Fifth Blogaversary of my Man of TIN blog (and Happy Geek Pride Day 2021)

Pound Store Wars was the first post I wrote on my Man of TIN blog, a theme that would later become this separate Pound Store Plastic Wars blog by September 2016.

Blogaversary reflections over on my sister blog Man of TIN …

https://manoftinblog.wordpress.com/2021/05/25/may-25th-geek-pride-days-and-my-fifth-man-of-tin-blogaversary-2021/

The fifth Blogaversary for this Pound Store Plastic Warriors blog is in September.

Happy Geek Pride Day.

Blog posted by Mark Man of TIN, 25 May 2021

ImagiNations OBEs and vintage Airfix scrapings from someone else’s toy box?

Window shopping through the toy soldiers section of Etsy as you do, I spotted a couple of items that reminded me of an unusual hoard find that I hadn’t shared on this or my blogs so far.

Firstly some funky Fifties or Sixties toy soldier fabric on Etsy

then a more recent late 90s Wade’s whimsy of a toy soldier ceramic figure in yellow and blue. A touch of 60s Sergeant Pepper and his Lonely Hearts Club Band?

I’m not buying, I hope they find the right homes. A mere photo reminder is enough for me.

However these two odd Etsy items reminded me of a colourful “dragon’s hoard” of vintage plastic in a ziplock bag turned up for a couple of pounds about five to ten years ago in a local collectibles shop at the seaside.

It is the sort of shop that had (or has) odd opening hours, most often shut when I visited,  one that has been an erratic supply of lead and plastic figures for over twenty years. I hope each time I go that it is still there and that it is sometimes open. I hope it has survived Lockdown.

I have been taking stock of my old childhood Airfix figures recently and the odd small hoard or haul of others’ old Airfix that has come my way from time to time.

This mixed bag for a few pounds had a range of vintage Airfix that sold it to me straight away, maybe not for immediate use, but worth buying because  you never know with erratic Airfix (ancient or modern) when you will see the like again.

Airfix Washington’s Army

Some of my surviving childhood painted Airfix Washington’s Army S39

and the Airfix AWI British Infantry both issued in 1971 in time for the bicentenary. They were scarce enough figures during my 70s childhood and remain unissued for years from the 1980s onwards. Oddly they never had an Airfix Playset of their own but Bellona produced a preformed Bunker Hill vacformed base if you could find one.

Some of my own childhood painted surviving Airfix AWI British Grenadiers S40

Coupled with some on these tricorne figures on the sprue in a recent gift from a railway modeller work colleague of a 60s / 70s tin of unwanted Airfix, I should have enough for some future Lace Punk / Lace Wars / Gulliver’s Travels style ImagiNation skirmishes.

http://mcristobylacew-abdul666.blogspot.com

Unpacking these random figures, they were mostly roughly painted and simply card based in units but unflocked.

Clearly they were a cast off part of a gamer’s collection, as they had handwritten Regiment labels on them. Whether they represent real regiments or ImagiNations ones, I find it hard to tell.

January 2021: I have now flocked and individually card based each soldier in each unit but not yet properly repainted them.

I wanted to photograph them as they were, when first seen as a ragtag of units.

I intend keeping the unit colours, just reprinting missing paint and adding flesh tones to faces and hands.

1. Shocking Pink Coated Tricorne Troops

The versatile tricorne Airfix figures, cut for multiple basing by a previous owner / gamer.

A shocking pink firing line

I quite like the random brightness of unusual colour, perfect for ImagiNations. I’m not sure if they are intended to be real uniforms. Tricorne and Napoleonics are not really my area.

They obviously meant something to somebody once.

Figures painted by someone else are what Bob Cordery of Wargaming Miscellany blog calls OBEs – politely this means Other Beggars’ Efforts.

As mentioned I intend to keep the colourful unit paint schemes, just tidy the paint work up and finish individual rebasing as you see I have done here.

2. Purple Coated Tricorne Troops

A more regal, sacred or royalist purple …

These purple clad troops were a random mix of Airfix and other makers. I identified these on the ever useful Plastic Soldier Review website as Accurate / Imex / Revell American War of Independence British Redcoats

http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Review.aspx?id=186

More of those group 1 Pink clad tricornes … can you ever have enough?

3. Yellow clad tricornes troops,

again the Airfix Washington’s Army figures

Led by an Airfix Officer, these yellow tricorne troops must also be the Imex / Accurate Revell American War of Independence British tricorne troops.

4. Green clad Bicorne Troops

Green coated Esci Set 226 Prussian and Austrian infantry with Bicorne – Napoleonic wars

5. Blue clad Tricorne Troops – Fusilier Grenadiers

Airfix Washington’s Army figures

6. More light blue Grenadiers

Airfix French Napoleonic Imperial Guard in light blue, painted and marked up by the previous commander (gamer / owner) as 2nd Bat(talion?) Gren(adiers?)

Close Up of the cross on the busby like head gear

7. Grey Clad Tricorne Troops – see also 9?

8. Fancy Pants King’s Guard

Airfix AWI British Grenadiers / Infantry – An Airfix ACW officer gets new colours and a fine tall new hat!

9. Light grey Bicorne Troops – should maybe join Group 7?

ImagiNation guns and horses

Some unusual figures such as Italeri French Line Guard Artillery

http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Review.aspx?id=202

mixed in with some attractive flags and spirited conversions of Airfix cavalry

and that American Civil War officer with new Grenadier hat to match the Airfix British Grenadiers.

More random Airfix and Esci Cavalry

Random Esci style Artillery from the Tricorne Bicorne Busby and Shako periods –

Red Coated Italeri / Revell / Zvesda French Horse Line Guard Artillery

and

Hat Napoleonic Bavarian Artillery

http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Review.aspx?id=202

http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Review.aspx?id=146

and a few smuggler like figures of Tricorne artillery –

Seven Years War Revell Set 02579 Austrian Artillery

http://www.plasticsoldierreview.com/Review.aspx?id=586

I have some spare Prince August home cast guns somewhere that would suit these well enough.

All these OBE figures – Perfect for ImagiNations!

No 1. A sample of Pink coated Tricorne Troops – Flocked and based on square individual mounting card bases in January 2021

Photographs of original figures set against Heroscape ruins and hexes

Blogposted by Mark, Man of TIN on 19th May 2021 / photographed August 2019 before Flocking and Basing January 2021

Hing Fat 54mm WW2 Chinese Nationalists

This week’s Hing Fat figure samples on the painting table are … WW2 Chinese Nationalists

WW2 Chinese Nationalist troops are an unusual choice of figure for a maker to choose, although not so strange when you consider that these Hing Fat figures are marked on the base “Made in China”.

Presumably they are designed to oppose the Hing Fat WW2 Japanese range, backed up by the WW2 Australians?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Revolutionary_Army

Chinese WWII uniforms and equipment were very varied, they used any available German, US, French and British material. I found a few clues and images online on Wikipedia and other sources.

Not sure of the image source or illustrator here on this website

https://www.quora.com/What-did-WW2-Chinese-uniforms-look-like

http://www.chinaww2.com/2019/03/24/a-century-of-chinese-uniforms/?fdx_switcher=true

All that remains to do is a gloss spray varnish as suits their simple paint scheme.

Previous Hing Fat 54mm figure samples from Peter Evans (who sells on eBay at Figsculpt) include WW2 French, WW2 Italians and WW2 Russians which you can see painted here at:

https://poundstoreplasticwarriors.wordpress.com/2021/04/27/hing-fat-54mm-plastic-ww2-italian-infantry/

The set has possible conversion potential – those in the British helmets could be some form of Indian troops?

I was surprised to see an illustration from the mid 19th century 1860s of Japanese troops with similar headgear. This Pinterest sourced image appears to be from an Osprey Men at Arms 530 book – looks interesting – https://ospreypublishing.com/store/military-history/series-books/men-at-arms/japanese-armies-1868-1877

Blog posted by Mark Man of TIN, 3/4 May 2021

How High Hing Fat? How Tall Airfix?

My childhood 1:32 Airfix figures 1-4, vs. my Man of TIN Prince August 54mm homecast avatar (right, figure 5)

A couple of blog readers have asked in the comments section how tall my Hing Fat sample figures are in relation to what I call standard 1:32 or 54mm figures like Airfix.

Hing Fat figures 1-4 , Airfix figure 5 (right)

The very tall Hing Fat drummer ‘boy’ and tall knight left, Hing Fat third and fourth, Airfix right.

Airfix 1&2 left, Hing Fat 3&4 centre, Britain’s hollowcast right.

These you can see are measured from bottom of base to top of hat, whereas others measure from feet to top of normal head, excluding tall headgear.

So those who call this traditional toy soldier size two inch warriors are close enough (especially without base and hat).

I hope this answers the question!

Wikipedia entry for 1:32 Scale https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1:32_scale

Blog posted by Mark Man of TIN 1 May 2021