In my 1970s childhood I remember having some Lone Star plastic figures representing Royal Navy and Royal Marines. Last year I picked up a large box of plastic toy soldiers which included some of those Marines, apparently Timpo had re-issued the figures. Although the new production did not include the original crude paintwork, they were now being made in a more reliable plastic. Here are those figures painted and varnished. Scale wise, I would suggest they are 58mm, but still acceptable in their own war-game units. (I'm into 54mm for the nostalgic value, so its real pleasure to have these figures in my collection.)
The second group photo are some plastic guardsmen that have been converted and painted up as Royal Marine Artillery c.1900, with a metal conversion marching nearby. Nothing great, but they do provide a useful crew to man a blue issue of the Britains model no.1292 gun. I picked up three of these pieces from a seller for about £11 delivered, only to find that the two green examples were missing key parts. One of the guns has since been broken up for spares but I hope to restore the least damaged example.
MGB
Smart as paint. Not seen the blue Artillery before.
ReplyDeleteHi Mark, if Brian views this he might tell us more. From what I know, some Britains guns were painted in dark blue, and I have heard there was also a few that were red? The vast majority were in several shades of green. I have seen about five field guns, including the common 25pdr in this shade of blue, and they aren't repaints.
DeleteMichael
Lovely figures and I do like the building behind them, scratch built?
ReplyDeleteActually Allan, I picked it up in a charity shop about six months ago, for £4, and it came with about 40 animals too. All plastic, but some of them were marked Britains. I even made use of the plastic storage container for storing tools lol. I guess it was a lucky visit. I will probably repaint it some day.
DeleteMichael
That blue gun is quite stunning! It's all I can do to stop myself from rushing to Ebay and Etsy to find one!
ReplyDeleteJohn, I didn't set out to buy a blue model but the seller was clearing three guns and accepted an offer. As it turned out, the blue was in perfect condition, exposed how poor the other two were lol. For the record, the British used ordnance-grey, and later dark green paintwork, so I was slightly at a loss how to use the blue..... I think it looks nice with the Royal Marines Artillery.
DeleteMichael