FRENCH CAVALRY, MOTOR GARAGE, and more

                                                FRENCH CAVALRY ARRIVE

Over the last few years I've been steadily raising a French Army (1870-1914) collection. Most of these are traditional lead, but a few battalions are plastic, mainly French Foreign Legion figures. One aspect to the collection which has remained severely understrength has been the cavalry arm. My collection only comprised two (4 figure strong) squadrons of colonial light cavalry, using Dorset castings, and two heavily converted squadrons of mainly plastic cuirassiers. To be honest, the latter looked good but suffered from being somewhat large, the truth was I wanted some traditional looking toy cavalrymen.

I spotted this auction on Ebay and decided to place a bid. I won, but they were not cheap. They cost £22.94 plus £4.95 postage. I'm taking comfort knowing my plans don't require large numbers of French cavalry so this purchase will place me very close to the four or five squadrons I need to recruit.

A closer inspection showed that the two cuirassiers were different. the figure with a saddlecloth is the W. Britains officer. I also discovered that two figures presently serving in my original cuirassier units are metal and will be suitable for drafting as buglers, and one more as an officer, so this will help reduce my costs. 

The three pale blue cavalry are probably French hussars, but I'm dubious they ever wore pit helmets, and with a spike. I have seen some French colonial cavalry wearing tropical helmets but hussars rarely served outside Europe. I'm thinking of replacing the heads with something more French. (Would welcome opinions on these figures.)

                                                  The EMPIRE MOTOR WORKS 

                                          now opens up for trade 

A new business has just started in Georgetown, providing repair work for all forms of transport. The owner has also confirmed that petrol pumps will soon be operational, it certainly is about time.

Decided to create some suitable posters for both the Empire Motor Works and the Railway Inn. These are photocopies of originals I found on the internet. I wanted to choose my own, and size them onto a single sheet of A4.

And some posters for the Railway Inn.

FOLLOW-ON

A visit to the collectables shop on February 12 furnished another addition to my Garage & Repair Shop. It's a W.Britains garage water pump. Will have to see about finding some flexible rubber tubing to represent the hose.

He's Irish, so he is!

Picked up this metal farm figure for £2 in a charity shop. I haven't a clue who produced it, but it's 54mm in scale, and I only need to paint the hands and provide a metal base. Both arms came strangely with fibreglass pins. Viewing the style of the hat, and the bright red hair I'm convinced he is meant to represent an Irishman.

Restored

HAVE YOU PAINTED ENOUGH RED HAIRED BRITISH?

As a follow-on to the previous entry, the British Isles has the highest levels of red haired people in the world. It is not the same as other light coloured hair but rather a 'special' mutation which assists in vitamin D absorption from the reduced sun's rays reaching the British Isles. All the British Home nations are high in the three variant MC1R gene. Some 46% of Irish carry it with 10% having red hair. Even 30% of English carry it, with 4% having red hair. But the Scots hold the record with possibly 13% showing red hair. This led many to believe it is an Irish-Gael trait.  However, this view is now changing. New data has slightly reduced the Scots percentage. And, high levels of MC1R are still found in old Welsh and Saxon descended regions of Scotland too. (Only about 40% of Scots are actually Gaels). And now new data for Wales is indicating it may have the highest levels of red hair!

The gene is considered recessive, so mixing with others may reduce red hair over time. But I suspect we will still carry the gene. Unfortunately, it makes us Brits more susceptible to skin cancer from the sun. I have to use a factor 50 gently rubbed into a WW2 Tommy helmet for my sun protection. And not forgetting camouflage netting in August.

A BOX RECENTLY ARRIVED FROM GRAHAM APPERLY

Graham was having a clear-out of some lead and plastic items and wondered if I would like to try my hand at using them. Most of the items were lead floral pieces, some were fine, others would require a bit more imagination. A bit of fun!

First move was to divide the lead floral pieces into their distinct plant varieties. 

The most damaged variety, not shown, was broken up to furnish something for the toy cold frame, which Graham had also kindly provided. A hard piece of card was fixed to the underneath, and holes were drilled to take the glued plants. Hardly anything went to waste! Using most of the sunflowers, I've constructed two profusely flowering shrubs, and one sunflower plant.

Among the other items kindly forwarded were a few metal figures, and some fun extras.

Thank you, Graham!

EXETER TOY FAIR, FEBRUARY 14, 2026

                                                                          PART ONE

Have just got back from a day trip to the Exeter Toy Fair, held at the Matford Centre. Yes, I have spent some money. I really needed a morale boost and the event coincided with the first sunny, non-raining day of this year! I will be discussing the new acquisitions in my next post. For now, here are some general photos from the event.

Roger, a fair number of train stalls, and some very competitive pricing, I believe.

Only a handful of toy soldier traders, but I found some useful pieces!

Concerning the numbers attending, I'm not sure the public were that great, and the 'Early Birds' were almost as numerous as the post 10.30am cheaper ticket arrivals. But when has February been any good to any retail traders?

Part Two will be devoted to my toy soldier purchases, not that there were a lot, but some very useful additions that I'm rather pleased with!

MGB

SHEPTON MALLET TOY FAIR

                             A FESTIVE OUTING TO SOMERSET

On December 14 Chris and I went on a day out to Shepton Mallet Toy Fair, which is held at the Royal Bath & Somerset Grounds. It has a reputation for being the largest in the Southwest, and that three hundred traders might attend. I can't say whether it was the Christmas festivities but in my opinion it was not that much larger than the Exeter event. And, the typical pricing of items was possibly higher. I'm inclined to suggest the railway and toy soldier traders were low in number, or making up a smaller proportion of what was largely sci-fi and lego stands. So was it worthwhile?

This was a successful day out because we had agreed to meet family members, George and Lianne. We later drove on to Frome where we had a splendid roast dinner. Concerning the fair, well, I did pick up some useful additions to my collection, but that is as far as I'm willing to go.

And here are the new acquisitions. I rather like this metal French(?) Napoleonic staff officer. Will restore the original high quality paintwork. It cost £5. In height it is similar to Airfix.

Any help in identifying the manufacturer or retailer would be appreciated. The base is tin? With clipped corners.

I will always accept a Cherilea archer, it will join my French unit made up of the same. It cost £2 which is a bit high, but the bow is still intact.

Probably paid too much for this Deetail Confederate too, £3...... it was an early purchase!

Towards the end of our visit I discovered a bag of naval figures........ I need some more open-handed to man my gunboats. The trader charged £2 each, which is fine.

This Crescent figure has a shorter outfit, distinct from the British uniform. I find them very useful.

But this figure will be serving with the Royal Navy gunboats.

Now this is rather interesting. It is a plastic Royal Navy officer made by GE-MODELS. The scale is 51mm, which is fine with my gunboats. I include a file photo showing the full range, which included sea cadets. I paid £1, which I like!

My figure is on the far right.https://www.bonhams.com/auction/19297/lot/1338/gemodels-plastic-royal-navy-15/

With another trader George spotted this figure. I paid out heavily, £8. But I have always wanted a W. Britains Admiral. I will paint strip this figure, it deserves a smart uniform!

And finally, a WW1 lead figure with gas mask.......... hope it proves useful, Graham!

MGB

RAILWAY BUFFERS

Have been viewing this O Gauge Hornby Hydraulic Buffers No.2A for several weeks in the Collectables shop. After exchanging Christmas cards with the shop owner, I took the plunge. He kindly allowed a discount and I purchased it for £7. I will give it a light clean but unsure whether to restore the paintwork, no plans to paint strip this pre1930s model, but I might increase and polish the brass-work for aesthetic appeal.

I was also able to pick up a W. Britains Royal Artillery pack gun crewman for £2. It will probably have a head swap and end up with the Hessian artillery battery.

THOSE NEW ADDITIONS PAINTED AND BASED

Here are the figures picked up at the Shepton Mallet fair.

SOME CHARITY SHOP FINDS

On December 20 I popped into a local charity shop. They've had a box of badly damaged toy cars for several weeks, charging £1 each. To my surprise I found three items of definite interest.

 I picked up a Lone Star jeep. Now I already have one of these fully restored. They are a bit small for 54mm but some of my WW2 Americans are closer to 50mm.

Here it is repainted for service with my Seabees unit. Have added some perspex to the windscreen. The US Navy occasionally painted their jeeps in shades of grey or grey-blue.

I have no problem adding a WW1 Crescent 18pdr gun. A bit scratched but otherwise all in working order, including its toe hitch. It has now been lightly restored, removing any chips in the paintwork.

This is a W.Britains Triumph Thunderbird police motorbike no.9697, missing its megaphone, handlebars, and petrol cap. But for £1 I'll take the gamble and consider my options how to use it. One idea is to keep it as a police bike, with black paintwork. Some constabularies did this. These bikes were used by British police in the 1950s-70s. 

And here it is stripped, repaired, painted and varnished.

No plans to recreate a miniature of Marlon Brando in the movie The Wild One (1953). But the Thunderbird used in the film was actually his, having purchased it in 1950! A rather 'cool' fellow, and a great actor, he is superb in Mutiny on the Bounty (1962). To my total surprise, I had assumed he was of Italian ancestry (blame the Godfather movie). But he was actually of German, Dutch, English and Irish stock.

And on another visit I picked up this Corgi tractor, just £1. Now this model design was produced in the 1950s but with a slight liberty it will pass muster as a WW2 Massey-Harris model 101, used by US Forces. It still had its steering wheel, just needed paint stripping and repainting. Here it is completely restored. I will attach it to my Seabees runway construction unit.

GONE FISHING!

On December 31, I spotted this fishing boat in a local charity store. I still had to pay £5 for it, but the potential for an attractive maritime addition was high. It certainly would need a good clean, and I would have to clear some of the deck clutter for a suitable crew.

Having got home, could not resist starting work on the boat. First job was to go outside and use a make-up brush to remove the accumulated dust and fluff. Some of the deck woodwork had no value to the model and was removed. Any dangling ties were also cut away. I then sanded any rough areas, and tidied up the paintwork. A coat of varnish spray completed this two hour project. 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

MGB

Postscript. Photos for Donnie. Still to decide about the tin base, looks like it was only painted in a gold paint over the blue?

An original in good condition.

January 3. Primed the base, and three coats of gold acrylic.......