Still More Marx Madness

More Marx Captain Gallant conversions. These are British 19th century. Straight paint jobs with some plasticine packs. The guys on the right have a blue painted Portuguese soldier in their ranks, a militia man from the Napoleonic wars. I had hopes of making enough of these redcoats to use them in Crimea or maybe India.

Rear view of the packs, showing some of the damage plasticine is liable to over time.

My Greeks. I made 150 0f these one summer long ago. The hardest part were the spears, they just keep breaking off.

A mix of heads and hoplons. Who needs Helots when you have topless babes running the camp? These are Garrison Sword and Sorcery figures.

These are about half of what I made. I'll find the rest and post them all together someday.

Some figures, one showing the plasticine I added. I also have made skirmishers and archers and a nice mounted Pausanias figure for Platea from a mounted Marx 7th Cavalryman. He's around somewhere.

Lucky Toys 132 Piece Roman Soldier Set Addendum

I found another box of Lucky Toys Romans. As you can see the box fits inside the cardboard mailer perfectly.

The box top.

Side

Ends

Nice art from the ad on the front side.

Inside are the usual contents, but these are a little different. They are hard plastic, but actually fairly strong plastic. Also there are some differences.

Here are the catapults and their ammo. The ammo is two piece hard plastic, and these catapults actually do work. You hold the catapult down and flick the spoon part back and release. These do work, unlike the soft plastic ones.

A teaser. These are some of my Giant knights, the same poses one would find in the later issues of Helen of Toy's Gold Crown Game. There are a couple thousand here, all from online purchases. They aren't as rare or expensive as some people would have you believe.

Comic Book Toy Soldiers: Lucky Toys 132 Piece Roman Soldiers Set

Here's the original ad from the back of the comic books:

Certainly colourful enough! Full of action and promise for the young reader.

A close up of the contents that make up the two Roman armies.

The box an army arrived in long ago.

The contents spilled out. In this case, an incomplete army due to age and use.

Here's what you would have received, arrayed for battle. Sharp eyes will note the different hues of plastic, additions to flesh out a complete set from other partial sets I own. As with the Lucky Toys 204 Revolutionary War set, the plastic soldiers do vary in shades of colour.

Another view of the full set.

The Commanders. There were 4 in each set.

The Cavalry Banners. There were 4 of these.

The cavalry. 24 of these were in each set.

Spearmen. 16 per set.

Archers. 16 per set. These figures are in full Roman armour and are wearing rather short tunics.

Slingers. 16 per set. These are a fanciful pose, full armour, a heavy spear and shield and a sling.

The Chariots, some of the nicest pieces in the set. There were 4 of these.

The catapults, 2 per side. The ammunition is a feather light hollow soft plastic ball. There were 8 per side. These catapults don't really work. I imagine a lot of frustration arose as kids tried to fire them at their carefully lined up troops. Probably the ammo was discarded and rolled marbles took the place of this "artillery".

My favorite of the infantry poses, the 24 swordsmen per set. These closely resemble some of the fighting men depicted in the ad.

4 Trumpeters were in each set.

Spearmen illustrating the different hues found between sets. Also, some sets like the man on the right, were of softer pliable plastic. Even today you can bend them and they bend back in shape. The man on the left is of a hard brittle plastic that snaps at the slightest touch. This isn't "plastic disease" as one finds with old Airfix sets. Rather it is the nature of the plastic some of these sets were made of. I suspect that these harder sets were later, as the detail is less than that of the soft plastic soldiers.

I painted a few of the brittle soldiers. At least on a wooden base, they stand some chance of remaining whole.

A comparison. An Airfix centurion (who followed Mark Anthony to Egypt to train Cleopatra's hordes, judging by the shield) next to the chariot. It is close to 20mm in scale.

Mark Anthony next to a painted cavalryman. These figures, while flat, do fit in well with standard HO figures.














All in all they are a nice set for the nostalgic old man. The foot soldiers all stand about 1 1/2 inches tall from the bottom of the base to the top of the helmet. The cavalry are a fraction taller, usually just their plumes are above 1 1/2 inches. I found that the brittle soldiers had less flash and that their bases were flatter, so they stand better. The softer figures had some flash around the bases, and some bases are slightly warped, leading to catastrophic domino like collapses. In point of fact, it took me two tries and a glass of beer to steady my nerves just to line up the figures for the photos. I'm sure a lot of anguished and frustrated kids were heard yelling from the other room as their legions suddenly decided to lay down on the job.

More Space Ships

This is another of my space fleets, featuring those soft models I got from the importers. There are a few others, from the Buck Rogers game by TSR, and a couple from another game. The fighters are Star Wars types, Y Wings and Z-95 Headhunters from Studio Bergstrom. The damaged ship is the result of my dog, Maggie, getting a model when I wasn't looking.

My Gorns. I am using Amarillo Design Bureau Star Fleet Battles ships, but with my own paint job. Officially they are supposed to be grey, but that was just a little too boring for me. The round ships are RAFM Silent Death saucers.

Pseudo Cardassians with escort from a couple of Studio Bergstroms. The planet is just a styrofoam ball painted and coated with white glue.

A close up of the Cardassian - like ships. As you can see, these cheap import models have a fair amount of detail. I painted these with acrylics, a straw colour, then washed with a brown.

My Narn-esque fleet in front of another planet. A couple of Agents Of Gaming Narn Frazi fighters standing in as light cruisers.

Home made freighters.

A Q ship that can stand in as an armed escort or as an auxilliary carrier.

The Start of Yet Another New Project, The Battle Of The Little Bighorn

I've been doing some reading and after perusing the Great Battles in History series I decided to use some of my Giant brand cowboys as 7th Cavalry. Here are 4 units of 6. The sabres are a fanciful addition by me. Oddly enough, the subject of US cavalry is well covered by the toy soldier makers, yet I seldom see anyone game the Pony Wars anymore. More to come.

Ykreol casualties.

SPYK 01 - Battaille de Little Big Horn, les derniers moments de Custer.

This set has 80 figures (40 horses and 40 men) and costs around $30. The company has done similar sets for the Camerone, Teutoberger Wald (I want this one) and promises an 1812 retreat from Moscow set.

As you can see, they detail is good and I must say they paint up well.

Lucky Toys Conversions - Royal Horse Artillery

Here they are, a two gun battery with an accompanying caisson. The horses are Giant, the men are Lucky Toys 204 Revolutionary War Set cavalry, the guns are Eagle Games, the limbers Airfix RHA, and the caisson was scratch built.

The accompanying artillerymen. I like this close grouping, and will endeavour to repeat this with all my horse artillery.

The battery officers. Marx 7th Cavalry figures on Giant brand horses.

Another shot of the battery grouping.

The gunners in action. 25mm Hinchliffe with Eagle games guns. Base is wood.

A pass in review. I'm sure some have noticed a lack of white plumes on the left side of the helmets. My mistake. I just haven't decided what to do. The helmets are plasticine with the chenile made by painting the plasticene with white glue (PVA) and dippping it in fine sand. I let it dry then paint it.