Something shiny this way comes

A few months back I mentioned my fondness for glossy toy soldiers, and my plan to gloss varnish the French-Indian Wars project to try and scratch that particular itch. But the problem with modern figures like those from North Star and Crusader is that the detail screams out for at least some shading, and as such, they do not give a 'true' toy soldier aesthetic, where solid colours abound. I've been following Howard Whitehouse's A Gentlemen's War facebook page, which is dedicated to his AGW rules, but a big part of what happens there is playing with toy soldiers painted to look like such - many of the being from the Irregular Miniatures 42mm ranges.

The thought of investing heavily in 42mm armies is tempting, but beyond my means. And then I thought about it. Which period of history do I love, but have no armies for? Why, the Great War of course! And it just so happens that there are 54mm toy soldiers available for this conflict in the form of the Armies in Plastic range. I have had 10 of these figures floating around for about 13 years now, picked up at the Waiouru Army Museum. So I got out the paintbrush.

First up, the Germans in Stahlhelm.

And from the rear

British infantry led by a plucky officer with a whistle and revolver!

The armies clash!

I'm quite taken with the finished product, and have ordered a couple of boxes from the nice chaps at Regal Toy Soldiers, which will give me another 40 figures for each side. I was tempted to go early war with pickelhauben and soft caps, but then thought that later down the line I might look at a late 19th century imagi-nation version of 54mm fun, and then the picklehauben will indeed be prolific!

Now of course these chaps will need rules to play with, and I'm thinking the simpler the better. I have some ideas in mind, and we'll see where they lead.

In terms of expansion, Emhar make 1/35 artillery and tanks for the Great War. But the conundrum lies with Heavy Machine Guns. Aside from some Britains or King and Country models, most of which are out of production and worth a fortune to buy, I've been unable to find anything for the British. For the Germans the best I could find is to get some second hand Del Prado figures and do some head swaps, but even then, with postage I'll be looking at $50 NZD.
I'm just going to have to make do without HMGs in the meantime, keeping an eye out for second hand deals.

Nate