Latest Additions

Roughly a month ago I attended the Birmingham Toy Soldier Show and bought a few goodies. Since then I have been a bit lazy and haven't got round to publishing a post about them. Finally, here it is

I thought I'd start with the four First Legion German infantry pictured below. I've already got a few of these and I was lucky enough to be able to pick these up at a bargain price from Dave Marshall at TM Terrain who, as most readers will probably already know, has sadly decided to give up selling toy soldiers. Even when heavily discounted they cost more than some manufacturers individual figure sets, but they're well worth it

All four figures have found a home in my Stalingrad diorama, very much a work in progress at the moment. The backdrop has been made with posters from John Gittins and the terrain was created by Dave Marshall

 
As well as adding to my small, but growing, collection of First Legion figures I finally took the plunge and bought my very first pieces from Thomas Gunn and Figarti

The Figarti purchase came in the form of this rather smart Panzer IV, badged up as part of the Panzer Lehr Division and painted in a typical, and very nicely rendered, tri-camo colour scheme, just ready for the late war Normandy campaign

My Figarti Panzer IV was picked up from Grey Goose Collectibles

You don't get any additional opening hatches or blown up tank tracks with this model but what you do get is a very well put together tank made from a combination of resin, plastic and metal, and the way the wheel and track assembly has been rendered is far superior to the way King and Country are currently doing it, in my opinion. This model has been bought to sit behind my CS Tiger 1, number 222, as part of my Michael Wittmann diorama. Dave tells me the bases ought to be ready early in the New Year

And so to the Thomas Gunn figures I purchased from Ken at Maison Militaire. When I made my way over to their stand I saw a number of figures I really liked the look of, including the recently released machine gun team which I featured in a previous post, and a couple of infantry gun sets which look very smart indeed, and the new medical Kubelwagens, perfectly complimented with additional sets of a fallen soldier in the midst of being 'patched up'

I couldn't afford the KW to go with this set at the time, so I will have to take a chance on being able to get hold of one later. This set is being added to a 'stricken armoured convoy' diorama spread across two shelves

What really caught my eye though was the collection of Waffen SS cavalry, also featured in a previous post, which I had already convinced myself I would not be able to purchase in its entirety. TG make all their sets in limited runs of between 100 and 200 pieces, and they are selling very well at the moment. If I'm perfectly honest, that's the main reason I hadn't bought any before. As soon as I found out they had still got a complete set of the cavalry, summer version, I simply had to have them. I bought one to take away with me and put a deposit on the rest. I will have the remaining five by Christmas. At £55 a throw these mounted figures are simply delightful. Weighty, well painted with plenty of detail, and the sculpting is full of character. The horses, in particular, are tremendous. Plenty of bang for your buck!

Finally, I leave you with another purchase I made from Maison Militaire, two dead tankers from Collectors Showcase. They have been added to my CS Panther tank, the lead vehicle in my stricken armoured convoy display

Until next time, happy hunting!