A Couple More Toy Soldier Books (Well, one anyway...)

Earlier this week, Ross Mac's "Battle Game Of The Month" blog at:
http://gameofmonth.blogspot.ca/2016/03/fierce-huge-and-bloody.html
Featured an article about a very nicely illustrated history book. Aimed at kids, it reminded me of a couple of books that I had picked up along the way.
First off this this one:

"Imperial Rome" from the "Great Ages of Man - A History of the World's Cultures", by Moses Hadas and The Editors of Time-Life Books, New York, 1965.
I found it browsing in a thrift shop. What really caught my eye was this:

The Battle of Cynocephalae, with lead soldiers and elephants.
The center of the book had many photos of dioramas. Here are some of them:

What brought this book to mind was Ross' comments about the perception that the Romans used catapults that threw balls of fire as a regular practice. They were illustrated in the book the mentioned for the Battle of Chalons. Well I remembered this photo:

Great Balls Of Fire! Movies have been such an influence on modern culture that it extends even to history. Well at least here they were at a seige...
Anyway, as for the toy soldiers, I am pretty sure they are "Little Lead Soldiers".
http://www.littleleadsoldiers.com/
As you can see, they now produce expensive, limited ranges of items aimed at the display market.
But years ago I remember you could buy bags of the soldiers for 6 or 7 dollars. This would get you 20 odd soldiers on foot, a couple of guns and crew, or almost a dozen cavalrymen. They all were posable figures in lead/tin alloy, and they came with a metal base to solder them to, and cast weapons and accoutrements. They were figured in a James Bond movie, "The Living Daylights" with Timothy Dalton. It's the scene where the crazy General is shooting up the toy soldier displays in his little museum.
I found a youtube link to the scene:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwdfzrhX5p8
Anyway, here's a few more scenes of them in battle:

Not a bad book for $3.
The next isn't really a toy soldier book. Rather it is a well illustrated history book aimed at kids.
"Great Land Battles", Hamlyn all-colour paper backs, Hamlyn, London, 1972. ISBN 0 600 33892 4

A mere handful of pictures can't do justice to this wonderful little pocket book.
My copy is coming apart at the seams, but it remains a favorite of mine. The battles included are: Hastings, Constantinople, Blenheim, Quebec, Saratoga, Waterloo, Gettysburg, Sedan, The Marne,  and Normandy.
The margins are full of portraits of the main players, and scenes of action. Some are half pages:

But occasionally, there are full page colour illustrations such as these:

This book was a pleasant find. I understand there is a larger hardback version, but I have yet to find it.
I've a few more such books about, with toy soldiers illustrated within. I'll post some again in the future.

I Went Through My Camera

and I found some pictures I had passed over.
These are Little Lead Soldier French Napoleonic Cuirassier.
They are somewhat hard to find nowadays. Their price varies depending on the seller, some on ebay want $25 or more for a bag, and others are more reasonable. I have over a hundred bags from all ages, and I managed to buy these in a few large buys at a reasonable price. The miniatures have 10 or 11 cavalry with riders, and accoutrements like sabretache, muskets etc. They also come with a tin base. They way to put them together is with a soldering iron or some really good glue. I also found that there are often more riders than horses in the bags. And that's how I mounted these cuirassier on Giant horses.

Plasticine shebraques, wooden plumes.

 Some Guard Artillery crews.

 A while back I bought a bag or two of Old Glory figures. This I *think* is a Jan Ziska but I am probably wrong. He is from this pack: http://www.oldgloryminiatures.com/proddetail.asp?prod=DIF-37

 Some of my 204 Lucky Toys pile

A close up of my ubiquitous camp followers. They started out as Airfix copies of the WW2 8th Army figures. Wire, plasticine and paint conversions.
Some fun and favorite books which feature toy soldiers.

 There were three titles that I'm aware of. My favorite is Trenton, which features composite figures.

 This is a great book. I have a couple copies. One that's dog eared from years of use/abuse, and a better copy. Written by historian and wargamer David Chandler, it is a great read, but it also features three battles set up with Peter Gilder Hinchliffe miniatures.

 The back cover, showing Gettysburg, with Hinchliffe and Spenser Smith Miniatures.

 The battle of Daras. Belisaurius man handles the Sassanians with the help of some huns. I love this set up.

 The unachievable. Waterloo, looking from Hougomont to La Haye Sainte. Just beautiful.

Pickets Charge, so colourful.
Anyway, I hope you liked the mish mash. It does pay to dig through your camera's memory from time to time....

Something Different...

A year and a half ago I visited a North American Indian religious site. I took a bunch of pictures, and I thought that some wargamers might be interested in this sort of thing to model on a DBA camp or diorama.

 The area is a wide expanse of bare granite rocks in the Whiteshell area of eastern Manitoba. A series of designs were created by Indians long ago (First Nations peoples) and spiritual ceremonies were carried out there. Today it is seen as a religious site for these people, and visitors are asked to look but not touch as people today still visit and hold ceremonies.

Some of the rock forms are easily recognizable while others are not. There are also some overgrown with grass on the edges of the site.

Today First Nations people often leave offerings to spirits and past relatives. Tobacco, prayers, artwork, trinkets, coins are often left as offerings in prayer. Sometimes they leave colourful material tied to a tree.

Unusual for me, I happened upon a plastic WW2 German soldier toy and some dice. Wargaming follows me everywhere.
The area of the petroforms is wild. It's along a lake and the bush around it is typical for the whiteshell, not the easiest bush to walk through.

I saw some wildlife in the form of an eagle and some deer.