Q is for Question Time - Russian Metal

I say 'Russian', but my knowledge of Cyrillic is all but non-existent and attempts to put a brand-mark to theses have so far proved fruitless, they could be Bulgarian or something - one of the letters is apparently a Belorussian-Ukrainian used 'i'. [All since sorted see below]

Packaging is quite complicated, with a flat card fixed - by staples - to a curved L or C-shaped front piece made of clear propylene or polycarbonate sheet of some kind. The figures are tied-in to another L-shaped card with fine copper-wire of the sort you pull from 'phone-cable, and this card slips tightly into the cover-assembly making an over-all b-shape. Rack-tree wire-hanger holes are provided in the main 'wrap' and on the end of the insert, but if you hung them vertically from that hole, some would likely lose the outer-cover?

Each card carries a white metal element consisting of one mounted figure, and either five foot figures and an artillery piece, or seven (or - in one case - eight) foot figures, to which is added a plaster (chalk-ware) or resin scenic piece which on my five samples is always a low dry-stone wall with a slight curve and some ivy-like vegetation climbing or embedded-in one or both ends.

I suspect one of the figures is a character figure, and you can see from the Airfix guardsman that they are about 35mm. The figures are unmarked and are fitted to the bases after the figures have been formed, but possibly 'as' the base is being formed/poured.

The figures are flat-colour painted, the plaster/resin scenics are washed with a gloss weathering varnish, giving them the appearance of wet-walls and making it harder to decide on the material without taking a sharp instrument to them, something I've resisted so far.

Same unit, different contents, with two walls and the figures, we have enough for a last stand . . . just need some enemy! The Cyrillic text seems to be the original of the English text to the left and might have a clue to the maker in the last line - ФІОП = Efiope = FIOP? ФІОЛ = Efioel = FIOL?

Which is where the previous paragraph and the intro' would have left it, but for Nazar getting back to me earlier this week and confirming that it is FIOL out of Kiev in Ukraine, although that leaves the last clue (bottom of post) for further study, were they bought-in as unpainted castings, or did they just commission a sculptor who signs in the Latin alphabet?

There is something of the Del Prado part-work sets (or was it DeAgostini, I have them somewhere and we'll look at them some time) about these, but less of an army-builder element, suggesting a decorative aim rather than gaming?

Other eras are also touched-upon it seems, these from the wars with the Ottoman Empire (next one; any day now!) I assume, but the cannon is just a re-paint of the previous piece.

That's the piece they need to give 'Johnny Turk' a headache, my tourist keepsake of the Tzar Gun! In both cases, 17th and 19th Century's there are no gunners supplied which is a bit odd, especially for any war games, or gaming system, so they may be directly aimed at the tourist market like the old plastic Tzar Gun?

I think I bought them in the 2000's from a dealer at one of Andy Harfield's shows down in Kent, and they looked slightly aged then, so possibly 1980's, certainly 1990's, and/but they may have been a Herne purchase?

Ah, Johnny Frenchie . . . or should that be Pierre? Some fine Wellingtonian enemy for the earlier Russians, and his (Wellington's) nemesis is there too, look, the little corporal of Emperor'ness!

The round-based figures have the same two-part appearance with two foot-pegs (?) semi-melted into the base, while the horses have a thin, integrally-moulded base. We will look at the oblong bases in a minute - saving the best only real clue 'till the end!

I don't know why one has eight foot-figures against the usual seven, and the cavalryman is the same but the mount differs. Both have the Corsican in command, another clue to tourists over gamers as an intended end-user group.

These are all bearskin'ed imperial or old guard while the other set had some line infantry or young guard in shakos. And . . . luckily, one's come loose!

And this is he, nothing to write home about on the painting front (but you can get a Blog post out of it!) but it's solid enough for a commercial paint-job at this scale and probably stands up well-enough against the - slightly smaller? - part-work figures previously mentioned? Note also that the base is a more standard integral part of the moulding and has a small cypher mark in the corner on the underside.

Seems to be a Roman alphabet J&D rather than anything Cyrillic, but I turned it the other way up just in case? Does anyone recognise these figures, sets or the mark, or know from whence they came?

And thanks agin to Nazar for his help in getting these straight. 

G is for Grey Guy's from Gidromana

Not much blurb as I ran out of time this week! Looking at a vacuum-packed 'envelope' of 50mm die-cast Russian infantry from the soviet era I picked-up at a small local evening show or car-boot sale about 20 years ago!

They didn't photograph very well so here's the two best shots much enhanced; to not much improvement! They are Semi-flat (Demi-rond) mazac/zamak castings of troops on parade; basically the USSR equivalent of parade 'toy soldiers', such as the Britains produced hollow-cast red-coats.

The insert was printed as two panels on one sheet which was folded in half and placed over the figures before the plastic sheet was vacuum-sealed over the whole; consequently it has been a bit scrunched-up!

Two similar figures to the right of a spare I have. The spare has traces of an overall layer of silver paint which has mostly worn-off. The gold figure is similarly coated and from a similar set, while the female medical soldier is from a more realistically posed set.

When I first discovered the Russian forums (about ten years ago) I spent an afternoon downloading all the images I found without knowing what I was doing, or which 'thread' I was in; due to my lack of Russian language skills.

I can therefore only say that there are quite a few of these sets and they are all slightly different, but as far as English-speakers go, we now know (thanks to Mimi) one of them was from the Gidromana plant in Melitopol - now in the contested (by Russia) area of Ukraine!

C is for Character Historics

Which one feels ought to be F is for Figures Historiques or H is for Historical Figures or something, they've had several names and no names, a complicated history and according toPSR one of them is a bit of a mystery. In five minutes it will hopefully be less of a mystery, but more complicated!

A bit of background would be helpful . . . these two sets were among the first of the 'new' sets to appear, heralding the current renaissance we are still enjoying, indeed, it's more of a 'new normal' these days; watching the steady stream of new issues on Dave Kean's site, some makers taking a breather, others churning out sets, smaller companies disappearing as others tentatively issue their first set, but that is now, and these which were then . . .

. . . which was about 1997/98 . . . the Internet was something only 'some people' had, or that lucky people got to play with at work, eBay was garnering headlines but no one had heard of Google, Nokia - the most popular mobile 'phones - still had monochrome screens and a character limit of 140 on text messages . . . when first rumours and then fuzzy black-&-white (I seem to recall) images, finally; examples of unknown small-scale figures started to emanate from the newly (well, newish; ten years earlier) liberated East.

If one ignores the minor-makes, the history of plastic small scale had been pretty simple, Airfix dominated for 30 years, then Esci stepped-in to cover the 1980's with Revell (working with a couple of smaller, newer names) introducing their range at the tail-end of the '80's, while Atlantic had burned brightly in the middle of Airfix's dominance.

Looking at the picture today with dozens of makers large and small, all working on esoteric sets we never thought we'd see in plastic, it's hard to picture how hobby shops had only one or two brands on the shelves - for many years.

But as HäT, Italeri and then Zvezda began to expand the market, these little chaps started appearing, their first moments of newsworthiness used to be found on the HäT site, but I looked for them in Everything Toy Soldiers (ETS) the other day and couldn't find them, so they must have been notifications on long-gone forum threads?

But, it was about 1997/98 or thereabouts. I first obtained them from Peter Bergner's PB Toys at that time, from the Plastic Warrior show at Richmond, where he was carrying them in his own packaging with his own codes, but Peter only located/packed the first three sets to appear (the Samurai and first two ancient sets), which weren't the ones I'm covering here!

This is the problem set as far as PSR is concerned, but to me they are Kervella, and are stored as such. Yves Kervella was clearly the lynch-pin with the Eastern makers, and from the marking on the hub of the runner; "FRANCE 98", we can deduce that as well as importing the early output of the - still not really fully-understood - Eastern operators (some became the more professional operators; Strelets*R, Orion/Dark Dream and the later Mars) he was also commissioning figures or at least supplying master-sculpts/instrumental in the 'ideas' process.

As proof of how easy it is to lose even recent history if you don't keep good records, I obtained these on two occasions, once as the whole runner, but previously as four figures (the four lose on the right of the left shot), but I can't remember if I only had four because there were only four, or if I split them with someone like Paul at PW, which did happen with the later pirate set, I listed them as a four, and coming before the eight, so that must be how they came-in, I just can't remember why/if it had any significance!

I can't argue with PSR's designations vis-à-vis the identities of the separate sculpts, but equally would agree with them that several are open to interpretation and - as far as war gamers are concerned - paint and context will help make them pretty much anyone you need at the front! The saluting Nazi (PSR's 'Himmler') could be any German General of medium-build and stature - for instance, while Hitler isn't that clear and could be Himmler!

As given in the above link, but from the standard bearer - clockwise;

- SA Standard-Bearer

- Churchill

- Ernst Röhm

- Himmler

- Mussolini

- Auxiliary

- Hitler

- Rommel

But . . . Kervella - France!

Although, there's no denying that PSR's set is not one I've encountered yet, physically, and HYTTY  listed them both as single figures (mixed with the figures below), and a pair briefly; 001 - Hitler and Mussolini.

The 'Mussolini' is a suitably arrogant-looking, 'who ate all the pies' fat-bass'tud!

Another of the sets that crept-out of the cyber-space/ether of the early Internet was this one, which would go on to have several incarnations, with three makers/brands including rather pointless - risible even - 'limited editions'. Its line-up also changed from time to time, but as far as I can tell, the tool/runner was never altered and the full shot is still to be found occasionally.

Again while it came from the East, the hand of Yves Kervella is all over it, not least in the fact that while the bulk of the figures conform vaguely to Airfix's HO-OO moniker, the recognisably-French characters have had so much cow-muck put in their boots as kids they have pushed themselves to the top of the 25mm spectrum!

Top left to bottom right

- Charles de Gaulle¹

- Julius Caesar

- Attila the Hun

- Grant

- Lee

- Franco (PSR have him as a 'German Officer') *

- Cleopatra²
- Mystery Figure *
- Joan of Arc
- Napoleon

* - The latter asterisked figure is believed by some to be the victim of the former. With one or both being left out of several packagings of this set, it's never clear what was happening with the two sculpts or who they are.

I favour Franco for the former - he is an obvious mid-20th century character missing from these two sets which feature fascists quite heavily, while the kneeling figure was also included in latter, larger sets of the Samurais, so it may well be that was always what was intended, but that there was no room for him on the Samurai runner, which like the earlier set above, was arranged as a 'pin-wheel' layout.

¹ - Looks like he might have been based on a Cofalu 30mm policeman!

² - Based on an Atlantic Egyptian courtier?

Odemars issued the set as 102 S - Character Historics, and while the 'Franco' was supposed to be left out, you can clearly see I got one! This also illustrates the problem of spending all that time and effort on developing a mould for historical characters, how many identical Napoleons or De Gaulle's do you want, or need!

Pre-production samples were sent out (by Yves Kervella I think?) in a leery, fluorescent green polymer which is a bugger to photograph, I've shot with and without flash to try and get across the set as best I can!

HYTTY (wacky name - wacky company!) also gave us two of each, but managed to filter out the Franco sculpts a little more diligently than Odemars. Note there is nothing on the packaging to indicate a limited edition status and it's marked-up as set 1003♥ - Figures Historics.

Also, I would suggest the Cleopatra sculpt has - from the neck-up - far more in common with the famous bust of Nefertiti, not a Ptolemaic Pharaoh (as Cleopatra was) , but an Ancient Egyptian one, however as a whole-sculpt; would make a better Akhenaton, the excised, male, Sun King (celebrated by Philip Glass), husband of Nefertiti, and another ancient?

This might help? It's more likely to confuse! The trouble with someone else's tables is - only the author knows what he's doing! However, it's a screen-cap from a 7-page document which runs to 95 entries, listing the sets first as I encountered them in the late 1990's and then by maker which anyone who fancies a copy can have, just eMail me at:

maverickatlarge[at]hotmail[dot]com.

Several correspondents call all these early sets 'Russian', but as far as I know they are mostly or all Ukrainian in origin, with a clear French connection - but no Popeye!

Yes, if you're a Trumpundbrixit bully-boy in the Donbas militia with 'I Love Putin' tattooed on both forearms you probably call it Russia, but if you are a friend of freedom, peace, democracy or self-determination (true Russians have never been free; or known freedom) then it's Ukraine, I choose to use the PC cop-out 'the East'!

We then have this appearing on HYTTY boxed sets a few years into their short existence (HYTTY's; not the figures, they are still around), claiming it was first and limited to 500 sets? But a quick perusal of the previous screen-capcha reveals that HYTTY managed to issue L1, 001, 100 and 1001 to three sets, 001 twice, and while L1 was issued to this set, at one point and presumably meant 'Limited - 1'; it was also issued by two other brands, is still available and became the unlimited № 1003! And the later Greek cavalry box was a duel HYTTY-LW branding, LW and Odemars also working closely together.

Answering a question posed earlier in the editing process (and therefore; higher up the post!); there's a similarity between the Kervella-HYTTY-Odemars Cleopatra and the figure to 'her' right in this shot, but only in passing, and only around the front of the skirts/kilt/reed-knit sporran thing/area, otherwise there is no direct copying from any of the Atlantic figures, which otherwise match-up well - as 'Ancient' Egyptians, that is BC/BCE.

S is for Sets

Just a quick one to finish-off the Ukrainian Collectable posts, we've looked at the individual vehicles and figure types, these are the various sets bagged, boxed or set-up with some of the accessories they contain.

 Bags and Boxes

 Larger bags

 Different header-cards

 Security sangers and boarder-signage

 More

 Strike Three!

 With older lead/aluminium (?) figure

 Smaller sets

 Recap

With thanks again to Mark Sergeyev for sending the pictures and information of this unusual range from the so far still 'independent' Ukraine.

I've added an image of the Ukrainian boarder guard emblem I filched from the Wibbly Wobbly Way!

D is for Dozor

The last set-specific post on Ukrainian Collectable Paper Soldiers looks at one of the new tools in the defence armoury of the UBG, the Dozor fast-attack 'battle-taxi' AFV.

Obviously a lightly armoured (against light-weapons/fragments) vehicle on a 4x4 chassis, similar in appearance to several vehicles in service at the moment, both the French and the Germans have designed similar equipment for their quick-reaction forces (QRF's).

From the other side: Mark (the designer of the range) says that all the uniforms depicted in the sets were recently replaced with new ones, so these are now 'historical' figures, even though they featured in the 2014 emergency - an emergency which is still ongoing!

The Dozor has a remote firing system for the cupola/roof heavy machine-gun which is a useful feature for laying-down covering-fire in the event that a quick skedaddle is required!

A couple more shots, and thanks again to Mark Sergeyev at Ukrainian Collectables for the pictures.

F is for 'First Line'

Continuing our look at the output of Ukraine Collectable Paper Soldiers, we arrive at the 'First Line' officers of the Ukrainian Border Guard (UBG). You may wonder why all the forces looked at so far in these posts have been UBG rather than 'regular' army?

I think the answer is twofold; firstly Ukraine Collectable has specialised in the border guards as a specific range, and secondly; the regular army wasn't a big part of the Ukrainian forces prior to the current emergency.

When the Soviet Union broke-up, it was a worry to governments in the '"West"' that unknown, untried, untested 'regimes' such as Ukraine were ending-up in possession of nuclear weapons, especially easy to use, tracked and wheeled delivery systems (battlefield/tactical devises) like FROG's, SCUD's and their descendents - SS20 &etc.

So an agreement was arrived at, whereby if the country agreed to give-up their nuclear force, they would be guaranteed defence against attack by a superior force. Among the list of signatories to that 'deal' were - us (the UK), The Americans and . . . err . . .  Russia!

The deal never had a clause as to what to do if one of the signatories WAS the superior force and it was a promise - clearly - no one kept!

"The United States of America, the Russian Federation, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland,

Welcoming the accession of Ukraine to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons as non-nuclear-weapon State,

Taking into account the commitment of Ukraine to eliminate all nuclear weapons from its territory within a specified period of time,

Noting the changes in the world-wide security situation, including the end of the Cold War, which have brought about conditions for deep reductions in nuclear forces.

Confirm the following:

1. The Russian Federation, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United States of America reaffirm their commitment to Ukraine, in accordance with the principles of the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, to respect the independence and sovereignty and the existing borders of Ukraine." . . . &etc, ad nauseum for five-more 'meaningful' paragraphs!

 

It's no good The Trumpton threatening not to defend NATO allies (who haven't spent 'enough' (?) on their defence), when America has shown itself incapable of defending a cast-iron guarantee - we already know they can't be counted-on anymore!

It's also one of the reasons why the Brexiteers are such stupid, parochial, idiots, believing that we still hold any 'place' in the eyes of the world, such that we will be at the front of any queues for trade deals - our name is currently mud, in the rest of EU-Europe, in Eastern Europe, in the Middle East and further afield.

That's why watching Boris and May-means-someday-possibly being busy this week posturing to become the 51st State of England & Wales makes me puke - while the other two (Scotland and now, even, Ulster) creep ever closer to independence - the independence the Ukrainians hold so dear.

This particular set also has sand-bag sangers and checkpoint signage along with a pretty standard-equipped, law-enforcement, 4x4 type vehicle.

Clearly with such a 'set in stone' guarantee of future security (!) and a corrupt pro-Moscow president who would rather spend the money on a 'Versailles' palace (complete with zoo and pirate-ship - I kid you not!) than on a standing military, the border guards assumed a greater role as the army suffered chronic underfunding and leadership 'on the make' and have now become the identifiable face of Ukrainian national defence.

Thanks again to Mark Sergeyev for the above  images.

However because Putin is fundamentally a bully, he hesitated after he got the Crimean peninsula, and using the breathing-space, Ukraine has been busy developing new AFV's (as we have seen and will see again in the next part of these posts), and beefing-up the military, if he moves now, he [Putin] will get a very bloody nose.

Not for the first time this year, I'll say there's a war coming, and it came much closer on Tuesday last. There are too many of us, lots of us are very stupid; leaders as well as 'worker-bees', and we are doing too much damage to the planet.

Mother-nature has two weapons in her armoury for culling us, one is pestilence, which - as we have seen recently with Ebola, SARs and Zika - she has found to be less than efficacious these days, the other is to use our penchant for violence against our fellow man, for the utter destruction of the stranger, 'the other', to her advantage and she is stalking the lands of man, sowing the seeds of disharmony as I type.

M is for Men in Black

Returning to the conflict zone that is modern Ukraine, we're taking a look at Special Forces troops of the Ukrainian Border Guard.

Equipped with Land Rover Defenders, and a boarder marker/post, we've known since the Iranian Embassy seige back-here in London that you mess with the Men in Black at your peril!

The Land Rover has a rather snazzy paint-job which reminds me of some of the old West German vehicles, although they went with a more apple-green and white.

When we (the Glosters) were in Berlin we took delivery of some of the first Defenders used by the British army (paid for by the Berlin Senate; they were purchased outside MOD's procurement channels) and managed - within weeks - to identify several faults which were subsequently fixed before UKLF and BAOR started getting theirs. Not being particularly auto-minded, I can't recall the specifics but seem to remember split engine-cases and broken/overheating drive shafts as the main problems?

Bagged set had five figures, the vehicle and a marker-post. The header-card's artwork suggests they also used something equally big, but Japanese (?) as well.

K is for Kool Kraz Krushes Kremlin's Kronies!

Continuing our look at the output of Ukrainians' Collectable Paper Soldiers, we arrive at the mighty Kraz troop-carrier/GS truck, which came with some Field Operation special troops on parade, but this was no Monday morning OC's Muster Parade, rather they were having a last-minute kit-check before heading-off on operations.

With at least five pose variations they made a decent line-up, dwarfed by their waiting limousine, and clearly in summer uniform or 'shirt-sleeve order', they carry all the paraphernalia (or full 'panoply'!) of modern internal security (IS) forces.

Contemplating 'the ride' . . .

"Big wheels!"

"Yehp!"

"Big cab!"

"Yehp!"

"Nice little window!"

"Hmmmmm . . . "

Each set came with an instruction sheet that - while fully annotated - had such clear graphics the blurb was all but unnecessary.