EXETER TOY FAIR and More

                                                          EXETER TOY FAIR VISIT

A member of my family was visiting Exeter and kindly offered to provide a brief excursion to the September Exeter Toy Fair. I popped along with the intension of clearing some unwanted figures, and perhaps pick up a few that I did. Well, the traders seemed a little sombre, and I fear the public turnout might have been a bit modest?

Anyhow, I swapped thirty figures, and purchased some scenic items at a very fair price. To encourage a deal I was happy to exchange on a five to one. To be honest, the Eyes-right bagpipers, yellow-coated marching bandsmen, and also a few WW1 Lead figures were totally unwanted. So exchanging them for six Deetail or DSG French Foreign Legion was perfectly acceptable to me. They even had their bayonets and backpacks. I have always wanted some of these since my childhood, now I'm thinking about increasing them to a full battalion of twelve.

Another stall holder had a box of broken lead castings at £1 each. Now I really liked this, and I spent £12. Here are the goodies, just wish my funds allowed the purchasing of some more. (Plus a cavalryman.)

So my day trip cost £12 plus £3.50 entrance fee. I was only in Exeter for less than two hours so I must apologise for the rushed photos.

The £1 Box..... let me through, please.

And this one is for Roger....

WORKING ON THE BRIDGE

The £1 bridge shown above had clearly been in the wars. Part of the walkway was broken, and the handrails were well warped. Having sorted out the rails, I decided to glue some sandpaper to the underneath of the bridge, and then applied some Milliput.

When painted dark grey the stiff sandpaper is barely discernible.

lightly sanded.

The original paintwork was dark brown, with the stonework given a simple dry-brush in mid green. As mine was now a repaired toy I allowed myself a repaint. I adopted sand-grey stonework, with mid-green pointing to represent moss. A lighter brown was used for the walkway, and a dark green was used to bring out the moulded grass along the base.

Finally. I gave it a gloss varnish spray, and then cut some groves from one of my old river sections to permanently fix the bridge. I very much enjoyed this simple restoration.

                                                                  GARDEN PLANTS 

A small box recently arrived from Graham Apperley (Tales from the Toy Room Blog). He has recently been reorganising his wargame buildings and terrain, including garden plants. The box contained two spare lead garden pieces to link with my wooden Edwardian houses. They really do look superb, and my home-constructed alternatives are boring in comparison to these beautiful lead items....... I must get some more..... it's a new sub-hobby. Thanks again, Graham, really lovely additions to my miniature world.

                                  SOME RESEARCH ON THAT LEAD TREE just acquired.

The large £1 tree is rather interesting. I will have to keep an eye out for the appropriate gate but I'm still very pleased with it. It was commissioned by W. Britains, and possibly made in both the UK and France. The code number was 7F. I initially thought it was missing its foliage, but apparently not. I include a photo of a 'complete' boxed model for purposes of education. (The toy reminded me of a Saturday morning kid's television series 1971-73 called Follyfoot, with their theme song 'Lightning Tree'.)

Looking at my tree above, tempted to paint the ground and fencepost, but just varnish the tree..... it looks suitably dead!

Follyfoot theme

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqwJoEGyGMY&list=RDCqwJoEGyGMY&start_radio=1

                                                               1970s COMEDY SHOW

A few months back I picked up a three disc dvd set of a fairly well known comedy show. It only cost £1 in a charity shop. Not quite a classic, but still worth watching for an occasional scene, or just pure nostalgia, CITIZEN SMITH was broadcast in 1977 and stars a very young Robert Lindsay, and not forgetting the wonderful and much missed Peter Vaughan. They both worked together again during the 1990s in the absolutely superb Hornblower series. 

And the connection? Well, in episode three the Lindsay character cannot move into the spare room as Vaughan's character is planning to convert it into his battlefield room....... his character's daughter went on to explain 'he refights battles using toy soldiers, he always wins, and wants to recreate the Battle of Alamein'. Well, it certainly made me smile!

                                           SOME FLAGS FOR THE JAPANESE and others

Lost my internet connection for over a week, and I don't own a television! Decided to use a few evenings painting up some wargame flags. I was particularly keen all my Japanese WW2 units should have distinct colours.  

JAPANESE WW2 FLAGS, uploaded for purposes of education.

MGB