1966; World War One German Infantry, S26 / 01726 / 01726-8 / 9 01726 / A01726 / 7001 - HO/OO

One of the first sets we had, can't remember when we got it, I think it might have been a Christmas present, they came with the RHA and we had a lot of fun with them, I wouldn't have the French or Americans for years and the British only as a full set as a teenager.

1st type box in all it's cartoonist glory, I like the first type box design, it's very evocative, and they are surprisingly common, but then they ran for quite a long time and were a limited range, in the 'pocket money' price bracket, so would have sold in some numbers and many have survived.

Obverse of the same box, the lists were useful but not always that accurate and some times a bit confusing! Here it's quite illuminating, telling us the chap with Binoculars is a 'Field' officer and the chaps in greatcoats 'Staff' officers. 

It also tell those who don't know such things that the pole weapons are 'Bangalores' (Bangalore torpedo in English!) used to break paths through wire entanglements and heavy under-brush.

One of several HäT Industrie box versions, this one also having a nice cartoon-like graphic presentation, there were also photograph artwork boxes with/of painted figures.

The full contents of a complete set, divided into four vignettes; MG team, medical team pass the staff, firing line and full-on bundle! Almost certainly designed by Charles Stadden, these are really nice figures, as are all the WWI sets whatever idiots say about them, and were issued concurrent with the Nibblet wax-carved 'blobs'

From the 4th edition catalogue (1971) comes this cobbled-together press shot...I can see 1st type WWII Germans, a Paratroop bazooka-man, some actual WWI Germans and a what? Mortar Team?!

The 6th Catalogue (1969) is now showing the correct pieces with a basic paint job and stuck together on a little card.

My favourite catalogues were those showing the painted figures in little rows, you really knew what you were getting...or hoping to get..."Granny; the Hussars didn't fight the Japanese!"

Long box and the inevitable slide to oblivion.

From a German-language edition.

1985 sees a return to the Knight artwork lifted from Eagle magazine.

When left-handers meet, the famous action near loo's (geddit!) when the 7th 'Pals' platoon of the 5th Loyal Meridian's attacked 125 company, 3rd Fantasian Jagers, caught for all time by the Heller-Humbrol-Hornby Inc. Co. Corp. Com. Ltd. war-artist; 'Lefty' Leftson.

Conversions and other peoples paint-jobs, the Boar War Brit is particularly fine, did you do it? Let us know if you recognise any OBE's and I'll give full credit. Zulu War redcoats are another obvious paint-conversion of this set.

The head-swaps are committed on an Airfix US Cavalry officer and an out-rider from the WWI RHA

The image in the bottom right-hand corner shows a little trick I picked-up by trial and error - when you can't get things to stay in/on the base, turn the base over and use the flat side, you might have to remove the second locating 'pin' from a figure with two, as the places are reversed, but the mortars and MG's still line-up because the have symmetry. Bottom-left are an idea of the plastic colour variation with this set.

Comparison shot between the Stadden 30mm's for Tradition and his efforts for Airfix. The difference being that the Airfix masters would have been much larger, so are of a slightly finer finish than the same-size castings of Tradition.

A shot of a big sorting session I did for a dealer friend of mine a few years ago, a complete set on the left of the table fold makes it easy to pick from the right hand side, using good daylight to colour match, a few poses might have a one figure with a larger or smaller base so you have to watch for that.

We did about 20 sets that day, maybe 12 boxed, with a couple of good boxes just checked and a still-on-runners ('sprued') box given a once-over! The rest bagged as loose sets to clear at shows. You have to look out for brittle figures, cleaver conversions, damage, paint and/or dirt, and - with this set specifically - WWII Japanese lying firing poses, which end up in WWI German lots after being included in the first version WWII German set to replace a damaged/lost cavity, and getting a grey colour-change at the same time. I think we found two!

Those purists who would get upset by this and/or condemn me for taking part in this 'practice' would do well to remember a few things, this stuff is 40+ years old, part boxes are bought at car-boots, old collections come-in in a hell of a state from ads in the local press and empty boxes are often purchased in handfuls from regional auction houses, they all need a set of figures, checked, complete.

The lesson is - Don't go buying an unseen set off evilBay from the other side of the world and then go getting upset when they turn up in three shades of brittle shit. Or thinking you've got something rare because the 'seller' (as opposed to a Dealer, someone who has a reputation to uphold, and no plans to change his eBay ID every six months!!) says so, or has re-filled the box with something from somewhere else.

Instead, go to the shows, look at the stuff, examine it. Ring those dealers who publish their phone numbers, or give you their cards, and get round to their house, shop or lock-up and SEE what you're buying, choose the best box of 20-odd instead of buying the first one that comes up on-line - only to spend the next nine months buying six more donkey's before you have a descent construct. All that's going on in these pictures is I'm doing that job for the customer, at some expense to the guy who was paying me!

And remember - they made millions of these!

Above - both a plastic colour study and an illustration of mould degradation; the officer in greatcoat, early example on the left, later issue on the right. Buttons and medal have turned to blobs and the lovely Imperial Eagle on his helmet has become unrecognisable.

It's interesting to note that the corners of the base have been rounded-off as well, that would have required a physical intervention with the mould and a machine-tool! The feet were also re-cut, presumably at the same time as the base-alteration.

Below - one of my favourites when studying these figures...a mould-shrinkage which is usable! Pulling tight in the chest (mould opened before the correct amount of plastic had been injected?) has caused the figure to curl forward over his belt, leading to a more animated attempt to rip some tripped-up allied chaps head off with his bayonet!

Pocketbond's 'Emhar'-to-Airfix comparison...after waiting several decades for more WWI figures (Revell excepted), this set was a hideous disappointment...by the time you've taken the AFV crew out, you've barely got an Infantry section, let alone a platoon! Nicely sculpted...but?

An interesting presentation of the WWI Germans, several figures on the runner as a still-life painting in the old Hamlyn 'all colour' paperback "Wargames" by Peter Nash. Although the book (another one Erwin 'makes-it-up-as-he-goes-along' Sell presumably thinks I haven't got?) had some Tamiya kits photographed in full-colour on the cover, the book's illustrative content was all artwork from an unaccredited commercial artist.

Links
Plastic Soldier Review
Airfix Tribute Forum

1966; World War One British Infantry, S27 / 01727 / 01727-1 / 9 01727 / 90.1727 / A01727 / 7002 - HO/OO

Another set I liked as a kid, some people whinge about the wiring party, but anyone whose used 'Danet Wire' knows it still comes on rolls like those depicted, and remains to this day a basic item of 'defence stores' in the British army.

Whole Sprue, this is a modern re-issue by/for HaT/Heller/Humbrol/Hornby but happens to be close to the original colour.

A set, set-up as a kid would way back when, the support weapons sets were a complete bugger to keep set-up, and a hot pin was often resorted to as the last resort of a desperate parent!

1967/4th catalogue, the first mention of the British infantry, the Germans got a picture, but a quick perusal of that entry will show it wasn't quite what it seemed!

The Index-card displays were next, with some sets illustrated and others just listed in alternating catalogues for the few next years...

...except the Brits got a full frontal box-art image the next year!

Then came my favourites, the 'line-up' with one of each pose attacking the reader as he perused his catalogue and built mental Christmas and Birthday wish-lists!

1980 sees loft-conversion minimalism, but at least a decent picture (we'd had what you'd now call 'thumbnails' for nearly a decade), taken from the long boxes, this was the swan-song for Airfix, who were on the way out.

1982 German catalogue, again the little pictures from the back of a long-box, blown-up.

The Franco-Irish marketing conglomerate that owned the Airfix brand-name and assets thought they'd have a go, I guess someone in the graphic department was very pleased with the 'eighties' sky-scape! It's St. Elmo's fire!

Right Lads, when we get near the German trench I want you all to switch hands!

Airfix/Stadden, the similarity is clearer on the kneeling figure, but a lot of the cloth-folds and so on are typically Stadden, however they are finished to a higher standard, but that will be due to the larger size of the Airfix masters while the Tradition stuff would have been sculpted same-size as the final moulding.

Mould-purge? Again that Cowboy-brown, not a clear as the American though, (see their entry), this could just be staining, but it does seem to have entered the mould from the bottom and moved up the legs...

HaT, one of three box types for WWI 7000-series re-issues, I don't know if they did all sets in each box?

Plastic colours and painting; the wiring party is often damaged, but can be turned into two more guys flinging themselves pointlessly across no-mans land, or a single guy dragging a roll of Danet.

Support weapons teams, hard to get together, but nice little vignettes and nothing like them had been seen when they came out, people forget, with all the Rumanians and Sherden warriors available to day, how totally radical these where...now just pure nostalgia!

Upper shot - One of the real problems with these is the natural choke-point or accidental 'gate' in the moulding at the ankle which leads to lots of the lying firers turning-up with no foot! Although the instructions in the modelling press and associated books always stated 'use a sharp craft knife to separate the figures from their runners', the truth is, most pre-teen boys given these figures soon learned to twist the figures off and then snip the snub/stub residue with a finger-nail...having never read the modelling press! When they were given this set (or the British Grenadiers, French Napoleonic Infantry...and others!), they proceeded in the usual manner...loosing feet in the process!

You can see they have both failed in the same place, so there was also clearly a weak-point there, created in the moulding process.

Below them are a nicely-painted set of OBE's...in  an odd colour scheme? Perhaps Chinese troops or something? Yeomanry?

Emhar from Pocketbond, as disappointing as the German Infantry set, and the influence of Airfix definitely present in the ammo/tool-box party!

1967; World War One American Infantry, S29 / 1729 / 01729 - 01729-7 / A01729 / 7004 - HO/OO

One of the less common sets of Airfix by dint of their being, not that popular, not that useful and from what was - if not unpopular - a poorly supported period, historically, except in Aircraft kits where there were dozens and dozens.

HaT re-issue

German West African Regiment?

The full set.

People have a several criticisms of this set; firstly that they are wearing the wrong hat, yet they certainly still wore it out of combat, plenty of photographs of them arriving in Europe and disembarking in ‘Smoky-Bear’, Montana, ‘Boy-scout’ or ‘Jellystone’ hats, some say that they were worn in early actions and third; they were 1960’s TOYS!

The second complaint from the rivet counters is that they are wearing (with the exception of the standing firing pose) no equipment, yet by 1918 most soldiers were binning ‘Marching Order’ in favour of ‘Fighting Order’ or ‘Belt Order’ for combat, so the fact that they haven’t got large or small packs should be no hindrance to their attacking the enemy. Also; they were 1960’s TOYS!

The third complaint oft’murmured is that the ‘lend-lease’ French machine-gun is on the wrong sort of mount, well, I’ve used a very similar (but) single-pole mount with the GPMG for AA work [a ridiculous business which consists of the gunner bracing his foot against the base-plate and firmly holding the pole with his left hand (instead of the stock - as he normally would) while the number two does a little tippy-toe dance next to him (as the gunner tries to follow the aircraft around), feeding and taking the weight off (to prevent stoppages ) a 200-round belt], so my feeling is that this is probably taken from a picture, and represents the sort of expedient, field or war modification still found to this day on every battlefield. In this case being designed to bring the gun to a level where it could be operated over a trench without getting covered in mud? If not – the explanation is even simpler; they were 1960’s TOYS!

It’s one of the things I really don’t get about War-gamers, modellers and collectors (of a certain kind), the hypocrisy that allows them to field an army of immaculate Napoleonics - at Waterloo - where everybody was in damp greatcoats, seal-skins or blankets, with helmets, busbies and shakos covered and peaks removed, while muttering something about the other guy’s wagons having the wrong wheels? I’ve heard Judges at model shows marking down a WWII German camouflage, when the nature of the German system means that so long as you have a reasonably accurate base coat - anything goes.

In the days before this’ere Interwebular Wibbly Wobbly Way, one relied upon paper ephemera to research toy (that’s TOY) soldiers, and with Airfix being one of the market leaders, there is a lot of both original material and more recent works to call on, Plastic Warrior found the originals Brian Knight used to produce his box-art and you’ll have to track down issue 2 of One Inch Warrior magazine to read about it in full.

Now - of course - you can just put everything on an external hard drive and hope the sun doesn’t go too spastic at the height of its cycle and wipe everything while you’re asleep! Over time I will scan all the old paper files, catalogues and other stuff into these e-files, and get rid of the dozens of crates and boxes of ephemera lying around!

Despite the more spiteful winging of a few, these are everybody’s favourites from this set (along with the 'Danet' wiring-party in the WWI British Infantry?), the two guys leaping (a little too-gaily?) over the mud of Flanders are often miss-moulded, or - with the older figures - brittle now, however the ammunition box always survives, and can be used with the firing vignette.

This also shows the two versions of this mould, with either a thick or thin ammunition box, I’ve seen it said that the sitting figure is sat on another of these, but actually he’s on a beer or milk-crate sized box about 4 times the volume of this one, and he’s another of my favourites from this set, he looks ‘all in’

Top left; I put this on the HäT forum via imageshack some time ago with a call for help in identifying the officer copy and while there was some input, there was no useful information forthcoming, I myself thought he might be from a board game; the base was very board-gamey! Then at the Plastic Warrior show in Richmond - May last - a second turned up, clearly attached to a bubble-liquid dispenser! Any ideas on a trade mark? Anyone know if there are Bubble-bottle collectors out there? How many poses were copied?

Bottom left is a few paint-ups by persons unknown that have come in over the years, if you recognize your work let me know for a full credit, It’s fascinating to see what other people did with theirs, I particularly like the gloss-finished one at the back, he looks like a very small Dime-store figure!

Top right; some colour variations, the pale ones to the left are aged, rather than manufactured and as well as being a yellowish in daylight; are quite brittle.

The running figure is very unusual, he is basically in the RHA-ACW artillery/Cowboy or Indian brown, darkened-down with ‘Airfix’ green and with a few paler green streaks in him (enlarge the image and look at the bottom-left corner of the base, or the left shin), and seems to be a injector-head 'purge' figure, I’ve had figures with horse-hairs running through them before now (a paintbrush being used to flick dust off the mould-block drops a bristle which sticks to the mould-release agent or lubricant), but never a bi-coloured figure so I don’t know how he came to market, a Friday-afternoon job I suspect!

Bottom right shows a common figure to turn up in mixed lots of these; I found three while sorting a few sets of Americans the other night, Also it’s a common pose ‘type’ with Airfix; the WWI Brit’s and Germans got them, several of the Cameron designed sets (of which the Aussie is one) had them and the Imperial Guard had a slightly stiffer-standing one.

The US Infantry were almost certainly among the sets designed by Stadden, who produced some fine WW1 figures in metal, and again this is one of his favourite poses.

Montaplex used copies of the Americans for ‘New Zealanders’ of WWII! But not for long, they ended up using copies of the Australian infantry seen above. BüM Slot use the Aussies as well.

You either got one and a half sprues of Americans, attached to pieces of wall/rubble or the Aussies with a copy of the Dulcop take-off of the Blue Box/Ri-Toys piracy of Dinky’s Daimler armoured-car.

If you got the WWI copies, you also got three baby kangaroos (or wallabies for the sake of argument!), because as ‘eny fule no’ the Turk’s had a real problem with Kangaroos at Gallipoli! Good old Montaplex; you can’t mark them down for not trying!…note also; the MG No.2 has been turned into a based officer

I'll get a comparison shot of the Stadden Metal's up here in a day or two, and that'll be this entry done for a while - unless some more bubble-tops turn up!

A common mould shrinkage fault with later issues of this set was the base deforming as it was still too-hot when the moulding was ejected from the mould, very hot water and a cold surface like a marble cutting-board is always worth a try, but you need to hold both figures upright as you press the heated base down on the cold surface.

 Emhar/Pocketbond

 Montaplex