I Pitched A Tent!

Well, not really.

But I bought a bag of tents:

So I thought I’d try on some paint jobs from different eras.

Barbarian?

Roman?

Medieval/Renaissance?

And with a 1/72 scale knight for scale:

As this post is sorta short, I added a few figures just to show I’m still painting toy soldiers.
The inspiration was this Historex card:

The guy on the extreme right, French Gendarmes a Pied, from made in China World War 2 American infantry:

Plain ol' Planes

Before Covid I could buy bags of toy fighter planes for $2.99.
10 per bag.

Now they are more expensive...
They kinda look like Focke Wolfs. Radial engines, the tail and aleron’s look right.
I painted one up long ago on another post:

http://dougssoldiers.blogspot.com/2010/10/some-dollar-store-silliness.html?m=0


So having a bunch of these:

I tried some basic paint jobs:

Sadly, I coated the planes with an off the shelf acrylic gloss coating that is peeling up and taking the paint with it.
Live and learn.
Some other tries. I really liked the grey and brown one, it had the look of a French Bloch type fighter:

Then I started cutting up the fighters and adding balsa wood and Tamiya model putty.
A sorta Stuka:

An RAF desert P-40:

A desert Me-109E:

I have some others on the go. A Vultee Vengeance, a Japanese Ann, and a Hawker Typhoon.

***update added August 9, 2020***

Okay, here’s my soap box moment.
I bought three war films from Amazon.
Midway (the new one), Dunkirk, and Pearl Harbor.

I’m convinced the movie makers never talked to a pilot or a historian.
Midway had lots of action and explosions, but at the Pearl Harbor attack scene, there are some Kate’s dropping torpedos nose on with the battleships, not at right angles.
And the biggest beef, with all the cgi, there are NO WILDCAT fighters on the American carriers. No Buffalos on Midway either.
And historically, the B-26’s from Midway were armed with torpedoes, not bombs.
Just my whining, but it bugged me.

Then I watched Dunkirk.
Ok, I get it.
Vignettes to capture the mood of the times.
But how much ammo was on those Spitfires?
I read (maybe incorrectly) that the RAF fighters had 6-8 seconds of firing loaded.
The guy in the film must have been pulling a trailer of ammo,
Anyway after downing four Me-109 E’s and two He-111’s, he ran out of fuel, and shot down a Stuka that tried to bomb Henry the Fifth, ... I mean Kenneth Branagh.
THEN he made a perfect landing on an EMPTY Dunkirk beach and surrendered to the Germans.
Dunkirk?
Stunkirk!

Finally Ben Affleck’s Pearl Harbor.
He gets killed in the first half hour, but he comes back.
Lots of action at Pearl Harbor.
The Vals are level bombing here.
But the real crazy thing is that after Affleck shoots down a bunch of Zeros, he gets drafted to fly B-25’s for Doolittle.
So after 3 hours he’s still alive.
Damn.

What Do You Do With A Bag of Nazis?

Prior to the covid scare, I was picking up lots of very cheap made in China toys.
Very cheap, a few dollars and with free shipping.
Now the prices have multiplied many times and there is a shipping charge.

So I ended up with some big bags of 1/72 scale World War 2 soldiers.
These guys in fact:

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/1-72-New-Plastic-Army-Men-Figures-100pcs-Military-Set-Toy-Soldiers-Green/112878997493?hash=item1a481ccff5:g:JEcAAOSw4PRar9Vg&redirect=mobile

I was able to buy bags of 1000 for under $20.
You get about 8 poses, some more useful than others.
One pose is a copy of the second release of Airfix WW2 Germans. The officer firing a pistol.

So I got out the Xacto, some Tamiya model putty and had a go at making these guys into something else.
I looked at the WRG book about Armies and Enemies of Rome.
The Irish had soldiers with short pants, bare legs and long hair.

I also thought these rough guys might do as later Franks or Alan's with stripey clothes, axes and top knots.

This is what I ended up with:

Some guys are awaiting shields.

I also painted a Hong Kong cart, I'm not sure if I'll make chariots out of them, as I have a few. Also a couple of Esci barbarians with indigestion.

A Dollar Store Too Far

Last year was the 75th anniversary of Operation Market Garden, and I started reading up on the battle.
I did the Cornelius Ryan book and watched the movie, listened to some podcasts, caught some interviews with Antony Beevor and watched a YouTube interview he did:

WWII and Lessons from the Past - 'Arnhem: The Battle of the Bridges'

27,472 views

Pretty fascinating.

He concluded that the plan never had a chance, and it was Monty's folly.

Sadly it cost over 10,000 lives.

I also picked up several DVD's about this period of the war.

So I decided to start up making a 1/72nd Airborne force and started with the British first.

But on the cheap.

Model jeeps, whether plastic, resin or metal are pretty dear.

So I scrounged in my pile of toys and painted up a small force.

I also did the "toy soldier" look, given that my figures were a mish mash of makers.

(And try finding any piats)

Cherry red berets in place of the maroon, and high gloss finishes.
Definitely TOY soldiers....

So here we go...

Dollar Store Jeeps (of a kind) with torsos of soldiers added.

The heavies, dropped by glider to be sure. Atlantic anti tank gun, mortars and heavy Mg's. A mix of figures. The pack 75 is nice but a terrible kit to assemble.

Commanders trying to get the radio working. Local help from a pensioner.

The soldiers. A real mix of makers.

A bit of a close up. I have to admit, I had fun painting this lot up, but like everything else, "it's a work in progress".

More TV Toy Soldiers: Lovejoy

The fourth season episode "Fly the Flag" featured lead toy soldiers. I am unfamiliar with these, they are 54 mm and the Lovejoy character (Ian McShane) refers to the as (phonetically) " Kai-ah?" from France around the late 1800's. They look like lead Britain's to me.

The show has a wargame setup supposedly depicting the march to and from Concord in the beginning of the American Revolution.

Amazingly, they actually have pyrotechnics and blow up the toys. Yikes!