O is for Organic Growth!

The Blog doesn't have many 'o's, so any excuse for one! And I believe it's the correct term for the way this post came together, and - indeed - the way I am gathering Napoleons. I can't hope to match the excellent selection-collection we saw from PL Cunha in Plastic Warrior's 154 & 172 but I have managed to grab a few now, so we can get a post out of the arrogant old despot!

What kicked the post off, was Chris sending me some shots we'll see in a minute, the same day I bought the dog . . . more on him in a minute too; which lead me to think "Humm . . . I could do a little post on the little corporal, with my little dog?", who's not that little! So I dug-out the storage tub which I knew had one in.

I had picked these up back in 2009-11, the large French (Starlux - I originally thought, but it might be something better?) nappy in the big purchase I think, and the Timpo (an Action Pack re-issue) in a job-lot with seven others, but as I've since found another I'm guessing there are 10 or twelve to find (I thought I had 'all eight').

The rider is JIM and so is the horse, but I'm not sure they belong together, although as a pairing (JIM seem to have had a 'range' of interchangeable horses - like Timpo) it is trying to look like the painting of Napoleon on Marengo in a snow-storm? Also the Timpo probably isn't strictly a Bonaparte, but he looks the 'parte . . . hehe!

This has come from . . .  Chris or Peter . . . Sandown or my trip to the Toy Project? Sometime during the past year anyway, and was still at hand, it's the Blue Box die-cast Elite Command figure from 15-or-so years ago, and still findable on-line, a younger, slimmer dictator, maybe from the period before he was even technically a dictator and certainly not an emperor!

I took a base shot!

But - visible, yet not clear - in last week's 'other' bag (the one which wasn't full of Disney Princesses, had this chap in it! How cool is this? Too cool for puppy-training, that's for sure! AND, it's a dachshund, a German dog, even . . . a 'Prussian' dog . . . wearing Nappy's gear as a war-trophy? It wasn't Wellington, mate, he 'held the fort', it was Blucher 'carried the day'!

All of them together before they went away, the puppy (piece of resin tourist tat) is the best one there, he looks like he just nicked his hat of a bread-demanding, cake-damning, fish-wife on the barricades!

Chris's figure which kicked this post off, it's also a bit of a 'Q is for Question-mark...', in that Chris would like to know more about it, and I could only confirm what he already knew; . . . probably a tourist thing, probably missing a stand or plinth of some kind. To which after working on the slightly low-res images I would add that it might be casein-resin/polymer?

Also - is it depicting a specific statue somewhere; Paris, or Corsica maybe?

In the putting-away of the others, this chap was found in the PZG tub, and while he's probably meant to be a line-infantry officer with his fore'n'aft bicorn, I think he looks sufficiently like a certain young artillery officer to be considered another rendition of Nappy for the purposes of this post? I also have a diminutive PVC Nescafe premium buried somewhere, and the Beverly one we've seen here at Small Scale World before, so we'll definitely return to Napoleon when I've found a few more!

G is for Gun Crew

I dug out the pair of crewmen for the Britains AWI gun which I got a while back (Jim at Sandown?), only to find I had another pair in storage which must have been in the 'big purchase' back in 2010, anyway they presented a couple of opportunities . . .

. . . the first was a photo-op comparing what looks to be two cavity mouldings (upper shot), one with a heavier match, although looking at the photo's it probably only a bit of flach! This presented the second opportunity, and preferring the finer match of the figure on the right, I trimmed the other one back (lower shot) to a bit of a stick!

Taking a couple of pinches of Milliput, I mixed up a tiny amount and made a teeny sausage to provide a stock, a little blob for the grip and a fragment for the hammer (left shot), it wouldn't stick to the vinyl, and being an impatient sort once I've got the bit between my teeth, I hurried it all along with a super-glue bath and a Plastix accelerator-pen!

Once the superglue had rendered everything hard, I attacked it all with fine-tipped, black and brown marker-pens and within ten-minutes of the idea he was finished - dodgy image on the right!

Better images (it's all in the backgrownd!), I used a spare Innovative or other copy of the Britains musket to arm the other spare chap, although he will need some heat-treatment on his elbow to drop the hand enough to hold the muzzle firmly, although a flag on a pole would be an easier 'instant' conversion.

I will also tart the pistol-up a bit one day, it needs a better grip . . . and paint it properly with gun-metal and some spots of brass, but there you go; dismounted cavalryman (?) and sentry! Again, add a sword at his waist and you've got an officer.

G is for Gun Line

Keeping with the theme of follow-ups, this harks back to the flurry of AWI and Innovative posts a year or two ago but which also included several sets of cake decorations &etc. This time we're looking at the heavy-hardware!

The three guns together with a close up of the Britains piece which is lacking it's side tools but I seem to recall a post on a bag of bits from a show a while back in which the tools were to be found . . . all I have to do is find the bag again!

The darker of the two Hong Kong copies (both of which have the tool hooks but never had separate tools) is the one seen previously from the second (carded) issue on Innovative's, while the other may be from the earlier Shell issue, or be another copy altogether, I don't know?

Comparison doesn't help date the two Hong Kong copies as the smaller and less detailed oxide brown one actually has the better barrel, with the 'US' clearly reproduced while it is no more than a smudge on the Innovative Promotions piece. It also has more realistic plating on the barrel than the gold-chrome Innovative went with.

Because I am new'ish to this large-scale malarkey, I don't know how many generations of these there are, I suspect someone like Rado Industries or Hing Fat might be responsible for one, but given the differences we've already seen between the two issues of Innovative's (Shell's premiums first and then the Men of '76 anniversary set) I'm tempted to think the smaller one may be the Shell issue, knowing the other is from a MO'76 card, however, before TJF and the minions of the PSTSM climb up on their high-horse of idiocy, I'm musing rather than carving anything in stone!

The ironwork and wood-grain are nicer on the larger gun, but the wheels (particularly the hubs) are better-rendered on the smaller-piece, and with the differences in barrel already mentioned, it's anyone's call as to which is the copy or came first? Unless you happen to have the smaller one - in mint packaging?

I shot this (TV mini-series, press-release image) from a recent newspaper (Times I think?) a few days ago, purely to use 'one day' (imagining sometime in the middle-distance) in the future, but realising it would be ideal here with regard to the plastic colours of the carriages; I thought the colours of the wood of these two, otherwise identical [Polish?] rifles perfectly illustrates how all figure-painters are correct in their choice of woodwork colour!

One being a dark mahogany, looking like a hardwood, the other hinting at pine or softwood? Now I realise they may both be dense-rubber film-props, but I've seen the same differences in older (pre plastic-furniture) SLR's and the many shades of AK woodwork, again - before Plastic became the norm, also if they were prop's they'd be more likely to be painted alike.

The point being both HK guns can sit together 'on the line', happily!

The guns crewed! Britains get their issued crew, the question-mark gets a Shell lady and later US figure, the Men of '76 gun get a British crew, with the mounted officer put on standing-firers legs and given the Britains ram-rod.

F is for Five Do Follow-ups

Tying-up a few loose-ends from posts recent or not so recent, with the help of various contributors, bit of an eclectic line-up, but that's very much the nature of the Blog! I'll do them in the order they've come it, most recent first.

Theo van der Weerden sent this last week as a follow-up to the previous week's post on ceremonials, four more of Athena's models of Greece's finest in their finery! The two on the right are the same as two we looked at the other day, but the two on the left are both colourways of another uniform type, and also show two of the other plug-in arms these figures come with, being the standard bearer and 'sword downwards' arms.

The sword might be meant to be held against the waist/thigh, but their definitely had their hands through the hilt, so it may be more significant? While - having handled many more of these than I have got - I know the flag-staff is very thin polystyrene, and you don't often find it in this condition . . . it's also the spear issued to Athena's ancient Greek warriors.

Ha-ha! A few weeks after I'd Blogged the weird composition hedgehog in Chris Smith's donation parcel, look what I found on a shelf in the legendary Peter Evans' abode, and which he kindly let me photograph - a whole family of them!

Peter did tell me what they were, but I immediately forgot and had to Google them . . . trying 'Belgium' and 'Holland TV Hedgehog' with little luck I broadened my reach and found this;

https://blog.animationstudies.org/?p=951

https://housefulofhedgehogs.typepad.com/houseful_of_hedgehogs/2009/07/mecki-micki-macki-mucki.html

So that's them then! Mecki (and Macki, Micky amd Mucki) the hedgehog[s] . . . Brilliant!

These came in a while back, the Coke-Cola/Fanta premiums (sadly still no springbok) but with the remains of paint, heavily worn, they were clearly much-played with and I initially assumed they were home-painted, but given the un-Coke-marked ones have started to turn-up in other colours and more modern plastics, it's obvious the tools have had a good life, and I offer them here as a maybe factory-painted issue, maybe home-painted curiosity?

Around the same time and while I wasn't Blogging; Chris Smith had also found the hunter that goes with the Hong Kong African's he (Chris) had already helped with, back in the Spring.

Because I had already got the show-reports done (with my similar find), these got put to one side, but I shot the bases to show the smoothness and the translucence of the brown figures, where not enough pigment has been added to the neutral granules (cost cutting), rendering them 'smoky' in the thinner sections.

Finally Brian B sent the figure on the left ages ago and I didn't add it to the recent post on them, as that was plunder . . .  while the old feebleBay image on the right shows what might be the same set but which is I suspect a 5th generation copy (compare the dickey-bow) of Brian's 4th, against the 2nd/3rd generations we saw last time (larger hats), of Fontanini's originals. Although with both Peltro and Kinder (among others) also copying them, whose generation of copy is which generation, is a moot point!

Many-thanks to Brian, Chris, Peter and Theo for the input.

F is for Fishy Follow-up of Fellows Fly-Flinging

Chris Smith sent me an interesting mix of fishermen, and a whale . . . which is not a fish, but which smells pretty-fishy eviscerated on the deck of a Japanese 'scientific survey' vessel, so I've tacked it on to the end of the post.

Gutted! My guy is missing a fishing-rod and I hadn't even noticed; I thought he was holding his catch with a gaff or something! Anyway, Chris's is also a different colourway, has the same ring-chain loop-removal scar . . . and a fishing rod . . . fussa-russa!

Chris also wanted to know about this chap, he's around 60/65mm? I think he looks Fontanini'ish (precepi / nativity figure), but the plastic colour is wrong and the paint's a bit bright, so possibly a Hong Kong copy, although unmarked? Have you anything to add for Chris?

Seeing Chris's reminded me I had one (in addition to the larger Chinoisery one we saw from Hong Kong a couple of years ago), I think this guy is also Fontanini and I'm sure the cotton thread is an owner's addition, but I've never had the heart to remove it!

When I say I think he's Fontanini, he is the same dense PVC as a lot of their other production, particularly the painted stuff, in a flesh-pink polymer; which they commonly used, and has the same dark-green base as the African warriors.

But, it is a solid base (see below) with no hollow, or marks, so he could be from one or two of the other presepi-makers in Italy, such as Nadi, but they also tended to hollow bases and a mark?

That solid base on mine and a couple of size comparisons for Chris's pair, one with the aforementioned whale! Mine is smaller, but he comes from a larger set of European rural or 'rustic' types, while Chris's is in the Chinoisery style of the more upright set of Asian figures from Fontanini we've also looked at here, indeed there's a sub-set of fishing-related figures in the Sino-Japanese set?.

It's a Sperm Whale I think, or is it a Blue? Chris wonders if it's Hill, purely on the painting, which is similar to some of their animals, likewise I wondered if it might be Hong Kong from the similarity with some mini dinosaur rack toy's painting, but it's unmarked (most HK stuff has some mark?), and reading the current articles by Steve Pugh in Plastic Warrior magazine (issues 175 & 176 - current) on early British dinosaurs, it's clear the red-mouth thing was a trope across the toy trade back in the day!

Again, if you can help Chris with either figure, that would be great.

News, Views Etc - Herald Toys and Models

Latest from Barney;

"This week we have for sale the second part of the Sheffield Collection of Charbens plastic Circus Models, including some interesting and unusual colour variants."

And you need to be quick . . . I would have grabbed the trio of clowns/midgets but they'd gone over the weekend!

Q is for Question Time - Composition Queries

Chris sent me an interesting shot last week, and as I had a few in Picasa, I thought it might be an idea to put them out here - all new-to-Internet, if not new-to-hobby?

This was Chris's question-mark. Flanked by two known or believed to be Zang or Zang for Timpo (Timpolin) figures - a pilot on the left and Tommy Atkins on the right - is an unknown guardsman in a similar material and style, but with a strange stalactite of flash running down his front, which Chris reports (it's not clear in the image) is painted a different colour. I wondered if that might indicate the removal of a drum or standard, but neither would match the arm/hand positioning?

I also think he may have been re-painted as he looks very clean and the flesh is pale for Zang? Now I know some Zang ceremonial guards have recently turned up but I was lead to believe they were matched to the 30/35mm highlander, not this 50/54mm size, so a big question mark here?

If not Zang, a name-in-the-frame could be Plastoline (Msrs. D. Brown and M. Leech) of whose 'output' or 'production' I know of the first three items (more on the 'known' another day).

They worked in Plasticine, hardened with what the old school (old-old-old-school) euphemistically referred to as 'banana oil' in old figure-modelling tomes, which could be any one of several things; cellulose 'dope' (flying-aeroplane modelling), cellulose lacquer or nitro-toluene thinners (automotive trade) or acetone (nail-varnish remover), or even wood-hardener - destroyer of good brushes?

These four figures, however, are unknown but in the style of Plastoline's known figures (anatomy wasn't their strong point) and anything anyone knows about them would be very helpful.

I suspect the first three are Chang-Kai-Chek's Imperial Chinese forces from the 2nd World War (70-years ago today - there's always method in SSW's madness . . . well, nearly always!); an officer (marked 10) and two soldiers (one marked 14) while the last figure is probably an early (WWI'ish) NBC-warfare (ABC/CBN) operative (marked 4), spraying gas by hand, whilst dressed in protective equipment, but which nation, or is it Sci-Fi, or an early Air Force firefighter, or a DDT fumigator?

He appears to have two tanks on his back, presumably; one to breath, one to spray shit with . . . stopping other people breathing forever?

It's very unlikely to get much odder, more unusual, or any rarer, on Small Scale World than these chaps, so if anyone can add anything; it'll be appreciated by the other 800-odd daily visitors.

Many thanks to Adrian Little and Chris Smith for the images.

K is for Knights and Castle . . . . 's

We've visited these small-scale knights from or after Supreme before several times now, with both Brian and my carded fort sets and probably briefly in a larger round up, and I'm pretty sure I kept mentioning that I had a set is storage which I'd bought in Guildford back in the late 1990's/early 2000's, and it has now turned-up, which was lucky as I had a couple of images from Mr. Berke in need of a post!

Blackrock Castle

Blackrock Again

SP is for Supreme . . . Post!

More (N is for Noooooooooooooooooooooo!)

What I had forgotten was that it actually contained two model forts! Perfect scale-downs of Supreme's larger fort (a moot point because it comes in at least four sizes and can be found marked as Simba or Tempo, with Toy Major [Supreme] knights in the larger scales - the figures issued here (UK) in counter displays as Strawberry Group/Tiger), in two colourways and with a bunch on equally scaled-down figures.

The artwork shows 16 foot figures which is a swizz as you only get half that amount, but they are clearly visible to the buyer so no doubt it conforms to advertising standards! You also get four mounted figures on the 'Supreme' horses rather than the 'Jean' horses, some of which came with the larger-scale King Arthur sets.

However you will note that the figures included have what I always refer to as 'penny bases', that is; perfectly-circular flat-disc bases; rather than the ovoid bases shown in the artwork and commonly attributed to Supreme?

These - in fact! Thank you Brian! Also available in black, and bright-shiny gold and note that these are probably slightly larger (23/25mm) compared to the boxed-set's 18/20mm and are the figures used for the artwork/publicity shots. Indeed both Blackrock Castle's have these version in the artwork, and the smaller, penny-based figures in the packs.

This illustrates the point I was making the other week in a the Tobar/Schylling Toy Fair reports; all these companies (Shylling, Hawkin-Tobar, HGL, Simba, SP Toys, Strawberry Group, Tempo, Tiger, Toy Major and others - the boxed set are shipped by Stevens International - plus generic issues) were getting their 'product' from the Supreme Industrial Co., who also contributed generic issues.

There is a complication in that 2nd and 3rd generation copies exist of the later Supreme types (with added ex-Esci poses), but generally if they are PVC or a flexible PVC-substitute they are probably Supreme, if they are polyethylene (especially that crumbly, tinny, recycled type) they probably aren't Supreme! The forts are a modern styrene-hybrid or polypropylene.

Note also that the smallest (in the boxed set) seem to be limited to four foot poses, while the others run to six.

I'm not going to dig-out the ones we've seen previously, but these have come-in since I last sorted and put-away, with Peter Evans and Brain B to thank for . . . err . . . most of them, I think!

At the back are four 54mm, marked Toy Major, actually Strawberry Group/Tiger retailed, really Supreme manufactured, then a single Supreme 2nd Type chunky one in black, two of Brain's little ones along with an identically marked Ninja bowman and then a pair of the Greco-Roman odd-poses from the 3rd [relatively current] Type (Esci poses +), which are probably copies, and have clearly been sorted-out of a medieval set as anachronistic, coming together, very clean and without any knights!