Hermann Goering's Infantry c.1943

Going through my spares box I found ten plastic Afrika Korps figures, Matchbox toy soldiers. Having no plans to fight the WW2 Desert War I was somewhat at a loss how to use these, and considered passing them on. However, viewing photographs of German troops captured in the Italian campaign showed fair numbers were still using uniform items from the North African campaign, so here was a possible use. But I still didn't want a generic unit in desert colours. I'm no authority on WW2 uniforms but the Hermann Goering unit (it started off as a battalion but ended up as a division) offered some leeway for a distinctly coloured formation on the table. Having been part of the Luftwaffe, an armoured formation, and serving in numerous theatre's, it could be painted up as something quite distinct from my other German units, so no confusion on the wargames table!

MGB

PS. OK, the Luftwaffe blue shirts might be a slight liberty.

Herman Goring Division cap

LONDON SCOTTISH REGIMENT (Alternatively, Toronto Scottish Regt.)

About a year ago I converted/repaired some lead highlanders and painted them up as the London Scottish Regiment or 14th County of London Battalion (nicknames, the Piccadilly Allsorts, Cockney Jocks, Duke of Bangkok's Rifles). Formed in 1859, it still exists to this day as a reservist company. They were classified as light infantry, and adopted a distinctive uniform colour of hodden-grey with blue facings. When Paul Watson kindly sent me some additional Highlanders, decided to increase this battalion to ten figures.

(Footnote. This uniform is shared with the Toronto Scottish Regiment, their brother battalion, raised in Canada in 1915.)

MGB

JUST CLEARING MY SPARES

Last weekend I was able to clear another batch of figures out of my spares box. This has reduced their number to less than 85 toy soldiers still needing restoration and/or paintwork. Its certainly nice to see boxes condensed and more room space! To be honest, my resolve to paint figures has really slowed down now, mainly due to most of my spare time being spent on the garden, or painting skirting boards and ceilings. At least my home is getting a fresh look!

MGB

WW2 BRITISH PARAS. Here is a small unit of Airfix figures painted up. Will want to do some more detail work on their bases at a later date.

THE POLICE. Picked up this rather rough casting of a British policeman c.1900. To be fair, it cleaned up rather well, and I drilled steel pins into the soles to fix to a suitable base. Got it for £5.25 delivered.

As a follow-on to the above. I cleared two spare figures. The first is a plastic and metal police conversion c.1940. The second a a Merseyside mounted policeman with their distinctive lance..... not sure the British police ever used lances?

ROYAL ARTILLERY. Paul Watson kindly sent me three Guardsmen in watch cloaks. No plans to raise a contingent but I did see a potential of joining a figure in my collection and forming a company of RA Gunners on sentry duty. I suspect these will be quite useful.

PARTISAN. Found another Airfix commando figure. Might as well draft him into my partisans.

FRENCH MARIN FUSILIER. This was useful, a spare RN rating converted into a French naval figure. It had very poor castings of the arms so replacing them with something better was on the cards. With this figure complete I now have a three figure firing section, vital.

Finally, not quite 54mm, more like 45mm, my Insurgent army gained a new figure. One of those cheap plastic figures converted.