P is for Pulp Fiction

How have I not had that title before now? I'm not sure if these are Giles's work from Dorset Toy Soldiers, or Ron's from Good Soldiers, but as they are the Crescent sculpts it's all a bit academic and I'll Tag all three, just to make sure they can be found, no matter how future browsers are searching for them! On the Dan Dare Tag you'll find a larger sample of these from Brian B which we saw a while back.

The reproduction label is actually quite faded on my sample, and I've enhanced it in Picasa, to give a better feel for the original, the trouble with home printers is that the ink fades quite quickly, as anyone who's put stuff up at work, or on the fridge door, will attest! The yellow tissue apes the yellow card the originals are often found tied-to.

 

Box is in Dorset's style, but the subject is more Good Soldier'y, while the contents are the same as the Crescent toys set. Colours are best described as the common schemes, with the suited Dan being also found in dark blue, sky blue, red, metallic red, a pinkish metallic, and silver, with the Treens also having a fair few paint variations in the original, in this version it's supposed to be the Venusian character Sondar.

Some sources state the sky blue were only from an RAF set (which they certainly appeared in), and which includes blue versions of the two green service dress figures (Digby and Dan), while others claim blue spacesuit for Dan and yellow for Sir Hubert Guest? With Professor Peabody also getting red and silver issues, I suspect it was down to the out-painters or packers, on the day, and of little other significance?

 

The ship could be all red, split red/yellow, or red with a silver nose in the original, here the repro' has a segment of yellow running back from the centre of the cockpit, and again the launch-frame follows Crescent's blue, although orange and brown-red can be found.

 

Red Wing! That's three mini/micro spaceships, joining the stash, in a few weeks with a rather Tin Tin'esque rubber rocket pencil-top and the little novelty UFO in polystyrene alongside the Dan Dare whitemetal ship.

F is for Foxhounds

Having had Giles Brown of Dorset mentioned the other day (the 'Good Solders' question-marks were almost certainly Dorset), I am more confident that these are indeed Giles' work, having been designed to augment the hunting sets of various hollow-cast and 'new metal' makers over the years.

"The Honourable member should realise what Dirty Dogs do to Palings"

(Churchill, replying to Sir Wilfred Paling's accusation that he was a Dirty Dog!)

The Sandown pack!

A wonderful scratching pose, sitting and slumped

The leg-up from another angle, three poses of 'actually working', and a darker brown colour variation!

These are modern whitemetal solids, painted in a glossy 'toy soldier' style and would look lovely in a display cabinet, mixed in with the old 54mm/1:32nd scale, hollow-castings. Foxhounds look like Beagles, but have slightly longer noses, are five to ten or more inches higher, considerably heavier and more energetic!

And as an indication of how appalling the Picasa situation is, I must thank Adrian Little for letting me shoot these . . . five years ago, this November, pitiful, on my part! There's tons of this stuff in the long-queue/archive.

C is for Canoes - 19 - Dorset Models RCMP

Brian had a hankering for a Royal Canadian Mounted Police canoe, and when he couldn't find a decent premade one, he bought a casting or two and painted-up his own! Inspired by the books, comics and annuals of his childhood . . .

"When I was a lad watching TV in the 50's & 60's there was a rule that only movies of a certain vintage could be shown on TV, nothing recent if there was any chance of renting them out to the Cinemas that ran old films, the Rerun Houses.

What was shown were old 30's films with the RCMP bringing law and order plus songs to the frontier. As a result of that imagery, also covers of pulp magazines and some old schoolboy adventure books of my Dad's I developed a romantic view of early American explorers using birch bark canoes."

 

 

He chose the ex-Dorset Models casting, now part of Imperial Miniatures, to which order he added an RCMP and Native paddlers. I can't add much, so enjoy the images!

 

Many thanks again to Brian for all his Canoe stuff, there are a few more posts in the queue, but I've pulled one or two and need to have a rethink, but still more to come . . . !

B is for Box-ticking - WWII Russians - Cherilea+

So, onwards and upwards to one of the wackiest sets of toy soldiers, and as with several others from the 'wackiest' listings; it's Cherilea! Although it's arguable a pink background contributes slightly to the weirdness!

I'm sure the Soviets got a few Bren-guns before their own production was up to full war-footing, but the idea that the Cossacks went to war with only LMG's or heavy weapons is stretching the idea of artistic license somewhat, I fear!

But again, they were only meant to be toys and - although ours came from the church-fete (with much playwear showing in the paint) - we loved these as kids, double-breasted chef's jackets, fairy-tale prince's hats, rectal flame-probe an'all!

Re-issued recently (Marlborough/Dorset?) in several colours (I've also seen a lighter tan), there are also originals in a paler sand and with lighter-grey trousers. Hats were a bit off-the-radar, although the red flaps each-side seem to have been the genesis for the later Crescent set (seen earlier today here at Small Scale World) with their twin badges?

And - spot the deliberate mistake: the one damaged one is the one pose I haven't found in the newer versions either . . . go figure!