And now for something.....

I've long had an interest in the middle ages. In my wargaming life I've had lots of assorted medieval armies. Normans- currently working on my 4th Norman Army this time in 40mm. Hundred Years War , at least 3 or 4 armies French English and Flemish - not to mention Scots. All long gone now except for a few disply Items. My 40mm Wars of the Roses have been about on this blog and are still extant - even slowly growing but that does not account for these chaps.
54mm "Toy style" Knights-over the last few years I've built up a small collection of mostly Britains levened by a few Mulberry and a single Jose Akmeyer. This all started with Peter Greenhills excellent book Heraldic Minuiature Knights which I bought years ago primarily for the info it contains. Nevertheless the pictures of Courtenay, Ping,Greenhill and Almeyer knights got me going. Now most of these are way out of my price range- a Courtenay mounted Knight can fetch around £1500.00 at auction assuming you can find one so not being awash with spare cash I picked up these few over the years mostly on ebay.
HenryV directing his archers are all Britains. The melee- with Price Philip "le Hardi" on the ground are all Mulberry. The Black Prince- with an extra lion on his caparison is my only Almeyer duelling with a Britains mounted Knight.
All of these of course come pre painted in the shiny style- only the Black prince has any attempt at "realism". I'm not sure where to go with these . They have charm and an attraction but I'm not sure Iwant to continue to collect... but we'll see Have not yet made my mind up.

More shiny toys.

As ever these things take longer than you'd like but I now have a second release in the "Glorious Victorian Toy Soldiers" range. These new figures cover the Rifle and Fusilier regiemts of the British Army . Now I've always had a soft spot for the Green jacket- especially when it carries the red distinctions of the KRRC( my Dad was a rifleman in the early 60s in the 2nd Green Jackets - The KRRC ) or the 60th Rifles - depending upon date. Now thanks to Sean Bean and Sharpe the 95th get the glory but the 5th Bn 60th had rifles first- not by a long time its true- about 3 years or so but first nevertheless and definitely senior in the line - 60th against 95th until both regiments were taken out of the line to become the Kings Royal Rifle Corps and the Rifle Brigade respectivly. Despite the perfectly normal interegiemental rivalry both regiments and thier modern successoors- The Rifles speak for themselves and in the case of the 60th starts in the French and Indain War in the mid- 18th century and continues in Afghanistan today seeing on the way such diverse fields as Talvera , Albuhera, Delhi Ridge , Spion Kop the Somme Calais etc etc etc By Gum you may say the lads have been about a bit and just like the rst of our Armed services so they have.
So here are the rifles available in both helmet and busby - paintable as either KRRC or Rifle Brigade- and doubtless as RIR and possibly Canadians too .
In addition you can now also get the Fusilier regiements or at least the non-scottish ones- I plan Scots in the future. so the British Army marches on in toy form as by God we hope it continues to do despite the actions of its enemies- mostly those in Parliament .
Andy

Crossing to the shiny side.

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Now in the past while I've admired the "toy soldier" stly I've never quite taken the plunge. For my money its a very particular style and I've never quite found the sort of thing I want. I've dabbled off and on and have a small collection of 54mm Medievals for the Hundred years war- comes of admiring those Courtenay and Ping figures I can't afford- and I fiddled about with some Irregular mins 42mm 7YW all to ultimately noavail- they left something to be desired. However some time ago I was re-reading H.G .Wells and thought why not do it sort of as Wells did so the idea of having a collection of late 19th century shiny toys took hold. Not I thought 54mm - too big and I'm not shooting cannon at 'em . As usual I don't think about rules until I've actually got some toys but it seems that Featherstone would suit - all simple and in keeping with the times thinks I. So with that I had a man or two sculpted and got 'em into a mould. I've now painted the first 5 as in the picture. with another group- this time Grenadier Guards on the way. The "enemy" will be Germanic basically FPW prussians once I get those made. As for commercial availability that will depend if anyone else fancies any. I also have a few Indian army on the go but they won't be ready for a while simply because there is too much to do in "Work" mode to give a lot of time to all the stuff I want to do.
As for work I'm hoping to have a fair bundle of new stuff out in the next few weeks. 15mm Moderns will get the 105mm light gun with ewither US Marine or British Crew New Aircraft will include a bloody lovely B-17 and some German Jets and more Jacdaw stuff is on its way. I'll also be getting a bundle of the Bluemoon 15mm WW1and Old West Ranges- in time for Salute God willingand the rest of the new BM stuff as I can and assuming customer intrest warrants.