O is for Other Forts

As we seem to be working through the forts at the moment, I thought I'd post a few loose ends, being those of the right age but wrong design to fit the Giant/post Giant design.

I think I've shown this card before, but here is a close up of the fort, making a square less than three inches on a side as apposed to the 8 inches of those we've been looking at. It's gone for the same plug-in corner design, but with the towers fixed to the side walls and only plugging front and rear.

Meanwhile the early British companies went for two-dimensional relief designs, the largest (top) is by Cherilea, the one in the middle I suspect of being Speedwell, purely from the plastic used, it being very similar to the Speedwell Germans or their Sentry Box, although that was 3D.

The last two aren't really forts at all, but always strike me as being ruined dungeons? Again these are Cherilea, and they did three other designs like these, but clearly in a larger scale, and brick house construction not stone fort, so they'll see light on the blog another day.

Pudding!

I know this is supposed to be a gardening blog, which sort of became a wildlife blog, but with August turning into an early autumn, giving us some quite chilly nights, a bit of stodgy British fare is just what the doctor would order if he wasn't busy picking blackberries, so I thought I'd share this with you, not least because I'm really pleased with it!

I picked up some bright yellow Mirabelles (wild plums) last time I visited my mother, and had stewed them for a couple of nights, once with cream, once with custard. As a result they were starting to loose their colour and get a bit 'jammy', I also had two rather stale current scones which looked like they'd be blue in the morning if I didn't do something with them.

Now Mim's away at the moment, looking after her Mum, and keeps asking me - on skype - if I'm eating well (cum'on guys, if you've been a bachelor for a while you'll know exactly why she's asking!!) so this is to show her I'm feeding myself up!

I sliced the scones and layered them in the bottom of the dish, added milk (Mim's already said I should have added a beaten egg...Doh!) and poured the Mirabelle 'jam' on top, however the dish was still only half full, so I mixed up some custard and poured that on, but the gaps in the scone meant most of the custard sunk through and joined the milk - I was still only half full!

A handful of raisins, two slices of buttered bread, cinnamon and brown-sugar brought it to the top of the bowl in short order though! And then half an hour in the oven at 200°, it rose like a good'en until it pushed the top off the bowl, and I took a quick photo after sprinkling with caster-sugar.

Many calories per square-inch, go, make, winters coming!!!

A is for "A New Battle Game"

Somewhere toward the back (page 127) of his little 'Introduction to Battle Gaming' Terry Wise had a very small picture of a 'board game' which would turn out to be very large! With the caption "A new Battle Game introduced by Tri-ang", it had me captivated, and oh how I wanted one, well, one day I got one, had to wait until I was in my mid-thirties mind! This is it...

It's VERY, very big, about two foot by two foot by a foot - 8 cubic feet of my universe taken up with plastic and card crap, but my - what quality crap!! Check out that 60's artwork, the guy bottom right is my all time favorite...."Maaahhh Maaaaaaaaaa'haammiieeee!!!". I think he's being shot in the back, a lesson for anyone thinking of running away; Real men die with frontal perforations!!

In fact, it's so big, this one's been given it's own Pickford's label at some point!

Bottom center, with the lid off, there's a shed-load of stuff. This game? Play-set? Interactive tour-de-force, had so much going on, the mines (bottom left), barbed wire and trees, machine-guns, all sorts!

It actually looks far more complicated than it really is, and once you've got it all set up it's just a turn-for-turn game with lots of counters, and all the 'chance' cards replaced with 'action' pieces.

The figures have 'value', which is displayed by pose (they are the Almark figures with long spigots on the base, probably manufactured in the Minimodels plant in Havent, Portsmouth for Tri-ang) and the helmet colour; White is the Officer, with 2 brown Sappers, 3 red NCO's and the Grunts have green helmets.

One player set up, the machine gun turns using a football rattle type mechanism to make a shooting sound and the long tongues of the trees limit traverse. The two trenches above ground have mini-mines. With printed-card, styrene, ethylene, rubber, metal and paint, this is really the high point of domestic toy production in that immediate post-war era.

Unless you're some professional, returning to childhood with a bank full of money - in which case some bloke on eBay has got one you can have for 85 quid-something, my advice is don't pay a fortune for one, they can go for as little as £12, and I've never paid more than £25, so much is subject to loss or damage, you'll need to get a couple - at least - to make one decent one, and they DO take up a lot of space.

Tatty ones are always on eBay, there's usually one under a table at the Plastic Warrior or Birmingham shows and your local car-boot sale will chuck-up one or two a year, if you get there early.

Best play-set/game/toy ever and more nostalgia curtsy of Mr. Wise who's sadly not here, thanks again Terry...I GOT ONE!

T is for Tail-End

Toward the end, Starlux, looking around for ways to make a bit of extra dosh, started putting undecorated whole sprues in boxes. The boxes were double sided - artwork wise - so the various different sets could all be put in the one box.

Here we see the Foreign Legion sprue, with the side of the box that pertains to them, easy to see how you will also find sailor, marine or helmeted infantry sprues in the same pack. Likewise the Cowboys can be replaced by American Indians, I haven't seen cavalry in this size, but that's not to say they weren't available in France, they were certainly made in 54mm.

L is for Lucky Clover Toys

Hard to tell if these came before or after the ones we looked at the other day, they have the same title, but the mouldings are not the same, and the figures would suggest a later production. However they were on sale at around the same time, so piracy of piracies would seem to be the answer, as it often is with these HK guys!

There was a third set, a western fort which will be covered another day, when I try to make sense of them. Lucky Clover's artillery was unique'ish, being a copy of the Marx gun-barrel (as per. Giant) but with a different carriage (also Marx in origin) and heavier wheels.

These British ceremonials are the fixed-head ones as opposed to the separate heads of the larger carded sets the other day, again based on Crescent originals. Also like the other day's, these put the 'Mongol' tower tops on the 'European' fort design.

Chariot is a two-horsed articulated version with a smooth floor, as the figures - again - have the chariot mounting-hole filled in, of the two non-Giant gold plastic types, these are the more well-detailed mouldings with the 'HONG KONG' in a semi-circle round the 'scab' of the chariot mounting-hole.

P is for Pencil Topper

Long, long ago...In a Galaxy far, far away...they had Mausers, Stirling SMG's and MG34's with extra bits stuck on...oh yeah, and they had inter-planetary and inter-system faster-than-light drives! Other than that it was all a bit Wild Wild West!!

In a galaxy a bit nearer home, like err...the former Crown Colony of Hong Kong; They had Polyvinyl-chloride, lots of it, AND they knew how to use it!

Wherever possible the one I believe to be the oldest is on the left, Darth - he got an ice-pick...in his legs, which were redesigned in later years, leaving him a bit of a mini-me-Vader!! R2D2 might be from another series of heads only?

Right, that's me running out of vague cultural references! I'm missing an orange-brown wicket, but then Pakistani bowlers have apparently been doing that for days and in my defense - I'm not trying!

Far from it, I keep finding them on FeeBay at a tenner a pop! Some of these dealers should be strung-up and run-through with a damp dish-cloth, bloody rip-off merchants, these things are 10/20p car-booty, and asking 20 quid for a set of six is marginally less criminal than paying an Ayrton Senna for a late production figure.

Apologies for the flare coming off the white/pale areas, I took the photo's twice, but the camera has started not recognizing when it's in Macro, so is giving a full blast on the flash at point-blank range. It's only three years old, nearly a hundred quid, it shouldn't be allowed, but that's about how long they last!

9th March 2021 - Now confirmed to be another HFC import, tag-list updated.

T is for Terry Wise - A Tribute

The recent news of the passing-away of Terry Wise came to me as a sadness for the slow demise of a more innocent age. Without his little book of war gaming, I probably would not have collected in the way I have, and this blog would never have come into being, although it must be said - if I weren't so disorganized, dysfunctional and savant-like it would have been here in around 2006! Some of the pages that fired my desire to collect every pose of every small scale figure I could find, from the chapter 'Organizing Your Army' these were quite simple ways of using paint, or minor conversion with blade, thumb-tack, paper or wire to produce - primarily from the first 30 or so sets of Airfix HO/OO figures - any member of any army that ever was! Thousands of modelers were, or following publication of the book would go on to be producing just such armies through the 1970's, and now that the turning up on eBay of such figures has slowed to the occasional dribble and a new generation of 'Internet bubble' war gamers spend their spare moments whinging about the lack of some esoteric set of mounted foot artillery catering executives (best parodied by the Pomeranian Piccolo Players, a running joke invented by Mr. Wane Wood over at the HaT forum) despite nearly 1000 new sets being issued in plastic since 1997, I thought it would make a fine tribute to Terry to show a few of his inspirations here tonight. I am responsible for the Egyptian skirmishers here, from the American Indian set, with hair-cuts, truncated head-dresses and cartridge-paper shields. All the rest have come in with mixed lots over the years, and if you recognize your work drop us a message in the comment box. Working anti-clockwise from above the Indians; South American Revolutionary/Independence wars? From ACW Confederates Foreign Legion MG crew, from WWI Germans Colonial Marine Artillery, from WWI RHA German East African campaign? From WWI Americans Firer from crawler and cased ATGW Napoleonics from Guards Roman cavalry from Cowboys Clockwise from top left; Congolese soldier from two Russians (me) Roman/US Cavalry marriage Captain Scarlet from Cowboys Various conversions of Robin Hood's men some by me WWI German cavalry from RHA and US Cavalry Mounted Briton from Romans Light Infantry? From ACW Union and Japanese flag bearer 8th Army with tartan clothing, from one of Terry's contemporary's articles in Airfix Magazine or Military Modeling? More of my efforts! And no, I don't know why I gave them all Scottish football supporters hats, I'm sure it was in the original article though!! As other makes appeared they got the Terry treatment as well, here are some of them; cut, shut, glued & painted into something else. Top left to bottom right; Indians, some Airfix, some Hong Kong, some grafted! Blanket-rolls added to Revell Prussian Infantry Atlantic Vignettes divided into separate figures Various ACW standards etc...(some by me, some by others) Pure Terry! French 'Eagle' - Italeri Romans/ECW Pike-men? From HK copies of Airfix 8th Army Mounted Lifeguard from HK copy of Crescent and Indians legs Giant Mongols given pin-swords Hope that's tripped a few memories in the older followers of this blog, remains only to say goodbye Terry and thanks, you enriched my life with your inventiveness and enthusiasm, and leave us all better for having come into contact with your work. Caught by the final conversion, which comes to all of us. [It's very rarely that I will publish something (other than packaging or advertising/catalogue material) that carries copyright, and - given recent events elsewhere - would like to point out that the leading image, a compound of pages from the - in my eyes - seminal work; 'Introduction to Battle Gaming' by Terrance Wise is reproduced here after clearing it with Chris Lloyd the owner of Special Interest Model Books (current holders of the rights to MAP Publications). The Copyright has reverted to Terry and if anyone is in touch with his widow, would they please pass on my condolences for her recent loss, and be assured that the image can be removed should she so wish.]

The Tale of Bilbo the Rabbit

Once upon a time there was a Rabbit, called Bilbo, who found himself billeted on the big house at the end of the village,

now; it happened that Bilbo was accustomed to traveling light, and had therefore only two thirds of his house with him when he arrived! However the gardener knew where he could lay his hands on the base of a bed from a certain Scandinavian furniture manufacturer, and grabbing a wine-crate in passing along with a piece of roofing-felt, had - within the hour - produced a suite of rooms which adequately met Bilbo's not-so-great expectations.

Bilbo moved in immediately, and soon discovered that his arrival led to some excitement among the junior members of the local populace who quickly had him drowning in carrots, dandy-lion and lettuce leaves, crab-apples and all manner of Rabbit-fare!

Here we see Bilbo working his way through a pile of lush greenery, it's an arduous life; being a 'kept' Rabbit!

Unfortunately, a certain Sandy-Whiskered Gentleman had got wind of the new resident, and thought to have a close chat with him, about this and that, mostly about red-currant jelly, and decided that through the wire was not as close a chat as you could have if - for instance - you were to get under the wire...

It has to be said, that much as Bilbo liked his rooms, he preferred not to bothered by unannounced guests, especially at 3 o'clock in the morning, digging! So alternative non-daylight hours accommodation had to be provided at rather short notice. So thanks indeed to Messrs. Fortnam and Mason for the wicker hut in which Bilbo now resides after-dark, in the wood shed!

Here we see Bilbo licking logs, he likes licking logs, he also likes licking hands, sleeves, the outside of his water-bottle, noses...in short; he'll lick anything within reach!

Sweetpeas

Last year the Sweetpeas were a bit girly and pastel for my taste, but this year's batch have a bit of gravitas about them with dark reds, blood-scarlet and imperial purples, so - especially for Mimi - here they are, on a rather damp August afternoon.

Humming-bird Hawk Moth

Clearly I need a camera with a narrower focusing 'beam' and a faster shutter-speed! This is a Humming-bird Hawk Moth, going 99-to-the-dozen on our Lavender bushes, a rare visitor to these parts - I'm told, but the second year in the last three that it's put in an appearance, pity I couldn't get a better picture, but it would not stop!

C is for Cat (& Mouse)

Clearing the Wisteria from the front of the big house, and getting it back into shape the other day, went off for lunch and came back to find the hacked shrub had fallen away from the house revealing this rather sweet - if slightly violent - Gargoyle. Apparently in 'olden times' they kept down the mice with very small lions!!!

U is for Unknown Aircraft

While sorting out the Photograph for the Battle of Britain memorial piece last night, I shot these two as well, now I have lots of unknown aircraft I wouldn't dream of boring you with, but these two are worth a more public forum in the hope of identification...

The first is presumably meant to be a Czechoslovakian-service Russian Mig fighter, but is managing to look more like a V1 on it's launch-skid! It is missing the top tail-plane, and from time to time I consider making a replacement, but feel one shouldn't bugger-about with what may be a rare thing! Any ideas? It's about 1:90, 100% wood with paint, the red disc on the tail-fin is on both sides, there's no markings underneath.

The second one is even more interesting, a polished perspex model of - I think - a Messerschmitt Me.109? Could be a modern western 'collectable' from Franklin or Danbury and co.? Or, a post-war corporate desk model from Spain, Finland, Switzerland or Roumania? Either way, I suspect it's having been attached to an ash-tray or similar 'objet'.

Secondly - Could it be a Master, for a range of white-metal models?

The other alternative is that it is from National Socialist Germany. around 1:100/110 and obviously missing a propeller and tail-planes it also has a small hole for a mounting-wire (?) underneath, forward of the cockpit, under the cockpit itself is an air-scoop. No other details or markings. Again - any Ideas?

T is for Tower Fortress (with Soldiers!)

Thanks go to James Opie for both these sets, neither of which is the Giant brand! There were thousands of these Hong Kong sets produced from the late 50's to the switch to 'China' marks in the early 90's as HK geared up for the return of the colony to the mother country in '97.

Very few were ever marked Giant, or of Giant quality, and because Giant was nothing more than an American trade-mark, even when it's from Giant sources, the packaging is as often-as-not unmarked. These two however aren't even of Giant quality.

Bought by Mr. Opie in Islington in March 1967 for the then princely sum of 3 shillings and eleven-pence (no wonder my mother would never let me buy them!), a quite good 2nd generation copy of the Giant fort, with the 'mongol' tower tops and flags, and a set of Greco-roman warriors based on Britains and Marx originals.

Check-out the artwork, a Roman Centurion is yelling expletives at a Mongol warlord while two rather cheeky looking (not allowed to use 'gay' anymore!) Guardsmen smile rather too-knowingly, are they wearing make-up!?!

A year later and Bristol is going all ceremonial, the price was the same (Ah! the days before the oil-crises!), but the card had been changed to a printed courtyard you could set the fort up on, nice added play value but who was going to be that careful removing the staples!

This set includes the guardsmen with separate heads and swivel waists, based on the Crescent 60mm set, and first seen here as 'Royal Guards' (click on 'Ceremonial' and it's the third post down), and the card is sometimes found over-printed with the Woolbro label, under which guise it appeared a while ago (Click 'Carded).

Close-ups of the figures, the ancients are not bad compared to Giant, but the detail isn't there and they are more glossy than the Giant Originals. For those trying to identify all the variations of these, this is the lot with a very small, neat 'HONG KONG' and the chariot mounting-hole blocked up.

C is for Churchillian

Never in the field of human conflict
was so much owed by so many to so few.
All our hearts go out to the fighter pilots,
whose brilliant actions we see with our own eyes
day after day…

Winston S. Churchill, 70 years ago today.

T is for Tactical Strike by Corgi

As I mentioned these in the last post I thought I'd better chuck them up here as a comparison, They are described as "The only 1:64 scale military die-cast collection", and are the same 25mm as the Monogram set from 15 years earlier.

Two sets were issued, the same six poses of generic post-Cold War US ground troops ('Grunts'), one set being painted in the green temperate combat fatigues of a USMC unit, the other; Army Infantry in desert combats.

Tied into a small vac-formed base, they have stuffed behind them an offer from Osprey, two painting guide/thumbnail sketches - also from Osprey and an introductory leaflet, who's chief novelty is a photograph of a mini-diorama which seems to include several bare-metal pre-production vehicles which never saw the light of day and an EKO or Roco M8 WWII armoured car sprayed green????

Checkin' out the check-point (actually an Airfix Desert Outpost), a close up of the 6 figures going about their business, nice figures and still readily available being only a few years old, and from the time when Corgi was churning out stuff in a mad rush to one of it's periodic bankruptcies!!