T is for Two - Cantonieres . . . Cantinières . . . Canteniers?

Not to be confused with Cantonniers (two 'n's) who are road workers (on railways?) or Cantonnières who are the feminine type, but not necessarily female, just confused! Those flibbertigibbets with a barrel of booze who follow armies, anyway!

A real Picasa clearer, or more accurately Picasa sorter-out, as removing four images is a slow way of emptying the laptop, but it does unify two related items and gets them gone! The one having been hanging around since 2012, intended for another Blogger, but I never got his email and he seems to have stopped blogging now, the other a recent find?

This is the older one, I suspect a French piece (CGB Minot?), solid, 54mm and on a substantial base, she could just as easily be a home-painted casting of more recent origin (post-1960's), she's a useful paperweight if nothing else, but quite nicely 'drawn' and well painted in a 'toy soldier' style -  semi-matt though. I can't explain why, but she looks more Portuguese than French to me? However; I went with the tricolour for the frame-boarder!

Thanks to Adrian at Mercator Trading (link) for letting me shoot her . . . with a camera, seven years ago!

This one ought to be the easier for me to ID but it isn't! Del Prado did a part-work set over here 'Relive Waterloo' which may have had a canteen lady (I'm not falling for that mess in the title!) in the higher numbers (126 issues meant over 750-quid for the whole 'work'), but I bailed-out after about issue 15?

The card here is in Spanish or Portuguese (I don't pretend to know either, but can muddle through the context of a text; here - soldiers and strategy revisited (or revealed) in miniature?), and while Del Prado did other sets similar to the Waterloo set - possibly from the website - in France (Austerlitz) and maybe Spain and deAgostini, Altaya, (also Spanish) Atlas (mostly Corgi products?) Eaglemoss-AMC, Hachette, SC Content Media (Hungary, using Ocean in China) and others (that US/Australian one) have issued figures as part-works in various sizes, I can't place this one.

Also she's a little closer to a 15mm scale (or HO's 18mm?), even for a young woman (as you can see from the Airfix pilot, even the pony/mule is a bit small), so - does anyone know the origin of this small, whitemetal, carded for a part-work, moustachioed canteen lady? I shot it last month, but it may have been in the storage-lot I did for RTM, in which case - probably dating from the 2010's or earlier?

T is for Toy Fair 2019 Reports - Amerang - Solido

Slowly getting through the London Toy Fair reports, and still with Amerang, another offering from who (whom, which?) was a rather interesting development, if now getting a bit boring . . . having previously be issued as partworks under various brands in the former Soviet Bloc & Europe (and Australasia - I think?) as well as being 'cleared' through The Works a few years ago!

Clearly not cleared thoroughly enough . . .

. . . as they are now appearing under Solido's banner, shipped-in to the UK by Amerang, good news if you like AFV's, excellent news is you're building war-gaming armies and feel you don't have the prerequisite modelling skills?

On display was a selection of WWII AFV's and aircraft, along with a nice Korean War Patton I and Vietnam-era Huey 'Slick'. The full range (as seen before) has more modern-era stuff in the line-up, but then the aircraft are from a previously different/separate part work series (currently still running in the UK I believe (forthcoming post - if I ever find time!)), so I'm guessing Solido have chosen the more popular subjects from both ranges to maximise sales and minimise further 'clearance'!

Basically - some manufacturer in China has developed exquisite ranges of AFV's and aircraft in a constant 1:72nd scale, with fine plastic detailing on die-cast bodies - which rival the best Corgi has to offer, and they are selling them (as contract-manufacture) to anyone who wants them, and about six brands/publishers, so far, have taken-up that opportunity. Except . . . of cource . . . it's at least two factories; as we saw here.

Consequently they are not rare, and those eBay bottom feeders who bulk-purchased at 2 or 3-quid from The Works and them put them on the feebleBay for 6, 8, or 10-smackers-a-pop, should be taken outside and shot for the black-marketeers they are! [Not so 'far left' now, am I James? Seems I can be as right wing as you and your Mosque floor-plan researching, gun-loving bred'rin!]

Panther 'Coelian', an experimental vehicle which saw little or no service, hence the unpainted, surface-rusted turret. Like Flak-panzer IV 'Kugelblitzen', 'Maus'es' (mice? Misen? Misen to picen!) and E100's, there are X¹⁰-many more in war games armies than ever left the factories it's all a bit silly, really! Wouldn't stop me buying one though - ah, yes; the hypocrisy of the pink monkeys!

Safer ground with a Patton tank - painted by Dr. No's henchmen it seems! Didn't save the Gloster's did it . . . fussa-russa!

But a nice model of a machine which - where previously issued in this size - has always been highly inaccurate, whether Japanese pull-back or clockwork's imported by Riko or the Airfix 'readymade' which couldn't decide if it was an M '46, '47 or '48 or what it's turret should look like (despite trying two designs!) in the 1960's or later Hong Kong stuff based on Blue Box's effort copied by Rado, et al in the 1970/80's . . . hell - they still turn-up; horrible little squat-lumps of wasted polyethylene!

Lovely! What can you say, better that Airfix, Hasegawa or Fujimi, that's for sure, and the fact that the anhanger (trailer) tractor behind has a different camouflage and no tilt, while the gun-tractor has a full tilt (apparently in two parts), suggests multiple purchases could be cross pollinated to quickly produce a fleet of (6?) different-looking vehicles.

Hugh's Aircraft Corporation Utility Helicopter 1 . . . B! I think this is actually painted-up as a South Vietnamese airframe of the type thrown into the sea in large numbers at the end, as US Aircraft Carriers and amphibious assault ship's decks filled with the fleeing regime's hardware? Loving the tiger-stripes!

In the background is an AMX, is it painted for Chad or South Africa or somewhere like that? And if you're thinking it has limited use on the war game's table, I can assure you the 3rd Fantasian Motor Rifle Division had a heavy reconnaissance regiment requiring 9 of them on the table!

A couple more in the box, I NEED a Protz! I think the Flak-panzer IV 'Wirblewind' is the same model Matchbox branded about 15 years ago, which would make them the first to carry these models (albeit as a small and hard to find range), long before Altaya (or was it Eaglemoss?!) et al, and further suggest that at least one of the contract manufacturer's may be (or have been) part of the Universal Group?

War Master from Solido via Amerang, ex-everybodyelse! Get 'em when you see 'em or you'll be paying double on evilBay in a few years time! Or - as they aren't that cheap anyway - wait and see if they are churned through The Works or TKMaxx in a year or two - somewhere in the Far East, there's a warehouse the size of an aircraft-hanger (or two); full of 'em!!

D is for Die-cast Ducks

A quick comparison between the two recent D.U.K.W. amphibious 6x6 cargo-trucks variously issued by De Agostini and Altaya (no tilt), Eaglemoss and some Russian outfit (tilt and rope-fenders), they are both a mix of materials on a die-cast body/shell.

I would have scored the Russo-Chinese (Ocean Metal Factory) one the better of the two (marginally) if it hadn't come sans one wheel! The underside detailing is better on the Russian import, but marred by the base-mounting screw-holes, and the provision of a glass-effect windscreen is a plus, but the DeAg,/Altaya version has the nicer nose (with separate tools/snorkel) and cab-interior, so you takes your money (the Russian one wins! £2 in The Works!) and makes you choice!