thank him for all the figures I have bought and painted from him and all the joy he has over the years brought to my hobby. I have sent a last order off to him to finish off my Franco-Prussian armies .

Wargaming Humour No. 67

 

Found on the Interweb ......

First painting of the year.

With one thing or another I haven't go around to painting anything this year so far . But this afternoon I had a bit of spare time and searching through my 'to do box' I came across these Iroquios indians for my 'Close Wars' project which have been undercoated and awaiting the brush for months . Nice figures from 'Crucible Crush' with a very muted palette which is a bit of a challenge , got the bases to do and a coat of matt varnish to finish them off.

 

Theraphy Wargaming .

 

Whilst getting over my operation wargaming was not a priority , however as a sign I'm getting better I have set up a Franco-Prussian game using AGM rules using the Grant Sawmill Village scenario. French nearest the camera .

The French High Command have based themselves at a rather nice establishment that has an very amusing wine list.

The Prussian Generals set up their command post at the Sawmill , not quite as commodious .

The French forces advance .

The Prussians have a good hand of cards and swiftly capture the village. To be continued ....

A medical update.

 

Found this old photo from years ago (with new sub-title) , my wounds seem to be healing well , visited my Surgery nurse and had a new dressing  put on one of them . Getting back to walking and my appetite has returned (huzza !) - onward and upward !

Toy Soldiers in art No. 33

 

We swap arts to the theatre this time , I had to do a Google search to come up with whats going on - It's a play of 6 acts called L' Aiglon by Edmund Rostand about the early life of Napoleon II , it premiered in 1900 with Sarah Bernhardt taking the leading role . I'm not sure what the Toy Soldiers represent and they seem pretty big , probably made just for the production (click on photo to enlarge it)

Sarah looking very fetching in her specialy designed uniform - but sadly minus toy soldiers 

And the amusingly named (well if you have a juvenile sense of humour like me) Minnie Tittell Burne in a Australian performance (1905)