T is for Two - 54mm 8th Army

We're going to do a bit of box-ticking of common'ish WWII stuff over the next few days, get it out there, get it in the tag-list!

Crescent (not for Kellogg's!) desert troops were much copied in small scale by Hong Kong rack-toy makers, but are otherwise relatively unique although I think I've seen the officer somewhere as a larger scale piracy.

A bit disappointing looking at them now, with one chap (running) carrying an SLR and the other (jogging) having something more akin to the EM2, they are otherwise poorly armed, owning only a pistol and grenade between the six of them to add to the two anachronistic weapons! Also the berets are not recommended in a war zone; these are clearly Armoured troops, on foot, peace-keeping in Palestine or Cyprus!

Perfectly compatible with Timpo and similarly sculpted, they may be the same sculptor, I can't remember, but the Crescent's are slightly better finished, so would probably be the latter issue if that was the case.

The Deetail came later from Britains (early 1970's, but not the first tranche which placed the '71 on the bases, these were '72 or '73?), and on one level are a decent set of fighting sculpts, but are made of floppy PVC with finely-sculpted weapons that consequently bend and the painting is poor. The best way so sum them up is a workaday set of workable figures which need work before you can put them to work!

These six chaps probably share a sculptor (Ron Cameron) as well, with Airfix, who's figures they are very similar to, but more to the additional poses in the 1:76th scale sets than the original seven (Charles C Stadden-handed?) 1:32nd scale poses?

He'd be even smaller without the very deep and annoyingly 'wrong material' base!