1977; [Cold War] Modern British Infantry, 51472-9 / 51572-8 / 9 51572 / 51572 / A02718 - 1:32 Scale (54mm)

Announced in the autumn of 1975 (1976 catalogue) I think, they wouldn't actually see the light of day until 1977, the modern Brit's, along with the Modern Germans and the Medieval Soldiers were among our favourite sets, even if they arrived toward the end of our 'playing' days.

Obviously with a too-long wait for the modern Russians and US troops, the scenario tended to involve the NATO Germans 'going bad' and having to be sorted out by the British set, a bit jingoistic maybe, but; kids huh?!

Limited to only seven poses, they were otherwise  a quite good representation of the British squaddie of the day, and only a few years later (1984) I would myself be garbed in a similar fashion! Consequently I know the weaknesses in the set only too well, and they aren't vast.

We'll look at the webbing/PLCE further down, but suffice to say the gunner is holding the bi-pod legs which he wouldn't because they just come-unclipped and spring-open, if you're going to hold them you hold them more firmly as a 'handle' away from the barrel, also they haven't been sculpted substantially enough, but it's a minor quibble.

More serious is the anti-tank gunner, who should be holding something several times the size! The Karl Gustav 84mm was a huge beast with idiot-legs on a big spring while it's replacement - the MAW80 (Medium Antitank Weapon) was A) equally huge and B) still years away when these were issued, so, like Cherilea's swoppets, the weapon depicted here is a fantasy 'Euroweapon' of the artists imagination, based on a conglomeration of any number of other weapons.

Puttee's would be phased-out quite soon after the issue of this set also; instantly dating it!

The real problem with the set is the belt-order, there are three basic types of belt-order, which - in order of lightness - are;

•  Range-day
• CEFO (Combat Equipment, Fighting Order) 
• CEMO (Combat Equipment, Movement (or 'moving' or 'marching') Order)

Range order would be the two front pouches, a water bottle and - depending upon the whim of the officer or NCO-commanding - the respirator case. Dropping the respirator case was rare (as we had to be ready for WWIII to break out in six minutes - even on a quiet day!), but did occasionally happen.

'Cefo' consisted of all pouches, but no packs or digging tools, while 'Cemo' was the whole bloody enchilada, the full donkey-load, large pack or 'Burgan' and digging tool with probably 50-rounds for the GPMG, maybe a couple of mortar bombs or a grenade or two and (if your luck was in) a spare battery for the radio!

These guys, without exception, have no water bottle pouch (always present) and no respirator case; almost always present? Now I think I'm repeating myself here, as the same criticism is true of the Deetail/Super Deetail figures from Britains, who we've seen on the home-Blog several times . . . and the explanation may have been the same there; the limitations of sculpting?

To wit; that there is no room in the relatively inflexible world of moulded (set) polymers for the respirator case at least, the water bottle should be there, and there is room?

Having just mentioned them; the first of what will be few comparisons, I'm not going to run them next to all that 1950's 'Khaki Infantry' output, they are two far removed from what the Airfix set represents, but maybe we'll look at the late HK additions to Herald's set?

Here you can see the Deetail figures suffer from the same lack of both water bottle pouch and respirator case, but do have the kidney-pouches closer together which is more accurate than the gap seen on Airfix's figures. He's a slightly better pose to, leaning into the recoil.

With all four common or 'production' poses; as mentioned already both ATW firers have some weird thing referencing most of the weapons of the time (1980's), but both are far too small to be the Karl Gustav 84mm of British army use at the time (and the SAS wouldn't have bothered faffing about with such an unwieldy lump of heavy shite), yet are equally too large to be the 'sixty-six' (mm) licence-built US 'Bunker Buster' or 'door-knocker', which doesn't have a venturi either - the cone-shaped bit at the rear.

You can see the Britains figures are heading toward 60mm, and while some of that is explained by the deep, die-cast alloy bases, not all of it is and they are actually quite big lads!

The gunner; as one myself, it's obviously my favourite pose of the seven, but the belt of link round the shoulders is a bit Audey Murphy, good in movies and likely to be seen in the ranks of the late 'Mad' Mike Hoare's mercenaries or their Katangese opponents, but frowned upon in the British Army.

A short belt (15-20 rounds) would be carried in the gun, ready for immediate action / return of fire, the rest of at least 200 rounds would be in the front pouches, with the No.2 having another minimum of 200 on his person (along with his four magazines of 20 for the SLR), the rest of the section being loaded with a minimum of 50-round (quarter) belts each.

The reasons for not carrying belts around like this are myriad, but the obvious ones are;

• Rounds get dirty/damaged and jam the mechanism when used
• Links get semi-parted/stuck/damaged and jam the mechanism when used
• Links break fully and rounds are lost
• Belt gets hooked up on equipment and can't be used quickly
• Belt gets hooked up on equipment which then can't be used quickly
• Percussion cap is accidentally detonated leading to injury or death of gunner or comrade/s
• Can be seen by snipers from miles away
• Are bloody uncomfortable after the first twenty yards
• The rounds and the carrying-strap (missing on the above sculpt but utterly necessary when carrying 26lb's of steel around) can't - practically - occupy the same space

Looks great on a Mexican bandit, but it's a no-no in real life, doesn't stop people draping the stuff all over themselves, whenever they get the chance though, usually around camp/bivouac when 'bombing-up'!

I think these are relatively current Chinese production rather than the Turkish Pilsen (who did pirate some of those later sets - thanks for reminding me Chris Smith), and their quality is too poor for the neighbouring Greece's Solpa, so China looks likely, but I stand to be corrected.

The swansong of Briatins Deetail was really more of a tragic tailing-off, as an attempt to stave-off the advance upon the play-rooms' of the world by ravening hordes of 4, 5 and 6" action figures was met with a stab at popularising 2" action figures, a situation not helped by Britains choosing to anchor their feet and paint them as if they were attending 'Military-Man Monday Mayhem' at the Blue Oyster Club! Indeed, I think the grenade thrower is already halfway through the YMCA dance!

1983; [Cold War/Modern] S.A.S. (Special Air Service), 51578 / 9 51578 / A02720 - 1:32 Scale (54mm)

One of the last figure issues to come out of Airfix, following the old pattern of seven figure sculpts and issued only in 14-figure boxes, you got two-each of most, and you have to wonder why you didn't just get pairs of all seven, but actually the officer is 50% rarer and the kneeling firer is 33.3^r% more common than the other five!

And they are unnumbered so we don't know if you were getting most of two tool-shots, or a single runner-worth's of fourteen products? I suspect the latter; it makes sense.

Presumably they were aimed at a market or perceived market resulting from the May 1980 Iranian Embassy siege-break in London, coupled with a bit of Falklands/South Georgia mythology.

The small scale ones would be advertised the next year but never be issued - see section at end of post -  below.

I shot these back in 2008 to shove on evilBay at a 99p-start and I think most went for a couple of quid-each, with the 'officer' maybe going to four-pounds-something? But it meant I had a set in Piacasa with a less than common - for the Blog - background (I know some of my backgrounds are a bit tired now!), it's all a bit sandbaggy!

They are not as rare as the used to appear to be, and often turn-up in mixed lots, while a re-issue in the last few years saw them in an awful troll-shit, purple-blue polymer which made them look like some demented Middle-Eastern SWAT team . . . which may well have been the corporate-thinking behind the choice of that colour!

The figures are wearing what appear to be the (and would still have been in trials) Boot, Combat, High [ankle] or BCH, which weren't fully adopted until August 1984, carrying a passable Heckler & Koch MP5 submachine-gun (non-standard outside Hereford at the time, the anti-terrorist police still relied on Stirling SMG's or the odd M16), and they all have a rappelling/tying-people-to-chairs rope looped round their body.

A stun-grenade (big bang, few fragments) and a pistol (my father carried a Berretta . . . well, actually he left it under his pillow for my brother and I to find!) in its holster complete the weaponry, and they are wearing black-fatigues with a tight hood (pull-cord) over a respirator with side-mounted (left) filter which may be the standard for the time or the replacement S10 which as part of the Combat-80 upgrade also (like BCH, SA80, Kevlar Helmets . . . et al!) filtered into service from the mid-1980's. It may be a non-standard piece, of course, certainly the nose-protrusion is too long for either of the referred service items.

They have thin leather gloves, and a four-magazine pouch for the HK's and a larger pack which seems to be the respirator case - in the infantry worn on the left hip, where it constantly got in the way, especially when vehicles were involved, these guys have their ammo-pouch there and have moved the respirator case round to the small of the back where it's out of the way.

I suspect the jacket (or a 'waistcoat' portion of it) had some padding/protection from fragments, but it would have required flexibility not then available with the full 'flack-jackets' which remained bulky and solid into the late 80's.

The irony is that the embassy siege was probably the only time a unit of the SAS were deployed dressed as that, or these chaps, while the guys operating in Northern Ireland would have worn a mix of standard and aftermarket combats or smocks all made from the four-colour, regulation DPM (disruptive-pattern-material) of the time.

 

Late Britains swivel figures, not very nice, and it's only the non-general service issue respirators which make them 'special forces' for the purpose of this comparison. They came with either the milk-chocolate helmets and pale 'aqua' uniforms, or lightly more realistically outfitted with UN helmets, and at one point the same scheme or one very similar was used with late mouldings of the Deetail WWII US Infantry.

In point of fact the webbing is also non-standard, but since these were issued off the back of the Falkland's Conflict and 'The Embassy Siege', most armies have adopted forms of pick-and-mix webbing or PLC (Personal Load-Carrying equipment), and they are almost more contemporary now (2020's), then when they were issued!

The earlier Britains Deetail, however, were somewhat more accurate, but nobody would wear a beret in combat! Also, they are much larger figures, and I've addressed some more points about this line, on the Modern infantry post.

The recent (2020's) reissues were in a rather insipid shade of sandy-fawn plastic, presumably to try and tie them into our pretty disastrous adventures in Iraq and Afghanistan, despite the uniform worn, being a dated, internal security getup, not used for decades, nor in either theatre.

●○●●○●    ●○●●○●     ●○●●○●     ●○●●○●     ●○●●○●

1984; [Cold War/Modern]

S.A.S. (Special Air Service)

9 01761 - 1:72 Scale (25mm)

 

Because it didn't exist except as a marketing idea in a catalogue issued the autumn before the period to which it pertains, there is no point in a separate entry for the HO/OO (or by then '1:72' SAS set, so it might as well go here for those who persist in looking for such stuff!

Advertised in the 1984 catalogue, it never happened.

Had it; it would have been like the Cold War US or Russian sets and the WWII Italians, i.e.; a rather boring selection of multiples of six of the seven 1:32nd scale figures in sixes, sevens or eights, scaled down, with - probably - two officers, and while Airfix had by then adopted (or were about to) the 1:72 scale for packaging, they would almost certainly have been issued in a size closer to 1:76th scale.

But it never happened and that's that.

1966; [WWII - Cold War] Attack Force Jeep & Trailer, 1652 - OO/HO (nominal)

This is the first of the 'readymade' vehicle articles, publishing in 2019, it's/they're well-overdue as I started this Blog in 2009! Beginning with the first - listed (by code number) - vehicle, and one which didn't get a second version; possibly because it was out of scale with the latterly stated 'scale' [size] of OO/HO, indeed it could be considered that it was replaced by the Field Gun & Tractor (Quad and 25lbr.) . . .

. . . the Jeep & Trailer.

My collection; not vast but enough to study in this post, with a carded 'minter', a loose pairing and another pair with a play worn jeep, taking this shot mid-way through the photo-shoot, I replaced the carded one without it's windscreen, but you can see how the screen keeps it tight under the card, while the seats prevent it slipping through.

The card; cleverly cut-and-folded from a single sheet, with a retaining flap for the jeep and 'axle-hook' for the trailer, both of which are designed to fold forward as the card is folded back into an L-shaped 'shelf'. A 'rack-toy' hanger-hole is also punched in the card and on both my example and another two seen, the axle-hook was not employed, the jeep sitting tight enough without it.

Component parts; the trailer and jeep being a single shot, but only by dint of not having the connecting 'sprulette' removed in the factory. The wheel/axle assemblies are single mouldings and the windscreen is plug-in with a sort of off-set, bayonet-fitting 'lock' to help prevent loss.

Several of the pieces have what are probably mould-tool cavity-numbers, a hit and miss affaire as we will see with some of the other vehicles, some obvious pieces having no number (Pershing turret, whole APC) others having one (as here), while the common hull carries five different numbers, due to it's being used on four vehicles.

For the jeep though it appears there was the one cavity for each of the three numbered components, 12 for the windscreen, with the jeep and trailer bodies being 28 and 29 respectively. I'll look at this numbering more geekily on a separate page dedicated to these all vehicles!

My first GIF-animation (if it works!), don't expect a plethora of them, and this is hardly the best, the fact that I cropped the two images by eye, means there is a slight variation in 'register' giving it a slightly 3D aspect which actually makes it more tangible.

A few close-ups of the sprulette and the unused axle-hook stamped into the card, the trailer is an odd choice, being a reasonable approximation of the ammunition trailer for 25lbr field guns (and 6-pounders?), usually seem limbered between the gun and a quad-tractor.

It's also equally out of scale with either of Airfix's chosen scale/sizes of 1:32/54mm and the slightly mystic 'OO/HO' or HO/OO!

Various comparisons - for the next bunch of shots; these three are pretty contemporaneous, with - from the left Eldon (USA) with a pintle-mounted .30-cal Browning MG, the Airfix (UK), a Tudor Rose (UK) jeep with two crew and Manurba (Germany)'s offering, the Manurba (Manfred Urban) also being sold in the UK as Tallon.

Rubber jeeps from Auburn (USA) behind; late production PVC, and a similar Skandie-jeep in blue from Tomte Laerdal along with a rather tatty (but quite rare I think?) Frog 'Penguin' Jeep (penguins can't fly; a little joke from the predominantly model aircraft maker!), which is manufactured of an indeterminate material - it could be hardened rubber/PVC, an early styrene, a dodgy-ethylene hybrid or even a composition of some kind?

An eclectic line-up here; the lilac jeep (with spoked wire-wheels!) is by a Sayarat (possibly Israeli, Indian or Turkish?), the white one at the back has a pull-back-and-go motor, is Italian-made and marked 'Gio.' (which could be any one of several makers . . . Giochi Preziosi (GiG), Giocatelli, Giolitto Torino (Kinder), Giovanni Plastics, Il Giocattolo, Techno Giodi (Kinder), et al!) and could be from a Kinder 'Maxxi-egg', or just a more standard pocket-money plaything.

The much distorted (with age and drying-out) MP's vehicle with wheel-arch siren is Thomas Toy's from America and the other 'jeep'/4x4 is a clip-together/slot-together kit of unknown origin, but which could fit in a Kinder egg with very careful packing?

Die-cast line-up; to the left of the Airfix vehicle we have a generic (or currently unknown) HK jeep with ambulance stickers, to the fore are a couple of later Universal Matchbox jeeps with big-wheels, roo-bars and rather lose (but intentional) tilt-covers and - in front of them - two recent Chinajeeps, one (left) probably based on an Indian Mahindra jeep, the other based on the old M38/Wrangler type - did the Chinese army copy them at some point?

Coming back in from the right we have the Matchbox Jeep with recoilless-rifle, from the 1-75 range; it was Battle King compatible and contemporaneous, even to having similar wheels to the Battle King US half-track.

Then there are two Corgi models; the earlier Huskey/Corgi Juniors Jeep in front, with a later, leery-painted one behind. The final model here is a lump of solid die-casting in the style of the old 'dime-store' slush-casts from Midgetoy . . . a brand of the A&E Tool & Gauge Co., USA.

A group of Hong Kong generics (some of which will be attributed over the next few years, there's some good information on HK coming out of the woodwork now) in the same vein as the ones we saw here, with a Payton (?) at the back; I think someone called it MPC the other day, it's unmarked but a quite good quality moulding with the spare-tyre in the cargo foot-well?

Two generations of the same Hong Kong 'mini', the rear one being a cleaner tooling with trailer, the one on front being a slightly tired-looking moulding but seemingly from the same tool, probably toward the end of it (the tool)'s usefulness, which are both better scaled for 1:72nd scale war-gaming. The wheels tie-them into some of the 1-ton Humber mini-trucks, so a maker or brand may be forthcoming on these too, one day.

Getting smaller - front to rear; Marx's Jeep from the Miniature Masterpiece playsets and window-boxes, the Zee/Zyl/Zylmex 'Mash' jeep later handed to Tai Sang and issued by Redbox as Motormax (see also below), the Airfix and two die-cast jeeps; one Marx (tatty green one), the other Hong Kong - the orange one.

Because the Airfix-Airfix comparison further below involves a rubbish sample and the Zee Toys model above was missing it's aerial, I dug-out better samples of both along with the Matchbox plastic model-kit version and a couple of colour-variant Marx mini's and shot them all together. The diminutive Matchbox kit vehicle knocks the others into a cocked-hat, accuracy-wise!

Another smallish HK Jeep is to the left of the main line-up, with a comfortably upholstered back-rest to the rear bench! Next to that is a cartoony novelty Jeep in bright-orange with baby-wheels!

Moving to the right we then have a red HK one, possibly a gum-ball machine capsule prize, I have it in several colours, then a polystyrene one, also probably HK* and possibly a play-set accessory (train wagon or transporter-lorry load?) or another capsule novelty?

The next one is the Roco-Minitanks M38, the silver one is from the Spear's board game Trek (or Safari Trek?) and the teeny blue one is from a Kinder-egg, it was a load on a little recovery-lorry, it also came in green or yellow.

The other blue one at the back is either Montaplex or Mundi Toys I think; the wheels are right! But I'm not sure about the packaging, although it's sealed so I've voted to leave it for now, but I suspect a dealer. Some dealers went through a phase of using those cheap mail-order, freezer-bag heat-sealers to make their stuff look 'more new' a few years ago!

Finally at the front is what I believe is a Hong Kong copy of a US mini die-cast - Tootsie, another Midgetoy, Mattel? It's definitely looking HK, it's missing a windscreen and I also have a green one with pink driver.*

*Both these are unmarked and could equally be Spanish Sobres or similar small 'pocket-money' toys/giveaways from Europe.

Finally (for comparisons, for now); the smallest of the small! I have half a feeling that this is actually either a carrier-deck jeep from a naval model-kit, or one of the cargo vehicles from the similar landing ship kits from Aurora, Monogram or Pyro, back in the day - there were some odd-scaled/box-scaled amphibious-assault vessel kits knocking-around in the 1960's?

Not actually a jeep, and possibly ex-Bachmann (or AHM), it is nevertheless marked Airfix on the base and another open-backed, 'pick-up' configuration, utility vehicle! The very US looking, vehicle from the Airfix Mainline model railway Dr. X play set; is it a Dodge or a Ford?

The Airfix-Airfix comparison which lead to the upgraded shot above, it's not bad, but it's missing the windscreen and has been 'transferred-up' without painting, this was from the Buffalo Amphibian model kit.

I'd taken most of the images in the initial photo-shoot before I remembered or noticed (again!) that one of my three has had its front bumper (fender) removed (or snapped-off - I'm not about to see how brittle it might be by trying to do more damage!), it's a pity they didn’t just remove the rope-coil (probably meant to be/represent a winch) and leave the bar behind, which would be a reasonable conversion, but actually, it's really not that noticeable!

The Noreda Jeep (from France) is the same size as Airfix's, making it as out of scale with the rest of its line as the Airfix one is with the 'Readymade's. Looking at the design of the Noreda one with it's lack of steering wheel and flat dash-board, it may have contributed to some of the many Hong Kong copies in this 1:48/50th range?