...so the other day I went back (nearly 30 years later!) to see if it was still there. Vandals have sadly destroyed it since I used to scrummage about on it, but the remains are still discernible. Basically - what it was in former days was the back-end (troop compartment) of a Matador or similar 8 or 10-ton rated lorry, mounted on concrete posts, presumably as some sort of convoy air-attack/ambush drill practiser?
This structure remains in a much better state of repair and the feeling is it was part of some bridging/obstacle exercise, or even for teaching the placing of demolition charges? The reinforcing-rods suggest it was never completed, perhaps due to the wars end? Someone has had a go at the main pillars though.
These structures also hang about rather forlornly, no clue as to why man once had a desperate need to clear woodland and force his signature upon the landscape in quite such a brutalist style.
I'd forgotten that there were three receiving spigots, not two as I stated the other day, this is quite a big canoe, at least twice the length of the Thomas/Poplar/Tudor*Rose/Manuba ones, and from the packaging - clearly not Giant production. These figures in fact being non-giant as often as they were!
These are again; non-Giant nappies, in yellow, red and pink. The horse they came with is the one I call 'Remould' but better than the ones we looked at a few weeks ago, so I guess earlier production by the same people, but the limbers are the poor one, so when I sort them all out I suspect we'll find they come somewhere between the two sets looked at the other day.
I don't know if they ever issued the 2nd type with black berets [except in the bren-carrier]. but they fit! The guy running with an ammo-box is not a standard pose, but the beauty of Timpo was/is that you can switch stuff around to make new assemblies. I suspect the beret was meant to be an infantry one, but getting that dark blue right obviously would have been difficult so they ended-up giving us well-armed, dismounted 'Tankers'!
The bog-standard infantry helmet, the older types had a darker helmet and I think a couple of my new ones have the wrong helmets on...again I added the Indian head to the 'brown-gloves man'.
These are all presumably Naval figures and are the later Soldis mouldings in the rubber-like material, nearly all the figures march-off on the right-foot so can follow each other across the mantle-piece in step with each other!
Naval figures in Summer uniforms to the right and a couple of Air Force (?) figures to the left. These all seem to be late ones.
My favourites, the Spanish Legion and a lone Frenchman, they all seem to have a Spanish CETME assault rifle, which is a tad anachronistic for a Foreign Legionnaire!
Two military types and two of the Spanish Gendarme (Reamsa originals?) with their distinctive hats. The policemen are - needless to say - marching-off on the other foot...something that anyone who's ever done a large parade involving police units will know is par for the course!
What I loved about them was the 'old-school' feel of the dioramas and the fact that I could see in my minds-eye - lots of unpainted Airfix Ancient Britons having a scrap over ownership of the barrows or the land they stand on!
They seem to be made of plaster and painted with matt emulsions, and are arranged as three tiles to fit together in the chronological order of the development of barrow construction/architecture.
Wayland's Smithy - which is mentioned in the card text - is one Mim and I walked too one day, it's also not far from an Ancient Hill Fort and the Uffington White Horse, so all three can be done in a few hours, well worth the effort.
The other thing that caught my eye when passing was that the landscaping has been enhanced with two mint Britains shrubs (albeit with some green emulsion spattered on their lower reaches!), along with two similar Britains trees (Scots Pine, Larch or Birch?) and a full set of Merit Fir Trees, nicely dating these models to the mid-1960's at the latest - if that was all the modeller could find in his local hobby store?!
...who are clearly copies of the Timpo para heads on US/German first type bodies, with a few changes, somehow these manage to look more French than anything else (or is it just me?!) so I think of them up-for a scrap in Dien Bien Phu! It's the sub-machine guns which looks a bit like the Mat-49 and the rifles which look like the M1 carbine...I think? And the lack of webbing which is usually found weighing-down British or American paras in photographs!
Above; A few Atlantic Parachutists, I've never been terribly enamoured of these 'modern' figures by Atlantic in either scale, sculpted by the same guy who worked with Co-Ma, they are a bit crude and almost 'over-done', but actually look a bit better in this scale than the HO range.
Made by Crescent, it was probably the last new moulding they produced!! A vast improvement on the old lead/white metal ones that had accompanied all the other jubilees and coronations from the 1880's - some of which were dragged out again in '77 if memory serves!
The whole assembly; strangely there were no figures for Her Majesty The Queen or her Consort - The Duke of Edinburgh? Originaly it came in a slip-over cardboard tube, without it, you can still pass it off as a 'mint' set by Cavendish, who obtained the remaining stock for their gift shop in Windsor or wholesale operation.A common wartime refrain in 'Blighty'! Referring to our erstwhile allies and their apparent lack of want for anything, pouring into a country three years into 'Total War' and the associated deprivations.
For some reason forgotten to me now, the American swoppets aren't in with the GI's but are in the everybody else (except the Germans) box? So here they are...including some of the better Hong Kong copies - and I use the word 'better' in its loosest form!
The first version Timpo figures, I don't remember an eighth pose but suspect there aught to be one? These are the ones I mentioned the other night with the moulded on weapons, the German infantry were the same but in grey plastic and with darker helmets.
Second version, again without my check-lists I can't off-hand remember what's what, but the two on the right-hand ends of the row are taken from the AT vignette while - I suspect - the chap top left is from the assault-boat, along with two firers; that seems to leave one missing pose?
In the case of the Americans, Timpo themselves used the American Indian head with the brown-handed figures, but not always, it seems. Note also how the AT/Bazooka No.2 is a variant of the waving guy bottom left but with the ring in the other hand.
The bazooka vignette from above with the US version of the parachutist we looked at the other night, the three little figures above are the Speedwell copies/attempts and seem to draw on both the Timpo figures (above the waist) and the legs of the 54mm Cherilea swoppets...a bit!
Various Hong Kong versions; some are straight 'lifts' others have gone with a bit of variety, such as the squatting figure in the bottom row, or the top-right figure who seems to be more based on the Britains Swoppet British Infantry. The top row are from three different sources, the bottom row are all from the same source.
By comparing the bases with the ACW ones we looked at here 'G est pour la Guerre Civile' you are able to start putting makers together, but you need the boxed or carded examples to do the job properly and I don't collect packaging for the large scales!
27th March 201- The pale green officer (top middle) is known to be M-Toy (May Moon, Maysun - possibly Marty Toy) and most of the bottom row are probably theirs as well.
Dec. 28th 2023 - While the guy with the twin-ring base (far-right, top and bottom)is now known to be produced by Merehall who use an MH mark on their packaging.
The main identifier is the lack of stars or other decoration on the three discs of the decorative over-lay, this is unusual, with the other five or six types I've so far discovered having 4, 5 or 6 pointed stars or other design in relief on those discs. It's also lacking the little bite in the front of the chariot where a locating stud on the decorative element usually sits. The fact that the decoration is in the same colour as the chariot body is a third identifier as they are normally different colours.
The other 'teller' is the horse, which has pronounced ears cut into the mould, well back on the skull, hence my christening this one 'Big-Ears'. There are also differences in the front piece of 'rococo' trace-work between the horses pointing forwards, but I'll have to look at all the chariots together one day to get those differences properly documented. The chariot is marked 'MADE IN HONG KONG' on the underside but in larger letters than Giant originals.
Elephant Carriage of the Maharaja of Rewa - Delhi Durbar - 1903. [Wikipedia]
Taken at the Retainers review (a sort of un-dress rehearsal?)- 1903
Leading Elephant, main body - State Entry 1903 - Scene in Chandni Chauk
The following parade - State Entry 1903 - Scene in Chandni Chauk
Lord and Lady Curzon 1903 - leading the State Entry past the Jama Musjid
1903 - the rest of the parade following behind - Jama Musjid
Lord and Lady Curzon arriving at the Durbar 1903 [wikipedia]
