1973 [WWII] British Infantry (2nd Version), 01703-5 / 9 01703 - HO/OO

So these were the new version, much anticipated, they were a bit of a disappointment when they finally arrived, and most of the criticism of the set found elsewhere over the years is well founded. But - there's always a 'but' - it doesn't add up to much really, as the set still delivers a decent bunch of figures, well sculpted and ten times better than the Combat Group set they replace while paying homage - through a stretcher team!

It's about how much the problems bug you, or how much you are willing to let the problems bug you! They are thinnish, they are under-equipped, and too 'clean', their uniforms are too tight...but...they paint-up OK, sculpting detail is fine and they are a vast improvement on the Britains-clone blobs.

A nice painting guide from the 1980 catalogue, the image taken from the back of the long boxes of that era. In point of fact the battle-dress was a tad darker.

The slightly larger ammunition box illustrated is an accurate representation of the ammo-box for the Bren gun, but its carrying handle was actually on one end, so it would hang with the long dimension in the vertical. An academic point as the actual figure sculpt clearly carries the thinner box configured for the belted ammunition of the Vickers MG! The figure from the older set of Combat Group however, could very well be carrying a Bren gun ammo-box!

Atlantic's figures, I think the Airfix set pre-dates them by a year or two, but they were close, however while some of the Atlantic poses are quite nice, the set as a whole owes more to the dancing loons of Cherilea and its UN troops then to any others! They were also a deal taller, but a lot of that was down to the deep, heavy bases. I had more to say about this set on the main blog a while ago.

The 1975 Airfix catalogue (image provided by Kostas again!) was a cross-over catalogue, with the older 'blue box' imagery in the main (Ancient, Medieval, Waterloo, Wild West, WWI etc...Civilians!), but with the WWII sets illustrated as joint-set photographs in the new 'white-box' or 'corner-graphics' artwork.

The OBE's in this sample are not much it has to be said, but I had a major paint-stripping session a year or two before I'd even heard of blogging, or handled a computer for that matter, so these are what's been painted in what's come-in in mixed-lots since about 2004/5?

I can never imagine what makes someone start painting their figures all-over jade green or gloss balck, but then I remember I had some silver Marines when I was a kid, which I must have painted myself in a mad moment, so it was clearly just part of being a kid...thinking about it as I was writing that (I'll get rid of the resultant typos before you see them), it struck me that actually it probably goes something like this...

You think - on the spur of the moment - "I'm grown-up enough to paint these (at age 6-8 or so) without supervision...and no-one is watching"...you get the paint out, you find a flat-ended craft brush in your school pencil-case (or the jam jar on the window-sill by the kitchen-sink), you open the thinners, then you dip the brush in the paint...it comes out dripping! You panic, realise you haven't the faintest idea how to paint a floor or a barn door, let alone 20mm figures...You stab a clumsey hand at the bayonet you intended the silver for or the boot that the gloss black was destined to coat, a large quatity of paint then uses the laws of water tention to flow down the rifle, slide effortlessly over, under and around your fingers and on down the figure...Your limited life experiance then kicks in, instantly you realise 4 things: 1) you have not got a painting cloth; 2) that blob of paint is going to drip off the figure (onto your trousers or the carpet) if you don't do something; 3) the rest of the paint on the brush is now flowing down the handle toward the other hand and 4) you need to do something about 1-3, now! So...you spread the rest of the paint on the first figure; it's still pooling....you do a few more and hey...it'll help your story that 'that's what you wanted to do', you run to the loo and grab some loo paper, you clean the brush and the fingers (at this point some story's will get worse with incompatible thinners or the introduction of water or washing-up liquid...nightmare), you put the figures somewhere to dry - hoping they won't be found before you can hide them...upturned box at the back of a drawer near a radiator was a good one...and ergo...oddly-painted figures in you nascent collection!

The experience only encourages you to try the matt green with a proper brush a few weeks later or the next time you're alone in the house!

These are in the bag marked: 'broken, converted and painted', and I didn't really know what to do with them - I'm wont to throw anything away - when it struck me the one at the back would look good crawling out of the water... a river, the sea or a flooded shell-hole. He's lost his feet as the knife de-basing him has turned-out as it cuts through the plastic, a problem cutting thicker sections of polyethylene.

There's never been the colour variation with this set you find with some of the others, partly due to it's late arrival in the list, partly down to luck. there is a darker run (slightly washed-out by the flash in this shot) and in certain lights you can find a 'greener' issue (more yellow in the mix?).

Complete set ready to roll, the poses are for the most part OK, but like their twin replacement-set; the German Infantry, they suffer from a couple of dumb poses (middle left) and I always found the officer to be a bit weak.

Basically you get more than enough for all the men in a late-war Infantry platoon, with or without a dedicated MG section, but without a mortar team. The two signallers can be a signaller and runner, or signaller and attached FOO, air liaison or similar, or you can leave one in the box!

For those who prefer to work from a one of each line-up. You can see all the criticisms clearly here...parade or range webbing, tall, thin and gangly with tight clothing, a couple of silly poses, but painted and based with a few other makes they pass muster for war gaming, and the detail is lovely, however inaccurate it might be in places.

Some sets of toy soldiers have identical stretcher carriers, this has them stepping-off from opposite feet which is a nice touch and a sign of the effort that went into the production of the set, even if it was ultimately a bit disappointing!

Comparison with the recent effort (type 4!) and they (the sculptors) still haven't really got it right (they will have their own page at some point), like their earlier brthren, paint will hide a lot of sins, but they can hardly serve together, one lot all lumpy, over-fed and cammed-up, the others hungry-lean, in parade-order with skin-tight tailoured uniforms!

The closest Airfix (or the owners of the 'brand') have ever got to decent WWII British Infantry was the ex-Esci/A-Toys/Italieri type 3 which had already been issued by...err...Esci, A-Toys and Italieri! The Bren guns are particularly poor in this set, but the PIAT is rather nice...if a little thin, and the comparison above suggests an easy conversion of the older prone figure to a PIAT-man?

The kneeling firer's from both sets make the same mistake as the type 1 (and the Britains Herald granddaddy of them all), in adopting a pose no man firing a rifle from the kneeling position ever adopted, ever, in the whole history of warfare, drill, and press pictures for dill manuals, indeed - I don't believe the human body can adopt that position without a hip or thigh being surgically dissociated first!...I just tried, you can; but it's bloody uncomfortable!

Marx (here Marksmen from Ri-Toys (Rado Industries) giants are not much of a threat despite being called 'HO' by the original maker, however the officer and the chap on the left of the line-up with the Tommy-gun, could be hidden in a platoon of Airfix after a matching paint job, they've both been to the same tailor as the Airfix chaps! [see the 8th army for comparisons of the rest of this Marx range, they are all wearing shorts]

How it should be done, Matchbox lead the way with a set of business-like poses and some nice AFV crew. However, the bases are a real pain with this set, small and slightly rounded they were table-top only, the carpet defeats them before the Germans have been set-up - if it's Matchbox Germans as well...it's an apocalypse! But they failed the colour rule as well...brown? For European theatre? NO!

Nitto get the colour rule, but totally muck-up the simple 'ish procedure of copying the figures with a copying machine! [pantograph] It doesn't help that they are trying to convert them to American M1-helmeted troops at the same time - the heads are so poor I think they came from Airfix 1st type Marines who (with a couple of Para's - also from Airfix sculpts) make up the rest of the group - now a Fujimi catalogue item.

Thanks to Konrad Lesiek I now know these (upper row, brown) were issued as kiosk novelties by Andrzej Kawecki, and are from Set 3 British Infantry, the only set of piracies of these figures I know of, and they're not bad, a slight loss of detail, but every pose has been reproduced, even the two different stretcher-bearers, all made - apparently - from recycled material; in this case a soft PVC vinyl rubber.

Indeed - I'd go further and say that by attaching the front feet to the bases, they have actually managed to improve the two dumbest (advancing, running) poses, and somehow they've got the captain/platoon commander to look more businesslike (or less foppish) just by copying him!

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1973 [WWII] German Infantry (2nd Version), 1705 / 01705 / 01705-1 / 9 01705 / A01705 - HO/OO

Another of the sets to get a 70's make-over. I was always rather disappointed by this set, although I liked the officer and the guy mooching about with an MG34 over his shoulder, festooned with ammunition belts, overall the set lacked something.

As with the British Infantry redesign, they were a bit clean and - like both the aforementioned set and the 2nd Type 8th Army - there were a couple of silly poses, also; like the US Marines there was an obvious visual difference between the ex-54mm figures and the wholly new sculpts. Something the Desert Rats and DAK don't suffer from.

1980 catalogue, again one of the little 'thumbnail' images from the back of the white 'corner art' boxes, carried over as artwork Long boxes. I've read endless column-inches on the web about this chap's weapon, but I believe the sculptor has admitted it was just a f**k-up. He's also owned-up to using an air-gun for the standing firing pose, which does look like our old BSA Original! Indeed the photographs were/are to be seen in the Plastic Warrior magazines coverage of the 54mm set somewhere.

1985 sees the catalogue artwork reproduced so darkly he looks like an SS-man, just off parade. Compare with the previous image and it's obviously a different print-reproduction process (the technical details of which are beyond me?), lithography versus what? And which is which! but anyway, in my opinion; this image looks like it's been cut from one of Ron Embleton's Trigan Empire stories! Especially as he's clearly been armed with a space-blaster!

Compared to the Atlantic set which clearly used the 1:32nd figures as influence, but not necessarily complete lifts. The blurb on the back of this set is not as fanciful as some of the sets Atlantic did, but it's one where you're left glad that you got the slightly odd looking figures in the box rather than the very odd ones in the line-drawings on the back of the box!

Colour variation - Eric Williamson in his seminal (and missed) website was a great one for telling you exactly when he thought a certain colour was used, by placing it next to the box art as you scrolled down the page. Sadly with this set he used the same grey/pale grey (?) one for every box type! This may mean that pale grey figures were common in the batches that went to North America, or that he was having a lazy-day when he did that page (as far as I know they were all hand-built in HTML).

I can't tell you for sure, but I know I never saw any in the late 1970's (when the Para's and Mountain Troops where being issued in both shades), nor when I picked-up collecting again after a few years in the Army, but by 1990/1 (as the grey window-boxes were being phased-out in favour of the 'new' white boxes) I did buy a set, so they are probably one of General Mills' or Heller's many abortions! Although, a pale grey is reasonable compared to some of the colours they visited on some of the sets between them, so I'm just having a dig!

It's (that first set of mine in the paler shade) also stiffer plastic than the standard Airfix, so an MPC thing looks reasonable. I have since found softer pale greys as well, so they may well have had a bash when the Fallschirmjaeger and Alpenjäger got theirs, or be from more resent years. The originals came in the 'standard' Airfix dark (mid?) grey of the earlier set of the WWI Germans, Luftwaffe etc...

A comparison with the Matchbox set, not much in it really, both too clean, it's like they've almost finished mopping-up in France, 1940, and were about to have a victory parade when someone started firing at them!

Again (like the Atlantic set) there is a clear influence from the Airfix 1:32nd scale figure-sculpts, with additional figures to make-up a typical '50-figure' box of 15-odd poses. As with most of these comparisons, it's the equivalent poses that have lined-up, so no Matchbox mortar team here, as Airfix thought their blokes didn't need any support!

Nitto...well, what can you say? Vaguely based on an old/early Tamiya 1:35 scale 'kit' figure set (or actually the Bandai 1:48th kit? I'll correct this when I've dug them out!), they are pretty awful, certainly no threat to Airfix as a source for large numbers of figures (their kits were pricey imports as well!), the set is now hidden in the Fujimi inventory, as the whole runner is included in quite a few of the AFV kits.

Fujimi's own set (of 10 figures) is in storage, but I managed to cobble this together until a better image can replace it, although as this Blog is aiming for a scrap-book effect - I'll probably just add it further down!

The standing figures are not too bad, being (like the US Infantry) taken from Airfix and the Deetail range from Britains, bit the prone figures - of which there are five, seem to have been sculpted by the same ham-fisted troll who designed for Nitto! Probably a clue to the similar artwork and eventual takeover of the one by the other, in there...

A couple of the poses were also used in the 88mm Flak kit, but the 105mm got separate sculpts.

The 'new' white 'corner artwork' box in the 1975 catalogue (image courtesy of Blog follower Kostas), where they sat alongside pages of the earlier 'blue box' artwork. As with the 2nd Type Afrika Korps: the blurb is referring back to the 1st Type, with mention of the anti-tank guns.

In the upper shot here we see the 8 poses taken from the existing 1:32nd scale range in the line above and the 7 'new' poses in the line underneath. There's not a lot in it, if you look hard you might say a few of the new poses are slighter than the originals, a tad shorter overall maybe, but really?

The kneeling guy is as tall (were he to stand up) as a lot of kneeling figures from a lot of manufacturers, the poses are generally weaker, but there's nothing here to say for definite that they weren't from the same sculptor as the others. There's nothing to say they weren't created at the same time as the chosen 8. Indeed, the fact that Airfix went with 8 poses, when most of the 54mm sets - at that time - typically had 7 might lead one to conclude that the decision-makers had a number to choose from? I'm not saying that, I don't know, but with the later poses being the weaker poses, it's a distinct possibility that the masters all date from the same time.

The lower shot is a comparison between those larger figures with their 'puddle' bases and the smaller ones with their distinctive ogee-cornered oblong bases. The only victim of major change is the No.2 on 'the gun', he loses his rifle and about four rounds of the end of the ammunition belt; I'm guessing here: due to problems with moulding what were the extremities of his sculpt?

 2018's catalogue - one of six, all WWII, all common, very sad state to see the old brand-mark get into.

 Boys Own Invading Poland Annual 1939?

Compared with Lone Star's oldies; they are fine size-wise, and would probably work best as last-ditch home defence (Volkssturm) from 1944/45, or a bunch of cooks and bottle-washers grabbed by a passing unit of Feldjägerkorps to help hold a crossroads - "You don't need helmets where you're going, to the last man; for the fatherland!"

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Regeln des Krieges

1978 [WWII] British Commandos (2nd/3rd Types), 1732 / 01732-3 / 9 01732 - HO/OO

The last of the re-designed sets, and the rarest. Heller (and General Mills) managed to totally screw-up not necessarily one, but possibly two (?) sets of moulds/mould-tools. I will deal with all that another day when I some relevant pictures, but [now done, below] suffice to say; A) the only way you can tell which tool your set comes from is to measure the distance between the two locating-holes or spigots in the hull/deck of the canoe and B) Airfix have reverted to the earlier set of dancing loons for this set which remains in their catalogue and as a favourite for adding to play sets.-

In 1980 they were still referencing the earlier set anyway! Little picture on the back of the 'white boxes' made large and used for the 'long boxes'...arguably one of the best poses from the 1st Sqn. Lionel's Own Right Royal Dancing Loons .

Given their rarity, it's annoying to find you actually have a couple in your bag of loose Australians, even more annoying when it's the 'only 1 per set' pose...so if you have a bag of loose Australians, go and double-check it, I found two, just the other day! Commando's on the left, Digger on the right.

Full runner with sprue-remains (the blob in the middle), can't remember which set this is, but from the availability a few years ago have to assume it's the French issue. Confirmed a few years later - note the gap between the locating studs.

The old, superimposed on the new...er...even older! Those chocolate brown disco clowns are the current production people . . . could make a lesser man cry! You got two boats, which helped build a raiding party more quickly, the Matchbox lot getting a silly little jolly boat!

Otherwise the pose-count wasn't great with this set - it has to be said. There were the 7 ex-54mm poses, some ladder carriers and climbers who - along with the rowers - mirror the 1st/4th type, the bazooka operator (who is a nice figure), the grapple thrower (similar to the Matchbox chap), and the radio-operator/signaller we've looked at above.

As with the German Infantry and US Marines, the all new poses are thinner and easy to identify.

Paddling away! Given the risible rubber-boats issued with the US Marines (both types) and the Matchbox Commandos, this is quite a nice stab at the boats used for several famous raids during the Second World War such as this one: Operation Frankton.

The only OBE's I have of these - pretty standard for late 1970's/early 1980's school-boy painting really! Follow the links below for some better painted ones.

Floating . . . it floated a bit better than the boat from the other set, but still low and it did fill with water in the end!

It is stated by some that there were - uncommonly - two tools for the 2nd version Commandos, they have 'both' disappeared but as firstly; neither 'Tailgunner' (Hornby/Margate's preferred propagandist) nor 'JC' (Heller's publicist) have managed to obtain the full story - despite crawling all over the paperwork and secondly; urban myth from well-meaning (?) collectors has been slathered over the debate for over twenty-years, it's a moot point.

Either: the first tool was damaged in the move to France and a duplicate tool produced (to go missing a few years ago), or; the [one] tool was repaired and lost at some point later? The only way to tell the difference between the two tools is in the canoe, where the white/long boxes marked 'Made in England' have a canoe with different-spaced locating studs/holes (between deck & hull pieces) in comparison to the canoe placed in both the boxes marked 'Made in France' and those 'England' boxes with a 'France' sticker over-placed.

My original notes to myself, apologies for spelling, typo's and general scrawl, but it has the necessary measurements for those needing to differentiate between the latter two designs, the earlier/current one is easy, it has the ledges.

 

 

Suggesting that as well as a problem with the moulds being damaged in the moves (1980-83'ish), a number of unused boxes were included in the stock moved to Heller.

I suspect there was only ever the one tool, that the canoe cavity was damaged in the move, that the tool was repaired in the canoe area, and that a few years later the tool (still having a 'damaged' mark/s in chalk, marker or wax crayon - which should have been removed after the repair) was sold as scrap/sent to recycling by someone who didn't know it was OK again, during a clear-out? Human error/lack of communication!

 

The long boxes, a fetching organge for the commandos, where the ones where the 2nd/3rd version were commonly found, also seen in the earlieir 'wgite box' and later 'blue box', which might have had the 54mm+ sculpts for their earliest iteration, but by the time I bought mine (1989) had reverted to the old sculpts, which are 1st/4th in this Blog's blurb.

 

Artwork was an odd mix of 1st/4th version (grapple and bazooka opperator) and 2nd/3rd (officer) poses, with the canoe being similar for either set!

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1970-72; [Colonial] (French) Foreign Legion (2nd Type) S10 / 1710 / 01710-3 - HO/OO

A very difficult set to date, this was almost certainly the first of the 'new' or 2nd Type issues/re-moulds or new moulds...and some sources are definite in their dating; 1970, 1 or '72, others correspondents hedge their bets with '1970-72', but memory serves that when matron got back from the shops and spread her wares on a seniors bed (Ooh! Matron!) for us to chose from, some of us were still getting 1st type and others got 2nd type...in identical 2nd art-work 'Blue Boxes'...this would have been around/between 1973-5.

Memory, however, is no arbiter of definitive 'evidence' so I'm not committing to a date at all!...that's what the comment section's for...what are your memories of this sets availability?

Also the old FFL figure moulding continued to be issued in the Fort Sahara play set for years-after, as old stock. Indeed I'm pretty sure these - 2nd Type - figures didn't appear in sets with the fort until the 1996'ish reissues in sky-blue plastic.

1975 box art (Blue Box type), image supplied by Greek follower Kostas.

Using the rather nice horse for a HaT German motorcyclist conversion (they announced mounted troops a while later which are now available I believe!)

1980 catalogue and painting guide!

1990's re-issues in tissue-blue!

Comparison with the Crimean War French Infantry from Pockbond's Emhar brand...they go together quite well.

Useful addition

Marx figures, reissued by Marksmen in the 1990's, supplied by Rado Industries (Ri-Toys)

02 British Paratroops (2nd version) 1:32 scale/54mm

This page will move at some point! But with most still in draft - It don't mean nut'un.

A few colour variations, the 'crisp-bag' grey and a Polish copy of the kneeling firer.

The basic set of 7 poses, one of the best-selling sets in the UK I would have thought, nice poses, accurate personal-kit and easily convertible into more modern infantry/para's which helped make them a favourite as well.

First incarnation of small scale copies of the 54mm set, these are as 'Bod's' Paul states; poor quality, however they were exactly the right size, looked OK with a bit of paint and were all we had for most of the 1970's and early 80's.
Almost certainly coming from Ri-Toys, the packaging has a lot in common with other production from the same firm in that era, but in this case unmarked, probably so individual companies in the West could have overprinted or have sticker-mounted logos added.

Here, the previous set is in the second line from the top. The top line were from roughly the same time, perhaps a little later in the 70's and are a touch bigger, useable with 25mm metal figures but a bit chunky for our old Airfix armies.

The third line is recent (current?) Ri-Toys production, having given them all berets originally, they are now all equipped with a rather generic helmet, probably to help sales in the Far East where the 'Tiger Economies' have led to vast new markets of pocket-money spenders.

Forth line are a re-hash of the original moulds, now showing their age, these can still be found in the odd corner shop. The bottom row are a 30mm scale-up of the helmeted figures and were common in the 1980/90's

Wearing a sticker for Casoa SA of Spain; this is a typical Ri-Toys 'generic' for branding/marking by end-user with a mix of US marines and the advancing Paratrooper, being one of only two poses to migrate to this set/issue, the other being the kneeling firer.

Seen in close-up in the third line in the previous photograph, these have been re-tooled or are 'new' copies and quality is quite good, but the helmets are a let-down.


A pair of size comparison shots with both Airfix sizes (lower picture) and some of the larger copies above. The bottom line is another incarnation of the current helmeted figures (also inset top right), with flat bases they - again - come with a bunch of US Marines, but this time most of the Para's poses are re-produced, not however; the radio-operator.

Larger figures, all helmeted, these are all from post 1980, the 60's and 70's having been well supplied with copies of Britains, Lone*Star, Crescent, Timpo and the like.

Note the advancing pose (bottom, 3rd from right) has now got himself a repeater shotgun! All these figures represent everything that is bad about Hong Kong/China production, there isn't one you could 'paint-up' with any success, nor would they donate anything useful to a scratch-build, hence my poor samples, even I lose interest at a certain point!

Also provided by Kostas, a follower from Greece comes what looks like a complete box of Solpa piracies, these (like quite a bit of Solpa's larger scale output) are really quite good and could be easily mistaken for faded or sun-bleached originals, the only real clue is the topographic sculpting on the bases, like contour-lines on a map!

Two the right of them are a few examples of a more technicolour batch!

More Hong Kong crud, mostly of the later versions with US style M1 helmets, eventually even the officer got one, the ultimate indignity!

Some of the base types from the previous image, I think the two to the left have been ID'd now as Kamley-Kositoy-KS (Kwong Shing), but I haven't done the same level of work on these I did on the US Paratroops yet, I will, one day!

Break-down of a complete 29 figure box, they are not rare, as they were among the first of the mass-produced 1:32nd scale sets, and sold very well, pretty-much every kid I knew had a set!

 

Sample of what the cavity-numbers look like, both the radio operators; numbers 8 (bum!) & 15 (back of the radio set), nobody really gives them mush attention, but if they are not all present in a 'mint set', then it isn't mint, simples!

Contents list by pose and number, this is one of the sets where I don't have the data on the officer from the 14-figure boxes, as they needed to be split into two boxes, second officer cavities were created, famously in the case of the US Infantry, a quite different sculpt, but with most of the others just a duplicate [pantograph?], the Afrika Korps'man having a larger base, for instance, but I haven't ID'd a difference with these yet.