A is for A Call to Arms Reissue of Britains Lilliput Trooscale

As pointed out below, A Call To Arms (ACTA) obtained the moulds for the Britains Lilliput Trooscale figures and reissued them in the early 'Noughties'.

The eight poses as reissued in a dark green plastic, to the left is an early 'Empire Made' piracy from Hong Kong of the 54mm originals. He has no face!

E is for EKO copies of Britains Trooscale Lilliput

Further to the article below and the comments resulting; long before A Call To Arms (ACTA) got their hands on the mould, EKO in Spain had indulged in a bit of 'homage'!

Seen here is a complete set of the EKO figures with both the common types of packaging/'Header Card' associated with them. Very true to the originals, detail on this later set is markedly less clear than the figures accompanying the earlier red and white card.

News, views etc...Airfix, Eric Williamson

Eric Williamson's Airfix website does seem to have finally died, so I've removed it from the link list but I'll keep an eye out and an ear to the ground and if it reappears I'll re-link to it. Shame; it was a good grounding in the subject, but maybe someone is working on an updated listing? I would, but I have too much else to cover, and - shamefully - am sitting on a couple of Airfix unique'ees for the long planned book!

Recent Snow

With reports of more snow tomorrow, I guess I'd better get these images up before they become dated, taken last week during the first cold snap...Global Warming...what global warming?

Lone tree lit by the setting sun.

The double Hornbeam likewise.

Ratty is still at it despite my best efforts to send him to a better place! I think the fresher the poison, the more he likes it!

Contrast!

M is for Mugs

B is for Britains Trooscale Lilliput (Truescale)

Well, as it's Christmas I thought I'd cover an oldie but a goodie! Issued in 1958, these were supposed to be the first of a range of plastic figures to be added to the metal range of Trooscale 'Lilliput' model railway figures by William Horton (for William Britains).

They were first issued in this slightly 'Toblerone' shaped triangular prism packaging, and a counter pack of 48 figures (6x8 poses), fully painted in the same scheme as their 54mm brethren (upon which they were based, if not just pantographed down from!).

They were also sold as an unpainted set in this small 'envelope' sized pack with eight separate windows, the range/series/set (?) was pretty much dead at birth as Airfix had already started producing 40/50 figures/items per set for about the same money as these!

The eight poses. As can be seen they are not only the same size as their larger donors, but bare a remarkable resemblance to the Airfix Combat Group issued a few years later. They are - like most 1950's toy 'khaki' infantry - modelled on the School of Infantry 'Demonstration Battalion' down at Warminster, being equipped with the experimental/trials EM 2 Bullpup design Assault Rifle, the - then - brand new '58 pattern webbing with large pack, 'bum-roll' & kidney pouches and the late WWII helmet, which would soldier-on (excuse the pun!) until at least 1987 (when I surrendered mine for the itchy-piss-pot that was/is the Kevlar replacement!).

Rear view of three different colour treatments, some collectors think the gloss ones were not issued by Britains as the 54mm never got such a painting, but as they keep turning up in different shades - as above - I think they did, probably toward the end of their period of availability, to try to make them stand out on the shop rack and sell?

Happy Christmas All

Mimi drew the line at another year with the pink gay tree, so we had a blue one this year, with the promise of a green one to look forward to in 12 months...hey, it's nearly spring already! Take care and have a fine New Year.

Just looked at the post, there's been an earthquake in Bethlehem! Was there one last year? I think there was...maybe next year I'll get it right!

S is for Snowmen

I couldn't leave killer skeletons on top for Christmas, so have a good one and normal service will resume in a week or so! Thanks for visiting.

U is for Undead part 1 - Overview/Comparison

At this time of year, snow on the ground, family in our thoughts, friends round, cards, food, gifts and a real fire, carols on the radio in the background and your favorite comedy on the flickering Cods eye, I find there is nothing quite as festive as the blood-curdling screams of skeletal warriors hacking each other to the last scrap of DNA.

Being serious; when I did the unfinished projects a couple of three weeks ago, there were a few other 'back burners' I'd forgotten and this is one of them. I love the Undead, but I hate Games Workshop, so this group pulls me both ways.

They used to give you 8 warriors for around a fiver, now they give you 5 figures for what? £12-odd? Someone like HaT will sell you 40+ figures for £4.99, yet GW have the global empire...as the Americans would say - Go Figure!

The entire contents of one set, 3 poxy poses, no animation, no arm variations and; are the two on the right injecting steroids into their heads? The whole set appears to have been sculpted in Plasticine with a toothpick and GW are so sure you'll f**k-up the basing, the only spares they give you are 3 extra bases. The kids who buy into this stuff are being taken for a ride by an over confident, arrogant 'Corp', and I sincerely hope the proliferation of new 28mm producers spells the end of their (GW's) hold on the market.

The old sprue, gave you 4 poses, 5 weapon/arm positions (one a spare), separate shields, positionable heads, 5 weapons...did I say 5 weapons...

...sorry, I of course meant 13 different weapon arms, at various angles and attitudes.

The fact that I have a set of the new ones at all is down to GW's reliance on that Corporate American trick, the 'Contents are subject to change or may vary' type thing. I won't make that mistake again. The old one's I buy on eBay as I've tried never to pay full whack for GW.

U is for Undead part 2 - Infantry

Infantry are the backbone of an army, even if it's a rather odd backbone!

The real beauty of the old set was it's almost Historex/Airfix Multi-pose aspect, the little ball socket joints at neck and shoulder made it very easy to produce variation without all those angle joins and filler you would need with more 'solid' figures.

"Cu'mon Mo, drop the sword, putt'em-up, putt'em-up, what's with the helmet woose? I'll take you with one hand behind my back, eh dude? One-on-one, Mano-et-Mano, you Lilly-livered son of a Siberian shit-shoveller"

"Will you just wait there while I find you arm and beat you to death with it"

'Two legs good, four legs better'. I will - one day! - get a bit of filler in his hips to make a better join. Once he had four legs, the head was a natural progression!

Comparison between the grace of the old design and the clay like clumsiness of the new product. QEII is laid up, Concord no longer flies, Digital is no better than Terrestrial with less coverage (Channel 5 will be twenty years old before half the UK are able to get a good picture!) and GW are pedalling backwards with this set!

U is for Undead part 3 - Cavalry

I don't know if cavalry were ever part of the GW 'vision' (another thing I hate about GW, it's their rules or no play today kiddo!), I've certainly never found mounted legs, but as they are skeletal all you have to do is bend the legs in a bit, add a touch of glue and Bob's your fleshless Uncle!

Defending against Cavalry attack, I wish now I'd left the shield off, it's going to whack his leg when he brings the sword over his head! The other guy cowers quite convincingly though.

If you're going to put a horned horses head on a four legged man, you might as well put the mans head on the horse/cow body...No?

More of the same, sadly there was only the one pose of this animal and I didn't try much with it until I started the chariot.

U is for Undead part 4 - Armour

Some pictures of an Undead Chariot

Some more (with the pose changes to the draft-animal)

It's...yeah, more pictures of the same!

A is for ACW Armies All right After All this time

This is my old war gaming army, dating from when I was about 13 and Humbrol Authenticolours were mythical things other, older, richer people possessed! I played with mys......er...it was an exercise in solo war gaming!

These are the two armies in their drawer, they were small, but then by the reckoning of all these DBA, DBB, DBC and CBEEBIES that people play now, they look a little on the large side!

Confederate Volunteers skirmish irregularly, while more formal units form up behind, the Terrance Wise school says use union for confederates, as they wore what they could, and both sides had kepi's, a fact thankfully reflected in more recent issues by newer companies.

The gun/s (and crews?) have been here before, but if I'm blowing the dust from an old closet, you might as well see it warts and all, massacred the Hinchliffe British Colonial Gatling Gun, gave the Union cavalryman a Napoleonic saddle AND check out the cowboy!! I was always quite pleased with the CSA General from the Civilians set, Grant was Hinchliffe...but not necessarily their 'Grant'! Crews were converted from Atlantic Gold Diggers and Hong Kong Cowboys

Scratch-built transport. You see, it was about wagons all along! The union force got a sort of engineer/blacksmith/tool shop wagon made out of heavy-duty poly-strip, and another old man from the civilian set, not to mention more Napoleonic horses! Confederates were issued with a prairie schooner and a water-cart, I also built a small cannon mount, which would probably look more at home on the walls of the Alamo.

Union troops stand firm, I would find a colour scheme I liked the look of - usually from a Blandford Colour Guide, which explains the 34th Right Royal Leprechauns in the second row! But I'm not repainting them now, they're part of my childhood!

The last thing I did before '...putting away my childish things' and going off to join our army was buy a box each of the two then NEW Esci sets, the officers, flag bearers and buglers all joined my army first!.

Cottage in the Village

Well, a years gone by and I haven't fed this blog as I intended to, hey-ho, maybe this year! Took this about 20 minutes ago at the other end of the village, picture postcard or what! Happy Christmas to those still reading this...?

The Worlds Favorite Airline!

We all shoot ourselves in the foot from time to time, but shooting yourself in both feet? and then using the holes to nail yourself to the floor? Well done BA management, here we are thoroughly pissed off, with Bankers (most - if not all of them!), Politicians (after Copenhagen most, if not all of them), the weather, the Channel Tunnel (and EurotrainnottunnelCoLtd.), raising taxes, higher charges for water and electricity (after two decades of payments to Shareholders), roads that are as bad as they have ever been...and what do you do? Fire the first shot in a potential 'Winter of Discontent II' while what's left of the armed forces (who did or delivered everything last time) are over-worked and underfunded, thousands of miles away!

Browntrousers - You really think you're gonna get a second term?