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