Toy Soldier Collector International 2016-10-11 (072).pdf

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COLLECTOR

Editor:

Mark Avery

Chairman:

Regis Auckland

(reg@regallitho.co.uk)

Sales & Marketing Director:

Tom Foxon

(tom@regallitho.co.uk

and t.foxon@sky.com)

Tel: 07540 153368

Contributors:

Mike Blake, Paul

Stocker, George Phillips, Keith Nairn-

Munro, Jon Rooke, James Opie, John

Staniforth and Chris Bartlett

Sub Editor:

Emma Whittaker

Editorial Assistant:

Gemma Avery

Design:

Andy Whittaker

Printing:

Regal Litho

(www.regallitho.co.uk)

Toy Soldier Collector ISSN

1745 5804

Toy Soldier Collector is published

bi-monthly by:

Guideline Publications

Unit 3 Enigma Building, Bilton

Road, Denbigh East, Bletchley,

Buckinghamshire, MK1 1HW

Tel:

01908 274433

Fax:

01908 270614

Email:

guidelines@regallitho.co.uk

www.guidelinepublications.co.uk

Please direct all purchasing,

editorial and subscription

enquiries to our head o ice.

Subscription rates:

UK £27, Europe £36.50, ROW £40

(all prices include shipping and

postage)

Front cover:

Various sets by Britains.

Top image courtesy of Vectis

Auctions. Bottom image courtesy of

John Staniforth)

TOY SOLDIER

Welcome

So last issue I pondered what would

be happening by the time you were

reading that copy of the magazine

and well, it turns out the interest rates

were cut, sterling has dropped (that’s

the polite way of putting it) and we

seem no clearer on the Brexit issue

than we did straight after the vote. On

the bright side, and I’m always a glass

half full man, we’ve inally had some

great summer days meaning I’ve been

able to get outside with my kids, play

sports, go camping and get away from

my computer and the hobby in general.

Don’t get me wrong, I love this hobby

and I love writing for this magazine but

when the sun’s shining it gets me o

my behind and out into the world with

the kids, something I love just a little bit

more than toy soldiers.

Also, this summer has been great if

you’re a sports fan. Firstly, there was the

Euros (let’s just not talk about England’s

awful performance - thankfully I'm

half Welsh) and then, of course, the

Olympics. The Olympics made me

wonder if any company has ever really

portrayed the world famous games.

I know plenty of makers have done

football igures and a few have done

athletes from various sports (boxing

immediately springs to mind) but has

anyone ever fully covered the games?

I’m probably going to look daft now

as somebody will write in and tell me

Britains did it back in their heyday, and

if anyone is going to set me straight

it’ll probably be respected Britains

and antique igure expert James Opie

who it just so happens has a new

book out (see page 53). He has also

contributed a great article on visiting

an auction for this issue. As well as

James contributing, we also have some

great articles from the regular team,

including Mike Blake’s irst feature in a

series on wargaming in 1:32 scale and

Keith Nairn-Munro’s look at Britains in

the years between WWI and WWII.

Enjoy the issue and see you back here

in another couple of months for more

news, reviews and features from your

favourite magazine.

All the best

Mark Avery

Editor

Issue 72

CONSUMING ISSUES

LET’S GO TO AN

AUCTION

James Opie, well-known

antique igure expert, tells

us why the auction houses

still play a pivotal role

FANTASTIC PLASTICS

PLAYING WITH TOY

SOLDIERS

Mike Blake begins a new

series of articles on 54mm

wargaming with a brief

history of the hobby

NEW RELEASES PART 1

CASTING AROUND

ALYMER REBORN

George Phillips spoke

to Antonio Martí. to hear

about his vision for the

Alymer brand

SHOW DATES/

BOOK REVIEW

BRITAINS SET 72

Life Guards past and

present, but with a modern

twist!

www.toysoldiercollector.com

whole or in part is forbidden but may be

granted upon application to Guideline

Publications. All submissions to Toy

Soldier Collector are welcomed and we

will do our best to return these to you

free of charge, however to guarantee

return please include a stamped

addresses envelope. All submissions

should be mailed to the main Guideline

o ice address as listed above. Copyright

of published articles will belong to

Toy Soldier Collector unless a prior

agreement is reached. Toy Soldier

Collector can accept no responsibility for

lost or damaged submissions.

LEIPZIG

Roving reporter Jon Rooke

recently travelled to Leipzig

and was lucky enough

to pay a visit to the city’s

monument, museum and

toy soldier collection

CHANGING TIMES FOR

KING & COUNTRY

An exclusive interview

with K&C founder, Andy

Neilson, about his plans to

serve the UK market going

forward

WHAT THE DICKENS

BRITAINS THE YEARS

BETWEEN THE WARS

Keith Nairn-Munro

continues his series of

articles looking at the

history of the Britains toy

soldier company

NEW RELEASES PART 2

FINAL WORD

Britains dalliance with

Waterloo

TOY SOLDIER

COLLECTOR

Consuming issues

A chance for readers to air their views on the magazine,

and the hobby as a whole

The future of the

hobby

I recently bought a back issue

(60) of the magazine and was

interested to see the refer-

ence to wartime fire engines.

I have long been a student

of wartime fire service his-

tory and its equipment and I

contributed a chapter on the

vehicles to the masterwork,

The Blitz Then and Now,

published some years ago by

Battle of Britain Publications.

Before WWII, there were

in Britain over 1000 separate

fire brigades varying from the

huge and up to date London

Fire Brigade to small village

fire brigades still using steam

pumps though by then either

mounted on or towed by

trucks.

Two big changes took place

just before the War. Firstly,

new legislation led to the

replacement of the smaller

village fire brigades by rural

district brigades. Secondly,

as part of the preparation for

war, an Auxiliary Fire Service

(AFS) was created using ini-

tially volunteers. Equipment

for the AFS was issued by the

Government and the pumps

were painted grey.

Each civilian fire brigade

was required to train its AFS

component but the degree

of integration varied widely.

It was a mixture of prewar

regular firemen and AFS

men which tackled the major

Blitz fires and both were on

a steep learning curve since

not even a regular brigade

had faced fires on that scale

TOY SOLDIER COLLECTOR

LETTERS

in peacetime. The need

to send reinforcements to

blitzed areas demonstrated

the problems of having so

many independent fire

brigades. There were no

national standards so often

hose couplings and hydrant

fixings did not match and dif-

ferent uniform markings and

rank titles caused confusion.

This led to more emergency

legislation, creating in August

1941 the National Fire Service

(NFS) which combined all

the regular brigades and the

AFS into one service. From

its formation the NFS never

had to endure a blitz on the

scale of that in 1940/41 as the

Luftwaffe was busy in Russia

and the Mediterranean areas.

Later in the War the biggest

challenge was the V1 and V2

attacks on, mainly, London.

From its beginning the NFS

set new standards for ranks,

uniforms, hose couplings

training systems and fire fight-

ing drills, etc.

New vehicles delivered

after the change continued to

be in grey but the NFS ruled

that any prewar machines

could remain red but with

NFS markings. Already some

brigades had painted some of

their prewar machines in grey

and the Taylor and Barrett

model shows one of these.

Prior to August 1941 some

civilian pattern machines

were delivered as a result

of prewar orders which had

taken a long time to build.

Some of these were still in red

and some, such as London’s

dual purpose Leylands, were

in grey.

Shortly after the War, the

NFS was still concerned with

standardisation and having

by then a surplus of the stand-

ard Austin K2 towing vehicles,

it was decided to convert a

batch into standard canteen

vans to replace a number of

converted cars and trailers

currently in use. The K2

canteens seem only to have

come into service after the

NFS ended in April 1948 and

researchers have so far only

found photos of them in ser-

vice with the newly formed

county brigades or with the

new postwar AFS created

in 1948 as a response to the

Cold War. Remarkably, about

half a dozen of these canteen

vans survived and some are

rallied as NAAFI vans or even

US Red Cross vans. There is

no photographic evidence

so far of them being used

by NAAFI and certainly not

in WWII before they were

converted. Certainly NAAFI

had some military vehicle

based canteens as did other

canteen services run by vari-

ous charities and churches

and some of these were on

the larger Austin K3 military 3

tonner chassis.

I was interested to see King

and Country’s advert for the

Bedford fire engine. Assuming

the figures are 54mm the ve-

hicle must have been based

on a design in 1:50 scale made

years ago by Matchbox and

reappearing in similar style

in the part work series by

Del Prado. The chassis, with

single rear tyres represents a

Bedford model K ¾ ton truck

initially appearing about 1939

but with twin rear tyres it

would be the Model MS 3 ton

chassis in its short wheelbase

option. There were a few fire

engines produced on this

chassis, some just before the

War, but evidence so far indi-

cates they were open topped.

The Matchbox model sadly

was a typical manufacturer’s

attempt to get as many differ-

ent items out of one casting

as possible, a sound business

ploy but not good for collec-

tors of accurate models. The

body is mainly an American

style pumper though they

had a pump face on each

side rather than two on the

same side. The open well at

the rear is where an Ameri-

can pumper carried lengths

of flaked hose. In Britain we

mainly used hose rolled in

separate lengths and the rolls

were stowed in enclosed

lockers or at least open bins

to prevent them falling off the

machine when in motion.

The high rear bar on the

vehicle was the hand hold for

the American crewmen who

travelled on the back step.

Although the model in red

with NFS markings is authen-

tic, the body style is totally

wrong. The vehicle should

also have headlamp masks

for wartime use but often

there was a black masking on

the right hand lamp showing

clear or in yellow the letter F

for fire. This was to identify

the vehicle in the blackout for

police or other civil defence

workers.

The figures of men holding

the ‘branch’, the brass part on

the end of the hose, have the

typical model makers error of

gripping the hose like a thin

garden hose. Firemen are

taught to place their whole

left arm around the hose and

the right hand flat on the top

to counter the upward kick

of a charged hose with water

at high pressure trying to

travel in a straight line. This

upward pressure could break

or sprain a thumb. If a hose

was dropped it would thrash

about like a wild animal and

the brass branch could break

a limb.

The dividing line between

toys and models is an increas-

NEWS

subject is great! I wish we had

known of you before we made

the model.

At the time, we did the best we

could with the limited info that

we could find and source.

In future, should we ever do

another wartime fire appli-

ance/engine, I would like to

be able to contact you for ad-

ditional help, knowledge and

assistance in making a better

and more authentic model.

Please send us your contact

details privately.

Thanks in advance and

personal best wishes.

Andy C. Neilson.

Co Founder & Creative Director

King & Country HK

ingly grey area but if models

are advertised as such with

claims to historical accuracy

then they ought to be ac-

curate. I hope these observa-

tions will not give offence

as they are intended to be

informative and helpful.

Regards

Brian Baxter,

Technical

Historian

Via email

Andy Neilson of King &

Country replies:

Thankyou for taking the time

and effort to 'critique' our Bed-

ford Fire Engine Brian. Your

knowledge and expertise of the

Write in!

To have your say on any toy soldier related subject please

send all letters marked for the attention of the Editor

to: Toy Soldier Collector, Guideline Publications, Unit 3

Enigma Building, Bilton Road, Denbigh East, Bletchley,

Buckinghamshire, MK1 1HW. Alternatively if you’d prefer

to email in your views please send them to:

tsceditor@darkmedialtd.com.

Plastics news

from Mike Blake

Plastic Warrior

‘Publishing For Plastics’

I like to mention PW now and again. It isn’t the latest issue

here in front of me, issue 158, but its contents are typical

of the enjoyment to be got from the magazine: News and

Views and Other Stuff, What’s In Your Fishtank, Star Wars

Command, Popular plastics Fort, Converter’s Corner, Thirty

years On, Elastolin At 40 – part 4, Green Army men, What-

ever Happened To…?, ABC, plus reader’s Letter and What’s

New?

What’s In Your Fishtank by Brian Carrick is all about

checking out finding 54mm scale buildings and structures

in the aquarium and aquatics section of garden centres and

pet stores. This is one after my own heart – I never miss an

opportunity and have had some excellent finds. Brian pre-

sents some of his but shows how, with some nicely painted

figures they can be transformed into marvellous dioramas.

Master modeller Les White has two articles in this issue;

the Star Wars one, which is an extensive collector’s guide,

and the Converter’s Corner which shows how he made

some ‘London Policemen’ from various unsuspecting

Armies In Plastic figures. The illustrations show where the

various parts for the Late Victorian/Edwardian era police

figures ‘Armed to fight Anarchists/Communists and were-

wolves!’ come from and the finished result, all in Les’ ultra-

neat style.

There were tears in my eyes when I read ‘Thirty years On’.

Peter Cole, Peter Evans, Paul Morehead, Barrie Blood and

Brian Carrick swing the lamp (reminisce) about their years

as plastic figure collectors – Britains ECW mounted figures

for 15p!

Every issue is packed with interesting reading – find out

more at www.plasticwarrior.com.

TOY SOLDIER

COLLECTOR

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