The 23rd Birmingham Toy Soldier Show

A couple of weeks ago, on Sunday 13th October, I visited The Birmingham Toy Soldier Show. By all accounts visitor numbers were a little down on last year and there was certainly a drop in the number of traders. Nevertheless, there was still plenty there to have a gander at, as I hope the accompanying images will testify to, and I passed an enjoyable two or three hours chatting with dealers and model makers and making the occasional purchase of architectural items, figures, coffee and a bacon bap!

Next year's show, the 24th, will be held on Sunday 12th October 2014 at The Clarendon Suite, just off the Hagley Road in Edgbaston, Birmingham

As usual at the BTSS plastic figures in general, and old Timpo figures like these in particular, were very well represented. Quite a few dealers had a wide variety of soldiers like these, that I have fond memories of from my younger years, available for sale including Cowboys and Indians, US Cavalry figures, Knights and Crusaders, Eskimos, Tepees, Tents and Buildings

From cheap and cheerful, mass produced plastics we travel to a rather different place on the spectrum that makes up the toy soldier scene. This somewhat more serious and considerably more expensive reconstruction of an Imperial Roman watch tower was painstakingly built by a pair of model makers who together go by the name of Small Wonders Model Makers

Take a look at their website at www.smallwondersmodelmakers.com or feel free to contact them using the details below

As usual, King and Country UK were there in force at the show but they have been scaling down their operations somewhat according to Mike Neville. They have decided to display predominantly new and upcoming figure releases at the shows and simplify the dioramas on which they are displayed, all in an effort to cut down on set up times, make the figures the centre of attention and allow the customer to see more clearly what's new across the many different ranges produced by the company

Most of the display boards for K&C UK's dioramas, including this one, have been made by Dave Marshall at TM Terrain

A selection of British Paras, part of the new Premier Figures series that has recently been announced by the company displayed alongside building facades and terrain modules by John Gittins

The series of Normandy buildings shown here really are lovely. I picked up the recently retired church facade whilst I was there along with two of the eagle-topped columns for one of my LAH/SA dioramas

Two shots of the very impressive Figarti figures available from Clive at Grey Goose Collectibles, beautifully displayed alongside yet more tremendous terrain from Dave

Two shots of some of the trench sections being produced by Britains. I have to confess I'm not a great fan of their figures but I'm pretty impressed with the terrain pieces they're turning out to accompany their WW1 range. I reckon they'd set any group of WW1 figures off really well

I particularly like the dead trees and water-filled shell craters. I can picture them now set out on one of Dave's terrain boards together with some of John's debris and liberal sprinklings of his plastic soil

Last but by no means least, a selection form the company that to my mind are fast establishing themselves as 'First Among Equals', First Legion, courtesy of Ken and the team at Maison Militaire

This proudly defiant German warrior, severed Roman head in hand, was another of my purchases from the show

You won't find Waffen SS camo patterns painted any better than this outside of one of the Russian studios. For my money, they are simply the best on the market

Thanks to all the traders who showed up to show off their treasures, and a special thank you to Dave and Pat for organising another successful show. See you at the next one and, in the mean time, happy hunting!

Airsoft Tour of Duty: Smashing Pumpkins

It's been a good while since I last set foot on a skirmish field, longer than I care to mention, so I was really looking forward to the game I played last Saturday

I took myself off to what I think is still my nearest site - new ones seem to be springing up all over the place at the moment so it might not be any longer - The Grange over at Balsall Common. I signed myself in, paid my green fee and then journeyed a short distance to The Proving Ground at Honiley where the game was actually being played

They were playing at the same site on Sunday too and had between 30 and 40 players booked in for the day. The turnout for the Saturday game was, on the surface, disappointingly low. In total, there were 10 of us playing, so five a side. I actually quipped whether anyone had a football!

Needless to say nobody did, but one of the games did involve pumpkins, and they're vaguely spherical and not dissimilar to a football

To be honest, it took me a while to get myself fired up and 'into it', partly because the small number of players meant there wasn't the usual buzz and accompanying noise you would normally expect, but once I'd got going I thoroughly enjoyed the day and the experience served as a timely reminder of what I love about this slightly off the wall hobby of ours

We played through a number of scenarios lasting 30, 45 or 60 minutes. The games were well thought out, with crystal clear objectives that were challenging but achievable, and often reversed to give you the chance of bettering the opposition

One such game involved the use of two pumpkins. The pumpkins in question - one named Peter and one named Patrick - represented two heads of state and we players their close protection squads. Over the course of 30 minutes we were tasked with moving our respective Presidents to three different locations and holding them there for 10 minutes before moving them on. The enemy, of course, didn't know where the holding sites were. Their job was to find where the President was being held and 'assassinate' him

The winner of the game would be the team whose President had taken the least amount of damage from enemy gun fire. Pyros were not allowed to be used on the Presidents! They say pictures speak volumes so I'll let the following images do the rest of the talking. Suffice to say I was in the team with the biggest grins on our faces at the end!

Our President ended up with a few minor battle scars. You should have seen the other guy!

And here he is, with considerably more holes in him than he started out with! The air was positively blue from the banter flying around during the course of this one!

Pyro'ed Pumpkin. Smashing!

Just to reiterate, I had a very enjoyable day, made even better by the fact that the team of lads I was playing with won every single one of the games played. The fact that there were only ten of us playing didn't lessen the enjoyment one iota. If anything, the smaller numbers made for a far more tactical days play and there wasn't a single issue with players failing to take their hits. A big thank you to the organisers and everyone else involved

See you on the skirmish field

King and Country: New Website

It seems that Andy and the team over in HK have decided that their website is in need of a revamp

Here are three screenshots of an email that arrived in my inbox the other day, together with a promo video available on YouTube

It's looking pretty good I must say. I can't wait for the launch in a few days time

Thomas Gunn Miniatures: October Releases

Yet another bumper month for all you TGM collectors out there, and a little something for everyone, well almost! I've included a combined image of all the figures in the release taken directly from the TGM website. More details and images, as ever, are available from the same location. Enjoy!

Happy hunting!

The Collectors Showcase: LAH Review

Visit the company's website and you will be treated to a glimpse of these little beauties. No other details as yet, not even in the upcoming releases section, but they look like they'd make a darn fine addition to any LAH parade diorama!

Happy hunting!

JJD: October Releases

Here they are, in all their glory. Images courtesy of the JJDUK website and close ups courtesy of The Toy Soldiers Club of Canada. Enjoy!

Happy hunting!

Full of Eastern Promise

www.model-scene.com

www.polakmodel.com

Whilst flicking through the pages of the August/September issue of Toy Soldier Collector I came across an article by Michael Cross, promoting the products of two Czech manufacturers who specialise in scenic items for model railway enthusiasts and diorama makers

The focus of the article is the range of grass mats made by both companies and Michael is eager to heap praise on them. The pictures accompanying the purple prose certainly look good, as do the images on the respective company websites, one or two of which I've included below

A menu screen from the Model Scene website

The mats come delivered in simple plastic sleeves and are flexible enough to allow them to be molded to the contours of a baseboard should you so desire. They can be used singly, combined together in multiples or cut and torn up to form 'patchwork' landscapes of various kinds, and can be glued down or not as you see fit

They come in a variety of seasonal shades, with grass of varying lengths and degrees of coverage, some mats are plain whilst others are adorned with flowers, shrubs and bushes, forest debris or calcium rocks

Happy hunting!

King and Country: October Dispatches

October is upon us, the shops are getting ready for the Christmas rush and the Birmingham Toy Soldier Show is literally just around the corner. Appropriate, then, that in amongst the selection of newly released delights from K&C this month is the latest in their range of military themed Santa figures, as well as a whole lot of other things, and here they all are in chronological order

And now for all those figure sets 'heading for the happy hunting grounds in the sky.' Quite a few once again this month, including a couple of architectural pieces at least one of which I'll be hoping to grab an example of before they all disappear

AE034 High Priest of RA God of the Sun

AE035 Hand Maiden to Priest of RA

AF029 The ‘Follow-Me’ Jeep

BBG032 Prize of Arms

BBG033 Cold Feet Warm Boots

FW106 Lt. Werner Voss

FW107 Manfred Von Richthofen

FW108 Hermann Goering

MK052 The Bishop of Tours

MK053 Richard the Lionheart

MK066 Mounted Templar w/ Banner

MK067 Crusader Archers Set

MK072 Templar Grand Master

MK073 Templar Standard Bearer

RAF020 Sergeant Pilot George Unwin

RAF021 Sergeant Pilot Antoni Glowacki

RAF022 Flying Officer Andy Mamedoff

RAF023 Flying Officer John "Pancho" Villa

RAF024 RAF Policeman

RAF025 RAF Kneeling Armourer

SP037 Church Façade

SP045 Corner Shop House

That about wraps it up for another month. Happy hunting!