A little bit of Halloween for today, crossposted from my Pound Store Plastic Warriors Blog at
https://poundstoreplasticwarriors.wordpress.com/2018/10/31/zombie-men-only/
Obviously a good match for our pound store skeleton warriors?
https://poundstoreplasticwarriors.wordpress.com/2018/09/08/pound-bag-skeleton-warriors-1-a-bag/
Blog posted by Mark Man of TIN for Halloween 31 October 2018.
Interesting little group for a pound or two.
The whole set of 53 playing cards would set you back a few quid!
https://www.londoncigcard.co.uk/product/our-modern-army-playing-card-inset-1956/8616
A strange stylistic mixture of illustration, some more lifelike than others.
Obviously a bit of a career or recruitment thing. National Service only had a few years left to go (my late father was one of the last intakes c. 1958).
These cards very much remind me of my childhood Herald plastic soldiers.
https://manoftinblog.wordpress.com/2017/06/18/national-service-days-1/
Interesting to see women soldiers shown, albeit in an admin / secretarial role, rather than a frontline role.
I previously posted about a Happy Families card set last year:
https://manoftinblog.wordpress.com/2017/07/31/mr-thomas-atkins-and-family/
Blog posted by Mark, Man of TIN, October 2018.
I loved making these unusual buildings over several weeks, using scrap materials.
An old, long dead Roberts digital radio with wooden frame and stylish fabric print has been upcycled into several wooden 54mm buildings.
Brick ruin walls were provided with air drying Das terracotta clay. This took a week or two to dry!
I wanted to create buildings that could serve a number of uses in a desert scenario or European Countryside on tabletop or garden games.
I wasn’t sure how best to paint these with Acrylics, so went for a ‘Blend’, inspired by two old stalwart childhood favourites, the Airfix Desert Outpost and the ruined house European strongpoint.
My Airfix Painting Inspiration?
After a non-descript base paint colour of sandy Afrikabraun and brown Acrylic to suggest a sand or mud floor, I used a mixture of white and offwhite Acrylic for the whitewashed walls, followed by a dry brush of brown to weather the walls to a more ruinous state. Several coats of white / offwhite were required.
Lolly sticks, cocktail sticks and wooden coffee stirrers provided the ruined window frames. Pushing a couple of ragged holes through the clay walls suggests that the building has been damaged by shell fire or the walls loopholed by troops.
I still have the smaller clay building to paint, which has been based on another oddly shaped wooden internal section of the old radio.
Coastal Gun Emplacement?
Looking at the other part of the old digital radio, once I had removed the electrics / electronics, the shape suggested some kind of camouflaged bunker.
I was inspired by some of the simple wooden Hugar style buildings made in the 1930s for Britain’s. Paul Brookes has written a recent Illustrated History of Hugar, available via Amazon.
https://www.brightontoymuseum.co.uk/index/Category:Hugar_Models
The metal front speaker grille that would form the bunker roof would be fine on a sci fi bunker. It didn’t look right on a 1930s/40s one, so was replaced by cardboard covered in some of the fabric pattern removed from the radio back before the back was used as the larger terracotta house base.
Other internal bits of wood from the radio suggested two gun platforms.
I had no plyboard left and had already used the radio base for the larger house ruin, so I substituted stiff cardboard for a base. I tend to use whatever I have to hand, just to get on with the job whilst in the mood.
Amongst job lots of Broken Britain’s figures had been a couple of damaged old Britain’s AA guns without their trailer bases. I had been saving three of these guns for wooden gunboats but two seem to serve well enough here as requisitioned or improvised coastal guns.
A scratch team of repaired Broken Britain’s and other hollowcast lead Khaki gunners and Infantry give the right feel.
These steel helmeted Khaki infantry mounted on tuppenny bases are Britain’s East Kent Regiment on Guard, all broken figures gifted to me by John Forman rather than being scrapped, all of which needed base and rifle repairs.
I’m not sure who the textile designer was for the textiles on this limited edition (but dead) Roberts digital radio c. 2004/5, but I think the strong blotch camouflage colours are reminiscent of experimental wartime camouflage schemes.
For a bit of barbed wire, the metal spines of old notebooks come in handy.
On a scrap hound basis, I also have the old radio aerial for mounting model aircraft at different heights, once a suitable wooden base turns up. Waste not …
Blogposted by Mark, Man of TIN, 13/14th October 2018.
I spotted this Britain’s New Metal Guardsman in the first episode of the new Doctor Who series – and I claim my toy soldier Geek Points!
It appears briefly on a shot of the desk of Ryan, one of the new young companions to a new female Doctor Who (Jodie Whittaker). It stands next to a photo of his Granny, who is another important character in this first episode.
No plot spoilers for you but the presence of the toy soldier hasn’t yet altered the plot.
I haven’t watched Doctor Who for years and years, not properly since my childhood days of watching Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker.
Blog posted on 10th October 2018 – World Mental Health Day – by Mark, Man of TIN.
I came across this spirited photo today and it made me smile!
To me, it is the Snoopy “Born to Dance” Peanuts cartoon of Carrier pictures.
Titled: “Universal Carrier of 52nd Reconnaissance Regiment moving at speed over rough ground, Scotland, 10 November 1942.”
This is an Official British Army Photograph aken by Lieutenant W.T. Lockeyear, War Office official photographer, 10 November 1942. Imperial War Museum image H25279.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reconnaissance_Corps
Who doesn’t like a nice tankette?
Blog posted by Mark, Man of TIN, 2 October 2018
An explanation of the Invasion Hoax was given several days later by the editor of the Daily Southern Cross.
The need to explain or excuse the hoax and how it was set up or could be revealed as “fake news” by its future date
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/DSC18730217.2.19
A suitable gaming scenario could be made of this landing.
This was published in the Daily Southern Cross, 17 February 1873 – note the date of this deliberately alarmists news story – set 3 months in the future, 15th May 1873.
The next issue editorial 18th February featured the explanation or the reveal.
There are several online articles about this Russian Scare and the historical background.
https://airminded.org/2008/05/30/the-russians-are-coming/
https://nzhistory.govt.nz/the-russians-are-coming
Victorian and WW2 coastal defences at Fort Takapuna
https://www.myguideauckland.com/things-to-do/north-head-historic-reserve
https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/history-2/
Even a podcast
Blogposted by Mark Man of TIN Oct
Man of Tin blog 