Three of the bashed original vintage figures from a bag for $6, money well spent by Scott.
ScottLarson of the CircaGamesblogUSA dropped me an email (via the Man of TIN blog comments page) to say that he had finished stripping and repainting his chance find of some hollowcast lead figures in a US junk shop. http://www.circagames.com/wordpress/this-doesnt-usually-happen-to-me/
They look as smart and shiny as the day they were first painted and would have proved a joy to a small boy or girl somewhere when the box was opened and they were seen strung into the card liner, ready for action!
Battle damaged and with playworn paint, who knows where and what heroic adventures these lead figures have had in the past with their original owners and down through the generations to Scott?
Scott’s website or blog header is a colourful VSF scene with some great steampunk tanks.
Scott’s blog Circa Games is a varied and interesting read ranging from westerns to VSF, wooden figures … oh, and designing and building your own games shack out the back. A games shed that has to deal with both snow and termites, as casually mentioned in http://www.circagames.com/wordpress/onward-and-backward/
Designing his Games Shack – screenshot from Scott’s Circa Games website.
As a man who struggles to make even model buildings of plastic, card and balsa wood, I have “to take off my wargames hat” to Scott for this amazing bit of carpentry. (P.S. Before anyone asks, sadly I do not own or wear a special wargames hat.)
There are more of these old lead figures on Scott’s painting table to look forward to.
Add to that the VSF resource pages and the Triggernometry (Old West) one, there is lots to read and refer too here!
Blog posted by Mark, hatless Man of TIN, 17 June 2019.
Usually on Father’s Day (UK) I post a link to a toy soldier figure that has some strong link back to my late Dad and the love of Toy Soldiers and History that he passed on to me.
Although the last few months of blogging have been Scout Wide Games based, I think my Dad would have approved of this year’s family gifts.
This year the wonderful addition to my toy armoury was two handmade warships which I saw and liked in a vintage shop months ago, a small hollow-cast raiding force (a complete surprise, as a raiding force should be!) and an ACW book that I had put aside in case my family weren’t sure what to get.
Father’s Day 2019: Two wooden ships, a book and a small raiding force
Mannie Gentile recently posted a blogpost on the Golden Book of the American Civil War
So Mannie is responsible for me buying a cheap secondhand paperback of this interesting book that launched the hobbies and careers of hundreds of Civil War enthusiasts and historians.
A book I never saw as a child growing up in Britain …
This book is richly illustrated and includes some fabulous battlefield “bird’s eye view” maps whose detail I would have found fascinating as a child.
This is what my childhood Airfix ACW games aspired to, without knowing this book. (First Bull Run, detail)
The toy hollowcast soldiers are a treat – a surprise gift from my family found all together in a local vintage shop that they “hoped were all right”.
Crescent figures metal American infantry in 54mm and smaller 50mm range with the round backpack flamethrowers. All postwar issues.
Any vintage lead soldiers are all right in my eyes!
Curious Cherilea figures c. 1954 – designed to carry a firing mortar or bazooka?Similar figures by Cherilea in Norman Joplin’s The Great Book Of Hollow-Cast Figures.At first sight I thought these Cherilea bazooka or mortar teams might be gimmicky paratroopers with parachutes or engineers with carrying arms.Two fine Crescent Khaki Infantry with green helmets, figures issued postwar. I like the lively animation of the grenade thrower. John Hill (Johillco) Bren Gunner?American troops by Crescent 1940s – 1950s. Paratroop type helmets
I was interested to see the kneeling American infantryman as he appears quite similar in style to a trio of (solid lead home cast?) soldiers sent to me by Alan as reservists from his Duchy of Tradgardland forces. The kneeling green Crescent trooper has a knee ‘flange’ to give him more stability.
The three Duchy of Tradgardland reservists have acquired new blue uniforms for a mission in a galaxy far far away. They have an odd space look to them with their helmet and rifle. They are now acquiring blue uniforms and white or silver boots, helmets and weapons to come. They should soon have a 30s / 50s space ‘thing’ going on to match some of the Tim Mee Galaxy Laser Team and Airfix Space Warriors.
The lady in the vintage shop thought that all these four items belonged together, so maybe the photo and 1940s / 1950s Royal Navy trade certificate of AB Able Seaman Thomas C. Owen are of the man who made the two fine warships?
The two fine handmade boats have some battle damage that needs sympathetic repair. They deserve a blog post of their own as they are repaired and researched, along with their paperwork. They came from what can be a “grey port” at times of naval vessels in for refit.
Are they accurate handmade models or spirited imaginative examples of “modern warships” with guns and rockets? It will be interesting to find out.
Blogposted by Mark Man of TIN, Father’s Day 16 June 2019.
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