Let's be honest, those of us that collect toy soldiers and military miniatures for the purposes of tabletop wargames have to salute the model railway fraternity for inspiring us to improve our terrain. And when I look back at photos of previous games, that terrain has not only affected my interest and the outcome of many wargames, but enhanced my photographs. Of course, we can never really match railway layouts as our terrain must not only be convenient to rearrange, but it must also allow the actual roving of gaming pieces well away from recognised routes, or tracks. Enough philosophising, here are some photos from the Okehampton annual Model Railway Show which was held on August 8.
SOME PHOTOS FROM THE OKEHAMPTON SHOW
May I take this opportunity to mention all the teams involved in this event were most friendly and keen to discuss their hobby. Kindly, they allowed me to take numerous photos. Please note, my photos are directed towards terrain rather than the locomotives. I must apologise if some of the layouts are missing, Despite arriving early the numbers visiting seemed quite impressive. My apologies for not linking the exhibitors, put it down to my rushed record keeping.
Arguably the most impressive display of the day, IMHO.
You see, wargamers are welcome, lol.
They sell Duff Beer in that tavern!
This stand caught my eye, very neat, very complete!
OK, I admit to being drawn to O Gauge, some of the items will work with 54mm toy soldiers. Had a nice chat with the exhibitor.
The Rev Brian Wood staged this 20mm display, no prizes for spotting the Airfix Guardsmen.
Some rather splendid electric lights.
Congratulations to everyone involved in this splendid one day event. Speaking to several exhibitors, they had travelled from Plymouth, Exeter, Exmouth, and Weymouth to support this Okehampton club gathering.
As mentioned in previous posts, I mainly use my 28mm buildings for town wargaming. But occasionally you spot some figures going at a fair price and my collection of 54mm buildings has to expand. A suitable shop for Georgetown would add some additional interest, so when I spotted these Crescent butchers in fairly good condition and going for £16.80 delivered, I took the plunge. Well, I already have a suitable van, I guess it is time Mr Jones had a suitable shop.
The paintwork on these figures is surprisingly good, although the raised arm should include a knife. I will limit my restoration to mainly covering any chipped paint, and providing some suitable town bases.
The same trader had a parcel of lead figures also available to purchase, I acquired the following for an additional £10. That Medieval figure is a Benbros, from their Robin Hood range. I will need to replace the broken halberd, but a rather nice figure.
(The Plastic Box, part one)
In my previous post I mentioned Brian Carrick had kindly sent me a box of plastic toy soldiers, many of them dating back to the 1960s. This last weekend I took a break from house restoration to start work on restoring these figures. Here are a few photos. This early batch shows the cleaning up, repairs, and Milliput work.
First up, these Herald ACW figures have regained their gun barrels. They will be painted up as Garibaldi Italians c1860.
Some rather splendid Robin Hood figures. The first is a Herald 1960s figure with a repaired arm and bow. I drilled into the arm with steel wire, looped the end to hold a wire bow, milliput finished the look. The second is a repro Alan-a-dale with lute. I needed to repair a broken arm and I wanted another bowman.... but he still kept his lute. The third is a 1960s Kelloggs cornflakes freebie also needing a bow restoration, and an ankle repair, easy drill jobs.
A few Kelloggs bandsmen from the 1970s.
Two interesting projects next. The first is the Churchill figure. With badly damaged legs and base, I had an opportunity to not only repair this figure but also reduce the 65mm height. Shaving the trouser legs did the job and steel wire drilled into a new base. And some Milliput shoes. I have also lengthened the coat to a 1900 style. The second figure was an ancient Egyptian, with a gender change it now represents an Arab Medieval woman.
This is a fun project, a 1985 Kelloggs Black Cauldron figure, to be converted into a Medieval court dwarf. The inspiration is seen in a 15th century painting showing the court of Mantua. Initially pro-Pope, the ruling family later crossed over to the Emperor's side.
Here is the planned Mantua personality base with a metal figure kindly sent by Graham Apperley.
And finally a horde of figures now primed and ready for painting.
MGB
ps Work will commence on Thursday to restore and repair the roof to my old house!
The work that railway modellers put into their layouts is really astounding, some super pictures there from the show, great inspiration. Some lovely new additions, the butchers look great, very nice figures. Great restoration work on the plastic figures, life breathed back into them and they live to give loads more enjoyment, can't beat that!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Donnie. This amount of effort to set up layouts for a single day show deserves to be respected. Apparently, the Okehampton club have their own members building and meet one or two days a week. So many projects to complete with the plastic figures, a fun distraction from the house restoration!
DeleteMichael
A post full of delights be they of the toy soldier or train variety. I particularly like the butchers.
ReplyDeleteHello Alan. I confess to having gone well over my usual budget with the butchers but they instantly caught my eye as I'd not seen them before. I will wish to tidy up the paintwork, but no plans to paint strip. With the additional lead figures I guess the price is now just over £2 each, so not too bad.
DeleteMichael
enjoying a look at both the show photos and your conversions/restorations - top stuff
ReplyDeleteThank you, Sir. Pleased you enjoyed the view.
DeleteMichael
I do love a Model Railway show !
ReplyDeleteTony, this was my first model railway show, I mainly visited because I'm interested in good miniature terrain, some of my blog regulars are train enthusiasts so wanted some photos for them, and it took me about seven minutes to walk there. But I enjoyed it, and will make a point of visiting their next show. The ticket price was £7, but I suspect a good cause was behind that entrance fee. I must say, they made very welcome.
DeleteMichael
This was a really interesting and enjoyable blogbpost. 2 of my favorite hobbies; Model Railways and Toy Soldiers. I think it's not only the wargamers that has something to learn from the railway modellers regarding scenery, but the other way around as well. Wargamers usually makes scenery that are interchangeable to use their terrain in different settings for different scenarios. I've only seen similar at model railway layouts a few times, to let the layout change period, prototype or 'setting'. In the model railway hobby this is called 'multi-moding'. Really nice photos. I particularly like the layout with a military presence. 0 gauge will be close to 28mm scale, but Gauge 1 will be closer to 54mm.
ReplyDeleteAn interesting viewpoint, Roger. We both recognise wargames terrain needs to be adjustable to a very high degree. Now I have seen, or assumed, that railway modellers would occasionally reconstitute their terrain boards, but it must be difficult to have a working system of interlocking the various sections or boards into new views, not least as a fair number make a point of linking their terrain to an actual location. Was not aware of the term 'multi-moding'. I only mention the O Gauge as the range of tin buildings made in the 1930s include some that work rather well with 54mm, such as the Hornby signal box in my collection, and I hope to acquire a nice condition 'crossing' for my Georgetown. Cheers,
DeleteMichael
I think 'Multi-Moding' applies only to smaller parts of scenery that are interchangeable to either change the theme, phase, period or even set the scene to somewhere else. I've seen this incorporated in a French H0 layout which automatically could change an area beside the station to a market, circus or nothing at all. This Swede demonstrate how to use this on a small part of a layout:
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4-V87mtKI8
I will have a look at the video this evening. I must say, when a friend gifted me a large sheet of static grass, which I glued to a large sheet of mdf, it really altered my terrain plans. Now I have a fair number of matching hedges, trees, river sections and roads. It adds so much to my gaming table and photographs.
DeleteMichael
Splendid stuff Michael! I also love the time and effort that the train enthusiasts put into the model layouts. Not very practical for our purpose but delightful 'eye candy' and they can inspire projects. Those Butcher figures are lovely and not often seen. I have never had an opportunity to buy them, but will keep an eye out for them in the future. The £10 lot was excellent value. A lovely Timpo figure, two Britains 'Peaky Blinders' and other useful civilians. My own non-combatant collection, has reached quite a significant number, sufficient to make a tabletop force or two! I am planning to have a literal census on my table top in the near future, with the aim of naming significant figures and organising them into historical periods a little. It will also help me to deny those unnecessary impulse purchases of Britains farmers wives etc! I will be in touch privately about the Britains Knight project.
ReplyDeleteHello Graham, I'm easing off buying any more farm characters but I can still see some merit in town folk. Yes, the £10 purchase balanced out the cost of the butchers. I did a bit of research before buying and I came to the conclusion the chances of me getting them for much less were not great, so it all made 'collecting' sense. Several of the £10 lot are also townies. Those are my first PBs, but if you can use one of them, please do say, one is sufficient for my representation. The only problem with the butchers and the blacksmith is they will now need suitable premises, lol. As you know, I recently subdivided my large rural collection, the slightly smaller plastic figures are now a separate grouping, and receive fully textured bases. They work better with my WW2 and Ruritania games as they also use textured bases. Happy to help on the banner and knight.
DeleteMichael
A lovely report on the train show Michael! We can all learn a great deal from their beautiful terrain! You have been very busy with all of your new figures, the Garibaldians look marvelous! The dwarf and butchers are very interesting figures! I look forward to seeing more of your finished projects!
ReplyDeleteHello Brad, it is always a morale boost to have a choice of figures to paint and base, so the preparation work on a large number of figures is something I work at with some determination. If it goes to plan, the new additions will complete my second battalion of Garibaldians. Today, however, the builders may start on the roof, if it is dry, while I will start on restoring the walk-in cupboard under the staircase. So many projects!
DeleteMichael
Lovely to see the model railway layouts, the standard of terrain modelling gives us all something to aspire to. The two Crescent butchers are a great find, full of character, building a shop for them will be an interesting project. It's great to see what you've made of those old plastics, particularly the medieval Arab woman and the court dwarf, didn't see those coming!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Brian. I must confess, I was determined to use that black cauldron Kelloggs freebie, and then I remembered watching the two movies about Elizabeth the First. I then looked up Italian Medieval court dwarfs...... huzzah!
DeleteMichael