I have finally painted my OOHO Airfix British Paras after forty odd years, these tiny cousins of the much pirated pound store copies of the familiar 1:32 version 2 British Paratroops.
Trivia fact – The scarce Version 1 of the familiar 1:32 Paras from 1969 were large copies of some of these OOHO figures. Now scarce and mostly crumbling, I have about three bashed ones of them left.
More Airfix OOHO images on the original blog post … enjoy!
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.
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.
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.
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
5. Blue clad Tricorne Troops – Fusilier Grenadiers
Airfix Washington’s Army figures
6. More light blue GrenadiersAirfix 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
Attractively improvised game and games table (I’m sure Little Wars / Floor Games author HG Wells would approve) with Featherstone rules, scrambled together by the Death Zap! blogger The Wargaming Pastor: https://thedeathzap.wordpress.com/2019/09/27/instant-ww2
These pictures recapture the spirit of the games of my youth.
Enjoy! Blog posted by Mark Man of TIN, 28 September 2019
X Files image of those familiar 1:32 Airfix Para clones from my post
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.
Pound Store Plastic Warriors 