Military Unicorns of the World in Colour

 

 

It has been snowing for these Poundland plastic warriors in their camo uniforms …

An accidental typo in a previous Pound Store Plastic Warriors blog led to me writing  about and typing  Preben Kannik’s Military Unicorns of the World in Colour.

“For uniform inspiration I had by me some childhood books, namely an old Osprey Men At Arms book on ‘The Zulu War’, Preben Kannik’s Military Uniforms of the World in Colour and my trusty Ladybird ‘Soldiers’ book. 

(Good job I noticed the mistyping as Military Unicorns of the World in Colour – what a book that would be. What a great cavalry regiment or regimental mascot!)”

Full dress Military Uniform and Unicorn in Colour required here …

I meant, of course, Military Uniforms of the World in Colour …

https://poundstoreplasticwarriors.wordpress.com/2017/11/26/pound-store-plastic-colonial-infantry-on-the-painting-table/

The figures are 36mm repainted Poundland plastic “penny dreadful” warriors.

The unicorn is a 99p one salvaged from a toy box, a mini one made by Bullyland. Apart from gilding the horn (!),  I have yet to add any gold thread harness or bit, so this is a very well behaved regimental unicorn mascot with its handler.

So here is our snowy parade, our festive offering from Pound Store Plastic Warriors.  Unicorns have become very fashionable and festive over the last year or two.

I checked and the 99p unicorn is a Bullyland Good  Luck Mini Unicorn 63286 available in packs of 5 for about £5 to £6. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bullyland-minis-63286-Unicorns-Pieces/dp/B01J3E84QA

It has been a fun year here at Pound Store Plastic Warriors blog, finishing the year with the challenge of lots of Poundland 36mm “penny dreadful” (100 figures for £1)  plastic figure conversion ongoing, with lots still on the painting table for gaming in the New Year.

Many trips to pound stores and seaside shops throughout the year has sometimes brought fruitless searching and sometimes  the childlike joy of cheap plastic tat, ripe for conversion into gaming figures.

Many thanks to our many Pound Store Plastic Warriors blog  readers for all your  comments, conversion tips, likes and blogging company over the last year.

Wishing you all a very Merry (cheap plastic toy soldier filled) Christmas and a Happy Gaming New Year 2018. Unicorns and all …

Blogposted by Mark, Man of TIN 22/23 December 2017.

 

 

 

Work In Progress from Pound Store Plastic Rambos to Spear Warriors

From Rambo machine gunner to colonial or ancient spear warrior …

These are some of my WIP  Work-In-Progress on the painting table.

One of the more awkward of the 12 figure poses  for conversion from the Poundland tub of £1 for 100 36mm plastic figures is this Rambo style bare-chested machine gunner figure, a figure beloved in different scales of many pound store toy soldier makers.

Work so far

Out with the scalpel and off with the machine gun barrel and magazine. The cartridge belt get some incorporated into or covered by the tissue paper robes later on.

Next hot glue gun the plastic figure to a penny base. Post 1992 in the U.K., these pennies are magnetic cupro-nickel, useful for later storage and transport. The figure’s original plastic base overhangs the penny so I have trimmed it back with snips and scalpel as far as possible.

Out with the mini hand drill and finest drill bit (bought from Prince August) to drill the right hand to take a wire spear made from stiff uncoated garden wire.

Drill a hole through the left hand to take a pin shield. The shields used are patterned upholstery pins ordered online, which took weeks to come free post delivery from China. Standard drawing pins would suffice. The long pin tail can be cropped with metal snips later on.

A small strip of tissue paper attached round the legs with white PVA glue ( a small dob of this in a plastic milk bottle top palette)  makes a suitable robe effect,  and scrap of tissue to helmet and back of head. This needs time to dry overnight.

The spearman are not based on any particular troop type. The hefty pike of a spear seems ridiculously long for now but looked odd cut shorter. It can be transformed into a flagstaff or standard. It can be trimmed down later as needed. I may add with hot glue gun a wire or Fimo scabbard for a sword or not. A wire sword can be fashioned by trimming down the spear, if I change my mind.

This PVA and tissue paper robes were done using the same approach to the completed Pound Store desert warriors and kilted colonials (see link below). They easily cover up the modern trousers and any obvious modern military kit.

Undercoat with white acrylic before the painting proper begins.

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That is as far as I have got for now … as I said, it’s all WIP / Work in Progress.

https://poundstoreplasticwarriors.wordpress.com/2017/11/26/pound-store-plastic-colonial-infantry-on-the-painting-table/

They currently share the WIP painting table with the generic Boer / Confederate / Mexican / Cowboy / Bandits and the Kilted Colonials from Carry On up the Khyber, both of which are almost finished.

All good inexpensive fun conversions starting with a penny plastic figure.

Blogposted by Mark, Man of TIN for my Pound Store Plastic Warriors blog, 12 December 2017.

More pound store plastic warrior packaging

Combat Mission 100 soldiers, 36mm height, bought online for a couple of  pounds. The header art gives some idea that modern troops, possibly British or American are inside. Close to green and tan, Two Colour armies in one bag.

Some very familiar poses amongst these 36mm figures. Combat Mission.

Some very familiar poses here, having been converting my Poundland sourced versions of these twelve poses of 36mm figures over the last few weeks.

One difference in this Combat Mission 100 Soldiers bag is the mixture of green and pale red figures, which are almost tan brown colour compared to the Poundland deeper red version. This gives effectively two small armies or units in one bag, the familiar modern “toy army men” green and tan colours, rather than one colour army / soldiers per tub in Poundland.

https://poundstoreplasticwarriors.wordpress.com/2017/10/31/pound-store-plastic-warriors-poundland-artwork/

The Combat Mission packaging is a little different from the Poundland tubs and certainly different from the stylish mixed colour figure box of Retro Toys “WW2 soldiers”, attractive packaging but not so many figures for more money!   https://poundstoreplasticwarriors.wordpress.com/2017/10/26/retro-packaging/

The Combat Mission header is something fairly standard, found on previous lucky seaside hauls of 54mm figures.

https://poundstoreplasticwarriors.wordpress.com/2017/06/13/more-combat-mission-80-pound-store-plastic-soldiers-part-2/

https://poundstoreplasticwarriors.wordpress.com/2017/05/30/more-seaside-pound-store-plastic-warriors/

Fun Toys! Quite bright but simple packaging from JaRu c. 2006 for these 54mm modern TimMee style Troops. Painted in toy soldier fashion, these modern weapons give this a Steampunk VSF look.j

Meanwhile, back at the painting bench, more 36mm pound store conversions underway …

Blogposted by Mark, Man of TIN for Pound Store Plastic Warriors, 5 December 2017.