I can’t remember how I found this but I already keep an eye out / subscribe to the Mark Felton Youtube channel and found this episode on https://youtu.be/dBRdLYUkDKk
It reminds me that many of the back stories of our ImagiNations such as my Forgotten Minor States (FMS) are not really that far fetched, when listening to this account and seeing the impressive, mostly ceremonial uniforms.
Some of the uniforms are featured in the book Uniforms Uniforms by Bill Dunn that I reviewed here https://manoftinblog.wordpress.com/2017/07/09/uniforms-uniforms/
Well worth watching – Fascinating and quirky, especially the twelve man national army!
Blog post by Mark Man of TIN, January 2022Blog
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Published by 26soldiersoftin
Hello I'm Mark Mr MIN, Man of TIN. Based in S.W. Britain, I'm a lifelong collector of "tiny men" and old toy soldiers, whether tin, lead or childhood vintage 1960s and 1970s plastic figures.
I randomly collect all scales and periods and "imagi-nations" as well as lead civilians, farm and zoo animals. I enjoy the paint possibilities of cheap poundstore plastic figures as much as the patina of vintage metal figures.
Befuddled by the maths of complex boardgames and wargames, I prefer the small scale skirmish simplicity of very early Donald Featherstone rules.
To relax, I usually play solo games, often using hex boards. Gaming takes second place to making or convert my own gaming figures from polymer clay (Fimo), home-cast metal figures of many scales or plastic paint conversions. I also collect and game with vintage Peter Laing 15mm metal figures, wishing like many others that I had bought more in the 1980s ...
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Man of Tin blog 
Most enjoyable video over coffee this morning. Before I knew her, Jan had been to San Marino whilst on holiday . She bought a book on the place which is still on the bookshelves. I always found it an exotic and fascinating read.
The video does indeed remind us that some of our backstories are not that far from reality. My favourite in the video was the Lichtenstein band, with splendid Ruritanian uniforms. Makes one want to grab a paint brush and paint something up…
Sent from my iPad
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The San Marino guidebook sounds fascinating. Hopefully it has a few costume or uniform pictures?
Inspiration to us all to pick up a paintbrush or mount a parade – that is what I hoped …
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Have you read The Mouse That Roared, by Leonard Wibberley? A classic satire about a 15-square-mile duchy with a 24-man army (armed with longbows) that declares war on the United States in the hopes of losing and receiving largesse from the Marshall Plan. This being a comedy, it doesn’t quite go right.
There is also a film with Peter Sellers as three characters, one of them in drag.
The stage version modifies Men of Harlech as the duchy’s national anthem.
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This sounds like our ImagiNations kind of book – I have a feeling I might have seen the film a long time ago, the title seems familiar and I like Peter Sellers.
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An enjoyable little film. Some of those troops could be recreated in a 1 figure = 1 soldier ratio in an afternoon!
And I never thought your Forgotten Minor States was far-fetched. 🙂
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They are agreeably short, the Mark Felton films.
Looking at the Duchy of Tradgardland blog today (responding to this film) http://tradgardland.blogspot.com/2022/01/away-and-home.html,
I could probably paint my spare Peter Laing Crimean French or Napoleonics into something a little Liechtenstein.
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I was thinking Crimean war figures too. The old Emhar figures had a slender elegance about them which might suit those Leichtensteinian troops as depicted in the fab Tradgardland find.
I’m not even sure that Leichtensteinian is a word.
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It is a word now!
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And a braw word it is too! Looking forward to seeing your Lichtenstein fellows painted…
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