Go West.....

(now who didn't think of the Village People?)



Just been west in fact - well as far as Halifax anyway.  My haul from the model shop consisted of:

Caesar - Fantasy 102 - Elves 
HaT - 8289 - Bengal Lancers
RedBox - 72067 - 17C Turkish Artillery
Imex - 535 - American Infantry
Strelets - 111 - Turkish Artillery

You can find pictures of all of these on PSR.


(1) Elves - look in the 'Features' section of PSR for Fantasy figures.  Having come across this page:

 http://combatzonechronicles.net/cozoxc/1889.htm

I was determined to find a few boxes of these warriors. 

(2)  Bengal Lancers - my first box has ended up being painted for the Tai Pin rebellion - these will be fighting the, later, Boxers.

(3)  17C Turkish Artillery - an alternative element for my Ottoman DBA-RRR army.  The other gun will probably end up in the hands of the Transylvanians.

(4)  American infantry for the Mexican-American war.  The floppy hats are peculiar to this period so I bought a box.  I passed on the Mexican infantry as I can easily convert some of my hillock of Napoleonics.  Incidentally the Mexican cavalry make good AWI horse.

(5)  Turkish artillery for the Russian Turkish War of 1877.  Re-painting these will add to my colonial Egyptian army.  Unfortunately there were no Turkish cavalry available - which is what I really wanted.

Altogether not a bad haul - when I will get around to painting them is another matter though!





      

Hellenistic Progress

A bit more happening on this front.  I have managed to finish off:

13 x Ps(O) Slingers (Tin Soldier)
6 x Bw(I) Cretans (Minifigs)
3 x Ps(O) Cretans (mixed)
and...........

                                                       3 x Cv(O) Greek horse  (Asgard) 

More Plastics

Purchased two more sets from the Halifax shop:

HaT 8249 - El Cid Moorish Command - for my Renaissance project
Caesar 011 - Assyrian Chariot

Too late to pick up the British Colonial Command figures I wanted....Rats!!!

A Curate's Egg

A Curate's Egg

I recently picked up 10 boxes of HaT figures at £2.50 each.  Not from Ebay or similar but the result of the closure of the Wakefield Model Shop.  They had been on Dewsbury Road since 1968 - friendly and knowledgeable staff - a wide range of modelling materials & kits.

Over the past decade similar shops in Doncaster, Barnsley, Pontefract & Castleford have all closed down.  Last year the Halifax shop moved to Union Street - it only holds about one-third of its previous stocks.  Looks like I will have to check out all the possibles in Leeds and Sheffield!

Although tempted to grab all the remaining plastic soldiers I restrained myself.  There were no 'colonial' figures but some 'biblicals':

HaT    8092     Assyrian Infantry (x2)
HaT    8121     Assyrian Allied Infantry
HaT    8125     Assyrian Cavalry (x2)
HaT    8128     Assyrian Army (x3)
HaT    8132     Sumerian Infantry (x2)

8 boxes of Assyrians is a pretty good basis for an army - but it's a bit short on the chariot arm.
2 boxes of Sumerians is a bit of nothing really (so these are still in the box and on the sprues).

Everybody likes a bargain but I would rather pay full price on all these sets if it brought back a shop that I have spent many a happy half-hour in.

Two More ACW

Two More ACW

Louisiana Tigers CSA - more converted Mahdists

Charleston Zouaves CSA - converted from French Foreign Legion

I have managed to find the Airfix guide.  Confederate units are 20 figures per unit whereas Union units only have 15.  Looks like I have made Zouave units only 15 strong no matter which side they are fighting for.

Now I have to search for the cavalry and artillery - it may take some time!

ACW to the Fore

ACW To The Fore

Inspired by the blog "The Airfix American Civil War Project"

http://airfixacwproject.blogspot.co.uk/

I delved into my attic to find the file boxes of ACW figures.  Here's some of what I found:

front - 17th Virginia CSA

rear - 8th south Carolina CSA

front - 19th Virginia CSA

[some Russian Napoleonics mixed in]

rear - 11th Virginia CSA

44th New York Zouaves USA

[French Foreign Legion conversions]

Keystone Zouaves

[I think these are Mahdist foot conversions - plus an odd standard-bearer]

All these figures have been gathering dust for years.  Still if we are dealing in nostalgia some leeway has to be allowed......I hope!

Not What It Seems

Not What It Seems

Last Saturday (17th Nov) I purchased two boxes of plastic soldiers:

HaT 8024 - Numidian Cavalry [12 figs for £4.25 - 35.4p each]
Zvezda 8049 - Russian Infantry of Peter the Great 1695-1725  [43 figs for £3.80 - 8.8p each]

The latter have long coats and wide cuffs but at this scale are still suitable for frontiersmen, settlers, riflemen or other irregulars for the French-Indian Wars and the American War of Independence.

The former were a bit of a surprise.  The box was standard, as were the illustrations on the side.  the contents, however, were far from it..  Instead of light horse there was cavalry.  These are the riders:

The one on the left seems to be of early Italian origin.

On the right we have a Gaul.

Both of these are Hellenistic types.

The one on the left shows Spanish influences.

On the right is another Gaul.

Not sure what either of these are supposed to be.

Juba I (55-46 bc) had a Gallic and Spanish bodyguard so presumably that is what these figures are meant to represent!   

Can anybody throw any light on this?

New Purchases

New Purchases

Recently purchased - Caesar 032 - Chinese Ming Dynasty Troopers
                                 Caesar 033 - Chinese Qing Dynasty Troopers

The latter box contained one (additional) painted figure - shown above.

The Qing dynasty lasted from 1644 to 1912 so it's a might difficult to determine what the box figures are supposed to represent.  Looks like some research is needed.  More later.......