You have done a fantastic job on those. Poses aside I wouldn’t gave believed they were Airfix if you hadn’t said so. That said the French Old Guard were exquisite little figures IIC.
You have done a fantastic job on those. Poses aside I wouldn’t gave believed they were Airfix if you hadn’t said so. That said the French Old Guard were exquisite little figures IIC.
Super project, really good start on it. Hard to believe these are the old Airfix boys. Mine never got painted, always in the grey plastic they came in but they fought well on many occasions! :)
Lovely painting, thanks for bringing back some good memories. Are you going to do the chariot with horrible solid wheels?
I think I've got some of those kicking about I'd be more than willing to donate.:)
The weird, wonderful and changeable colours of Airfix polythene figures of yore is probably the subject of somebody’s doctoral thesis somewhere ;)
Grey plastic? Wow. Mine were in a kind of orangey-brown plastic (as was the Wagon Train). I wonder when / why they switched colours.
The weird, wonderful and changeable colours of Airfix polythene figures of yore is probably the subject of somebody’s doctoral thesis somewhere ;)
Brown = Ancient Britons, ACW Artillery, Wagon Train
Green (Lincoln ?) = Robin Hood
Grey = Sheriff of Nottingham, Romans
White = Zoo animals (sets 1 & 2), Tarzan, Napoleonics
The above provided troops for most of my early wargaming.
As to the Chariot wheels, Bob O'Brien (in his series 'Romans,
friends & Foes) recommended taking the wheels off the ACW
Artillery. On school-boy pocket money of a Florin (two shillings,
or now-a-days 10p) I couldn't afford to do that, so followed a
suggestion of my Mother. Paint the top half of a button the
same colour as the Chariot side, & the bottom half black. Then
paint on the spokes & glue it to the chariot. Worked for me, but
then I was only eleven. lol
Grey plastic? Wow. Mine were in a kind of orangey-brown plastic (as was the Wagon Train). I wonder when / why they switched colours.
The weird, wonderful and changeable colours of Airfix polythene figures of yore is probably the subject of somebody’s doctoral thesis somewhere ;)
To add to the colour spectrum……and give me many pleasurable memories…..
Robin hoods were sherwood green (natch), sherriffs men grey, hussars were cream, astronauts were white, foreign legion were dark blue, Arabs were cream, guards colour party and band were red. Tarzans, all the animal sets and zoo sets were cream. Cowboys were cream, high chaparral and wagon train were brown, Indians brown, and seventh cavalry were blue. ACW were blue and grey, but the artillery was brown. The WW1 sets were coloured like the WW2 sets, except the horse artillery were brown, and all the later sets, like aircraft ground crew, came out in cream….
Thanks for the memory jogger. Love it!
La Haye Sainte play set was definitely the best Christmas gift ever.
(Sorry Cubs, for derailing your thread, but such an inviting rabbit hole you have opened lol)
Airfix Arabs came in white plastic.
Superb painting :-*
Great work on these.I had both brown and cream cowboys. The brown ones were older.
Loved all of the Airfix and Matchbox figures from Years ago.Still got a few boxes including the Robin Hood set.
My Ancient Britons were/are brown.Sure i have some Cowboys that are yellow.
Atlantic miniatures were also very good figures.The Greeks,Romans and Egyptian sets were some of the best in my collection back then.
I'm just in the process of going through my box of 1/72 plastics, -by order. I've been told I can't have them cluttering the house any more :(
Dude, there will no doubt be plenty of takers for the old plastic (especially Airfix) myself included.
I was in a Charity shop today, & I got all excited.
A bag of Airfix brown & green bits in the one pound
bin. I gleefully pulled it out & then put my glasses on...
Big disappointment, it was only a bag of Potpourri. :( :( :(
These guys always worried me - they're in such an odd pose. I know the limitations of the mould must have been frustrating for the sculptor, but even so ... I'm not sure they even played Twister back then. Anyhoo, I had fun doing tiny symmetrical boar designs on the red shield, in the style of the Uffington White Horse.
(https://myalbum.com/photo/ywmBu5hbRXkm/1k0.jpg)
Maybe it's an ancient version of the Cha-Cha Slide, with druids calling out the moves?
Here we go, a mad swordsman (I must have lost the other one in the box, but I do have other boxes on the shelf so he won't be lonely for long), the standard bearer (I will also be converting one to a carnyx blower), and the Chieftain (it doesn't show on the photo, but his raven wings have some fancy shimmer effect and his shield has some gems).
There will be chariots and the skirmishers to follow, but I am taking a break from these fellas until the new year.
(https://myalbum.com/photo/9tans2o6GVFT/1k0.jpg)
Wonderful painting.
The only thing that makes sense is that they're stepping to the right and preparing to thrust their swords around the shields of their opponents - so they're going to try and stab the other guy in the side with a horizontal attack. That's not likely to work against a Roman though as their shields had a big curve on them which prevented such attacks.