B is for Berline - Historex No. 30306 Plus Various Other Pre-configured Sets

A Berlin is a type of fully-sprung 'luxury' carriage, usually enclosed (Preiser do a number of both closed and open configurations, in HO-gauge compatible 1:87th scale), originally a German design, add an 'e' and you have a French one!

I couldn't be arsed to add all the catalogue numbers to the title track, so they are in the above images, I think the 30306 is a later code? I don't know what l'Emperor's original code was?

V is for Vivandiere - Historex No's 761, 762, 763 and 744

I think the closest translation is 'provisioner' or 'provender'. and it doesn't seem that the British army had quite the same role, there were hanger's on, women and children with some connection to the soldiery helping out at camp, and following the army, but not the semi-formal, vaguely uniformed women who served the French army, a concept which was passed to the American army during the War of Independence.

There's also some 'camp' stuff in there, but we can tell from the catalogue codes they are all expected or intended to be used together. And obviously, this cart was not within the Gribeauval System, and while of a common cart design, probably differed between Vivadieres?

News, Views etc . . . Herald Toys & Models Update - Cherilea Week!

Newer new news from Barney's site;

". . . this week is Cherilea week, as we list more from the superb Wiltshire collection, having a particularly strong Cherilea section, with a number of loose sets, including Swoppet Spacemen and Mexicans. Have a good Bonfire Night!"

Barney's still here;

Website

evilBay

N is for Nottingham Mafia's 'Normous Men . . . and things!

I have a few of these elsewhere, I think we saw one in the comparison shots on the Airfix Space Warriors page, but I've had a bit of luck with two lots, so we're looking at them next. I nearly got a third lot, but two other bidders recognised them and bid each-other way out of my bracket!

Games Workshop's experiment with large scale 'Fighting Fantasy' figures, not as unsuccessful as some would have you believe, and I suspect many are still out there in the half-forgotten collections of sixty-something's who were into Games Workshop back in the late 1970's.early 1980's, and who would have grabbed these without thinking.

Indeed; while they don't show up that often at the moment (hence silly prices), when they do they are as often on the card as loose, but on the card they are identifiable and fetch the really silly money!

As you can see you get a solid 'ring-hand' body with [interchangeable] head and a selection of weapons, staffs, tools, shield &ect., which would come on a circular runner behind the figure in a blister card, figures were always grey, while the 'weapon runners' were a matching-gray, silver or gold. Relevant runner blisters' also got a sticker for the shield.

Hero Knight type and obvious Dwarf, there were about 30 figures I think (so I have some way to go), and they were divided into good and bad, more D&D than W40k, but then early GW was more D&D than W40k!

Good Wizard and bad Wizard . . . any resemblance to Gandalf and Saurman is purely coincidental, and no - the Nottingham Mafia haven't asked me to say that! As GW's small scale had left 25mm behind, in favour of a 28-mil which by the time everyone had invested in 'Slotta' bases made everything closer to 30mm-plus, so too, these were way beyond any pretense at 54mm, with a 60+ size bracket.

Orkey Boys (or Orky Boiz if you've been captured by the Mafia!), one needs paint-stripping, which I will get round to one day, and because they are soft polyethylene, unlike the 'styrene (or whitemetal) of their smaller cousins, it will be a relatively simple procedure.

2nd purchase and I think I've run out of blurb-material . . . subject, contents, packaging, maker, scale/size, material and some opinions? Boxes ticked! Well . . . what to say . . . the long-sword is a Hong Kong copy of Cherilea I think and nothing to do with the rest of the stuff in this post, nor do the daggers look right - medieval Britains Swoppet was my first thought; for the small one, but it fits! I suspect the larger is Playmobile or something like that?

Beyond wizardry . . . this chap is a full-on necromancer and the first thing he seems to have brought back from the dead is himself! Given the size of these, I think it's fair to say they could have been better sculpted that they are, they have the same 'heavy' sculpting with chunky steps between over-emphasised detail elements, as found on the smaller gaming stuff, but they can still paint-up well.

Another goodly-knight or Adventurer, I gave him the dodgy sword as the others had gone away - which means I have these in three places now . . . Doh! More when I find them and we ended-up with enough blurb for the last two paragraphs!

And . . . going back to my comments about where these [mass-produced] figures may be hiding, I wouldn't be surprised if they become increasingly common on the sales market over the next ten-to-fifteen years, and some of those silly prices may well become obsolete?

R is for Roma in Resin

Another purchase, a while ago now, was these resin Romans also going un-bid, on a low start price which I snapped up, as I've so much resin now I've stopped resisting its inexorable advance into the tubs of polymer loveliness! I am resisting 3D prints instead; 10,000 sculpts in any scale you want? That way madness lies!

A Centurion, three Legionaries, a pair of Gladiators (two Murmillo/Thraex types I think), and three members of the Vatican Guard, who may be modern or historical, I'm not sure if they've worn the same uniform for ever or if it was re-introduced at some point for ceremonials? As a lot they reminded me of some of the stuff we saw courtesy of Brian B in this post, and clearly are of that ilk - tourist souvenirs.

The Centurion; nothing special and at around 45/50mm they won't fit that closely with many of the others in the Roman tub, although the thick bases will help lift them into the ranks. All manufactured in a rather pallid flesh-tone resin, and being not well made (like a lot of this tourist stuff), they have the look of the undead about them!

The Troops; and indeed a repaint would improve the lot of them considerably, the throwing-weapon shafts are steel wire, so the odd lengths (see first image) make no sense beyond a lack of duty of care in the manufacture, and the four ancient soldiers are marked on the front-edge of the base 'Roma', Italian for Rome, so obviously tourist keepsakes.

The Gladiators;, improved by A) apparently having a better/different sculptor who fed them properly, B) having all-over paint including the flesh and C), being irregulars! I like these two, and not having Rome on the base may have come from somewhere else, there are lots of visitable circus arenas', beyond the Coliseum? But one suspects they were all bought together!

The Vatican 'Swiss; or Papal Guard; they have a flag-stone pattern on their bases, no title (not enough room for 'Guardia Vaticana'!) and some odd-looking pole-arms which should be beefeater-type halberds, but are all three different, in two cases due to short-shotting; they are resin, not the metal of the Roman Infantry, and again, poor quality control is to blame.

Having picked them all to pieces (it's the nature of this rough resin), I still like them, the Vatican Guard are unusual, they all add to the whole, and they were cheap!

H is for How They Come In - Recent Purchases

Just a Picasa clearer; a few things I've managed to snaffle in the last few months, which were shot and sitting in Picasa waiting for a job, and this is it!

These were two or three lots/sources I think and we may have see some of them already in show reports, but here they've all been cleaned, some of them were very dirty. I just love 'em and will always grab them when I see them going cheap (£€$12 or £€$24 per figure on eBay gets ignored - they're not rare!), as there are a lot to find.

Here we have three of the late phenolic/early - less than stable - 'styrene ones in bright colours, with, upper left, three similar-aged silver ones, so probably all original Lido or Winco Condar, while the rave-dancer, top right, is a more modern lightweight polystyrene one with a better finish.

The blue one had black spots on, which might have been a past-owner's paint, or a slow-growing mould eating something in the polymer, I couldn't tell, but it hasn't fully removed despite some serious chemicals, so the now pale-purple staining seems permanent?

Going un-bid-on on evilBay, this was Jecsan or Reamsa, I can't remember, the former I think, to go with those over-sized nativity figures I bought in a charity shop a few Christmases ago? And it's big, about 8 or ten inches, gone to storage now, so I can't give you a definitive size, but more Palm-tree comparisons (we did some of the flats a while ago) are in this Blogs future!

I got a eMail from Chris Smith with a link to this lot and one bid secured it! I have some of most or most of some, but as grist-to-the-mill it was worth a speculative bid, and the highlights were the two musicians and the four Wild West, which I think are 1970's French bazaar copies of Dom-Heinerle, Siku or similar, earlier, German premiums?

The pile of pastel Cowboys and Indians are also interesting as they are late, sub-piracies of Giant's own Britains copies, while there are a few plug-in US Marines from rack-toy rubber-boats, a lovely little dog, two Thomas paddling Indians which may be the Giant-copy size, but later production than them (so French copies of Manurba's version?), a Chinese Villager and . . . the rest - cheers to Chris for the heads-up!

M is for Medical Corps - Historex No's 771, 772 (1), (1)a, (1)b, (2) & (3) , 773, 774 (1), (2) & B, and 775 (1), (2) & (3)

There was no way to separate the figures and the wagon here, or not without tons of cropping and touching-up, so they're all in a bit of a huddle and you'll have to take what you want from them if you can find it!

The Boss!

The Wagon; I assume the wagons have the Gribeauval System at the front end, but the rear seems very different, it's fully sprung for comfort, for starters!

The uniforms . . .

There seems to be a cross fertilisation between human and veterinary medicine in the Corps, however I'm no expert and haven't read the blurb, I don't really follow the period, although I may be reading-up on it in the future, but I know some horse ambulances are open, so a conversion job/potential there?

G is for Gribeauval System - Regimental Wagon - Historex No's 784(i), (ii) & (iii), 785 & 786

A real quickie as I don't have the colour sheet if there ever was one, but for completion's sake here the little I did get from the catalogues (five catalogues have come in since the original scans, but I haven't started trying to make sense of them, just take the odd page!); the Regimental Wagon, which I assume is like our General Service (GS) wagons, or filling the same niche - a standardised design for ammunition, troops, other stores, cargo or casualties?

Just a thought, but one wonders if the Gribeauval System wouldn't have produced a weak-point in these, over the more sturdy British one, by dint of having a diss- or 'de-'mountable system (the limber/bogie set up between the horses and wagon-body) meaning a natural weakness at the join over rough ground or under fire . . . nothing jingoistic, just a curious thought? My thanks to Tony, and we're looking at the sheets for the ambulance next.

G is for Gribeauval System - Field Forge & Crew - Historex No's 741 & 743

So, I started the year with every intention of getting all these done, and while about half of them have been scanned (memo to self - do the rest this weekend so they are on the system), and a good start was made with the character figures and a few of the horse-drawn transport posts, other stuff and real life put the brakes-on!

So I'll get the last five horse-drawn sets out now (they've been on the desktop since March I think?!), and make more effort next year, but they'll all stack-up under the Historex tag, with the show plunder re-branded (heat-branded!) Elastolin 40mm's which were found at the May PW Show!

 

There was also a crew of three blacksmiths or 'Artillery Artisans' available;

Because Historex was rather all about the uniforms they are relaxed upright poses, if you wanted to get them more active, you married them to bits of Airfix 54mm Collector Series 'multipose' figures and ordered extra arms!

If I had the time and the skill I'd love to do a diorama of these chaps heat-shrinking a new iron-tyre onto a wheel. And many thanks to Mr Foy of the Prometheus in Aspic Blog, who sent all these to Small Scale World many years ago.

W is for Well . . . I'll be Fucked!

A thought for the day, we haven't had one for a while!

Currently, experts know very little about where swearing gets its power, but power it carries!

What we do know about swearing:

• It can trigger the “fight or flight” function
• It helps with catharsis
• It might be located in/come from different parts of the brain from other speech/language-use regions.

https://theconversation.com/the-power-of-swearing-how-obscene-words-influence-your-mind-body-and-relationships-192104

 

I'm a hell of a fucking swearer, as some of you know, I inherited the habit from my father, who was terrible compared to me - when the mood, an over-officious nabob or some plain-old arsehole - took him, and it strikes me that those who dislike ALL swearing (or 'cussing' as they often call it?), tend toward fear of emotion in all it's forms.

It's not that they necessarily tend to religious faith (although a lot do) or tend toward conservatism per se, although many do, but rather that they are slightly afraid of life, and rich-life in particular. And, if the above article is to be believed; they are under-using one or two areas of their brains?

Non-scientific observation - by me! - seems to suggest non-swearers often have frightfully ordered lives, and that's actually sad - life is to be lived, not ordered into little grey tick-boxes, and when; in living life, it throws a curve-ball at you, a good expletive will help dull the "slings and arrows of outrageous fortune"!

Thought for the day - swear more! It's healthy!

T is for Toob...no, Make that 'Tub'!

This is a post which has been in 'Draft' for so long I can't remember why I never posted it and/or what I was holding it for? So I'm chucking it up here as a bit of eye-candy, with a view to getting it out of the draft list (currently five), so the total number of posts equals the total number published!

 

Sent to the Blog by Juan Angel (Gog on https://toysfromthepast.blogspot.com/) also ages ago, even more 'ages' ago, so many thanks to him, and is shots of a sealed or at least unopened Comansi 60mm Wild West set, and an early one I think, later ones had a mix of painted and unpainted figures, while these are all painted. You can see cowboys, Native American Indians and Cavalry.

But it's not the earliest as it has a couple of unpainted horses along with a painted one. I might have one of those Comansi Sheriff's badges, from a 40mm set of these I had years ago.

Three tatty Indians which came in a year or two later (we may have seen them in a show report?) which I added to the post, but still didn't text-it-up or publish it, so, well, here they are now, nothing special, but up here at last!

F is for Fairykins - 6 of 6

So to the last layer of the windows in this overview of the Fairykin's book/figure set, annd we have five Nursery Rhyme 'minor characters', along with Hansel and Gretel, who are another fairy-tale given a quick prose-poem by Marx to fit their story on the box!

I think Goosy Goosy Gander and Mistress Mary are the new additions to my previous loose sample here, possibly the clock, but I have a feeling I did have one, but maybe I sorted it into the Disneykins as a suspected Disney widow-box accessory, rather than leaving it with the Fairykins?

Ah, yes; gratuitous ultra-violence visited upon forgetful elders by wandering poultry!

Goosey goosey gander,
Whither shall I wander?
Upstairs and downstairs
And in my lady's chamber.
There I met an old man
Who would not say his prayers,
I took him by his left leg
And threw him down the stairs.

One of the well out-of scale pieces in this set, the goose is closer to 54mm compatibility, and reasonable sculpt, but like most of these 'Painted by hand by artists' figurines, actually in the same stab-and-hope style as the rest of them!

****************

Ah yes; more dark, Teutonic, forest-based, goings-on, more unaccompanied children; you wonder anyone ever went into a medieval forest without an armed guard of twenty!

"Come in my Children," coaxed the witch, all smiles,
When she caught the two eating her gingerbread tiles.
This mean witch cooked children for supper and lunch,
She fancied Hansel might be splendid to munch.
"Gretel, see if the fire in the oven is red"
"How" said Gretel, "Like me" the witch said.
Then Gretel shoved and the witch toppled in
And baked to gingerbread crisp and thin.

Darkly darker than some of the dark-enough originals! Barely been introduced and Gretel's cooked their host alive! Hansel and Gretel are good survivors being quite solid, squat sculpts and I have several already, useful as children for O-gauge railways.

Ah, yes; Child labour for prison food, and mindless rodents!

Little Tommy Tucker
Sings for his supper.
What shall he eat?
Brown bread and Butter.

And;

♪ Hickory, Dickory Dock!
The mouse ran up the clock,
The clock struck one,
And down he ran,
Hickory, Dickory Dock! ♪

Tommy Tucker is another one which the older Opie's did work on, while we always said/sang ". . . The mouse ran down . . ." which scans better and is the normal version,  although I didn't even know there were more verses;

Hickory dickory dock.
The mouse ran up the clock.
The clock struck two,
The mouse ran down,
Hickory dickory dock.

Hickory dickory dock.
The mouse ran up the clock.
The clock struck three,
The mouse ran down,
Hickory dickory dock.

Hickory dickory dock.
The mouse ran up the clock.
The clock struck four,
The mouse ran down,
Hickory dickory dock.

The clock/mouse is a nice, unusual sculpting, and with the removal of the mouse (the size of a house cat), the clock would be more useful as a diorama accessory in a shelled or bomb-damaged building? The new addition looks to be slightly damaged on the crown-finial - or whatever that decorative gold stuff at the top is called!

Ah, yes! Playing with your food! 

Little Jack Horner sat in the corner
Eating his Christmas pie
He put in his thumb
And pulled out a plum
And said, "What a good boy am I!"

An odd one this one, one of the longest histories . . . (I've only linked to the more interesting ones), and a true five-line limerick, but I don't remember it ever being a 'Christmas' pie, however I can't remember what - apparently - incorrect word we used instead? Old age creeping-up on me!

But, like Miss Muffet, one of the nicer, or more imaginative sculpts, there's definitely a plum on that thumb! But no damage to the pie? He's ruined one and taken another into the corner; greedy isn't the word!

Ah, yes! We reach the end!

Mistress Mary, quite contrary
How does your garden grow?
With silver bells, and cockle shells
And pretty maids all in a row.

Marx have gone with bits of both common versions, as kids we used the Mary, Mary line, and there is a ruder, antique version. Another nice sculpt, and that brings these fun posts to an end! Something else next?