Mike Tarantino's Toy Soldier Collection (2 Viewers)

[ucla1967]

So, here are the Kingcast artillery sets as displayed on the top tier of the fourth shelf. I was able to display all of them except for three sets.

First photo: Set No. A6 Peking "International" Gun, China, 1900. Crew of 2 U.S. Marines, 1 Bluejacket, and 1 Royal Marine and set No. A1 Dragon Gun with Boxer Gunners and Mandarin Officer, 1900.

Second photo: Set No. A8 Russian Artillery, China, 1900, with Putilow 7.62cm Field Gun and set No. A15 Japanese Field Artillery, China, 1900, with Osaka 77mm Field Gun.

Third photo: Set No. A11 40PDR. Siege Gun with R.G.A. Crew in Foreign Service Order and set No. A4 5 Inch Howitzer, 1897, with Royal Field Artillery Crew.

Fourth photo: Set No. A2 Royal Canadian Artillery in Winter Dress with 9PDR. Sleigh Gun, 1890. This is my favorite Kingcast artillery set with the unusual sleigh gun and the Canadian artillerymen in their red and blue winter uniforms.

Fifth photo: Set No. A3 Hyderabad Artillery with 5.4 Inch Howitzer, 1897. Visible on the shelf below them, from Frontline's 1914 Parade Dress Range, are two sets of French Foreign Legion which I have added since the previous photos of this shelf.

 

[ucla1967]

About three weeks ago, I picked up on eBay another of the Philippine mahogany World War II warbirds for my collection. It is a 1/48th scale Martin B-26B Marauder twin-engine medium bomber with a wingspan of 16 1/2 inches and a length of 13 1/2 inches. I chose this particular plane called "Flak Bait" because it was olive drab, rather than silver, and had D-Day invasion stripes. And also because Flak bait was the name of a Ninth Air Force B-26B which was the first Allied bomber to carry out 200 combat missions. The Marauder had a wing load higher than any other military aircraft which gave it excellent performance, but it was not liked by its crews, because it was difficult to fly. It initially suffered many accidents, especially during landing, and was known as the widow maker. The B variant was modified by adding six feet to its wingspan which increased its surface area and lowered its wing load. The surface areas of the rudder and tail fins were also increased. It proved to be an extremely effective aircraft and one of the most efficient in its category during the war.

The Glenn Martin Company produced 5,157 B-26 Marauders during the war including 552 that served with the Royal Air Force in the Mediterranean Theater of Operations. It had two Pratt & Whitney R-2800-43 Double Wasp, 18-cyclinder radial, air cooled engines which were rated at 2,000 HP each. Its maximum speed was 281 MPH and it had a range of 1,150 miles. Is bomb load was 5,200 pounds and it was armed with twelve .50-caliber machine guns in the C variant, four of which were forward firing in blisters on the sides of the fuselage. It had a seven man crew.

 

[ucla1967]

I picked up several Bastion Models sets at the November 15th OTSA auction. Here are four of them: A.11 Royal Marine Light Infantry 1905, BA.20 Royal Munster Fusiliers, A.3 Grenadier Guards 1895, and A.4 Scots Guards Egypt 1882. The A.11 and A.3 sets are actually add-on sets with eight men and no officers.

 

[ucla1967]

Bastion Models Set No. A.11 ROYAL MARINE LIGHT INFANTRY 1905 is described as follows: "These 'sea-soldiers' wear the 1902 pattern uniform with the white helmet worn from 1905 to 1912, when the type used to this day was introduced."

 

[ucla1967]

This is Bastion Models Set No. BA.20 THE ROYAL MUNSTER FUSILIERS. I really don't know anything about this particular set or unit, and, in fact, was not aware that a "BA" Bastion set designation existed. I assume that "BA" stands for British Army and there must be at least 19 other sets with this designation, although this is the first I have ever seen. In any case, I like the set and am glad I bid on it.

 

[ucla1967]

Bastion Models Set No. A.3 GRENADIER GUARDS 1895 is described as follows: "An officer and men of the premier Foot Guard Regiment in Full Dress Guard Order as worn for Guard Mounting at the Royal Palaces." This particular set, as mentioned before, is an add-on set without the officer.

 

[ucla1967]

Bastion Models Set No. A.4 SCOTS GUARDS EGYPT 1882 is described as follows: "The Third Regiment of Foot Guards are depicted in the uniform worn in the campaign to restore the authority of the Khedive of Egypt, culminating in the battle of Tel-El-Kebir."

 

[ucla1967]

At last month's OTSA auction, I also picked up two sets from the Wessex line which are figures designed by Bastion Models Andrew Rose, but which were produced and marketed by Dorset Soldiers. Andrew Rose has been involved in a surprising number of other toy soldier ventures. He started out designing figures for John Tunstill's Soldiers Soldiers in 1976 while concurrently designing some of the figures for M.J. Mode. In 1978, he started his own line of Steadfast Soldiers and the following year was also associated with Mark Time. In 1980, Mark Time ended and Borbur Enterprises took over Steadfast alone. That same year Andrew Rose and Peter Cowan (who later started Kingcast) took over the creation of the Nostalgia range. In 1981, Rose started his Bastion Models which had two main ranges: 1) British and European sets from 1879 to 1914 whose set designations started with "A." and 2) Boxer Rebellion sets whose set designations started with "B." Difficulty with keeping up with demand led to his association with Dorset as mentioned above. In 1989, P & B Castings took over the production of Bastion Models while Rose continued to design the figures. NB: This Andrew Rose history was from Stuart Asquith's book "The Collector's Guide to New Toy Soldiers."

This is Wessex Set No. Boer-2 Z.A.R.P.S Boer Police. Note the similarity of the Wessex gold foil box-top label to the Bastion Models label

 

[ucla1967]

In the previous post, I should have mentioned that Z.A.P.R. stands for Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek Polite or South African Republic Police.

 

[ucla1967]

The other Wessex OTSA auction pick up last month was Set No Soudan 5 IX Soudanese.

 

[ucla1967]

I also picked up two Nickolson Miniatures sets from the Types of the Indian Army Range at the Novemberr OTSA auction. I actually only needed one set to replace the Somerset set that I removed from my Indian Army display and gave to Bob W. I chose Set No. I-39 MARCHING SLOPE ARMS whose designation is kind of odd since the box top label doesn't refer to what unit this is, unlike all the other Nickolson sets I have. In any case, here is the set as displayed; they are the figures in khaki with a red top on their turbans and are between the green and red turban sets.

 

[ucla1967]

The second Nickolson Miniatures set I picked up at the November 15th OTSA auction is Set No. I-9 4TH GURKHA RIFLES MARCHING. Since I have run out of room to display any more sets on my Indian Army display shelf, I am going to offer this to Bob W. who said he would take any Nickolson sets I was willing to sell. As an aside, I picked up five more Nickolson Indian Army sets for him on eBay this week.

 

[ucla1967]

This month, I purchased from a French collector, six additional Bastion Models sets, plus three more sets for another U.S. collector. I have specifically been looking for the two Austro-Hungarian German and Hungarian regiment sets for almost 10 years now. As a bonus, I also picked up a Bosnian Jaeger set. Here are the three Austro-Hungarian sets: A.49 BOSNIAN JAEGERS 1910, A.62 AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN 59TH GERMAN REGIMENT 1910, and A.63 AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN 85TH HUNGARIAN REGIMENT 1910.

 

[ucla1967]

This should be Bastion Models Set No. A.49 BOSNIAN JAEGERS 1910, but I believe it is mislabeled and is actually Set No. 48 BOSNIAN INFANTRY 1910. Facing colors for regular Bosnia infantry regiments was red while jaeger regiments in the Austro-Hungarian Army had green facings. Fortunately, the other Bastion Models Bosnian set that I have, which is missing its box-end descriptive label, has troops with green facings. So, I do have both sets. I'll take some pictures of the jaegers later and post them here.

The Austro-Hungarian Army fielded four regiments from Bosnia-Herzogovinia which were numbered separately from the 102 numbered German and Hungarian regiments (i.e., 1st Bosnian Regiment, 2nd Bosnian Regiment, etc.). There was also one regiment of Bosnia Jaegers or light infantry, but I am not sure if it was a fifth regiment or one of the four, but I suspect the former. The Bosnians, the majority of whom were Muslims, were considered to be among the most formidable troops in the Austro-Hungarian Army.

The Bosnian uniforms differed from the German and Hungarian regiments in that they wore a red lambs wool fez with a black or grey tassel, but which was adorned with the traditional sprig of oak leaves like the other regiments wore on their cloth caps. In the field, they usually wore a grey fez. They also wore pantaloons that were loose above the knee and tight below it while the German regiments wore straight leg trousers buttoned at the ankle and the Hungarian regiments wore tight trousers with yellow and black Hungarian knots and piping.

 

[ucla1967]

This is Bastion Models Set No. A.62 THE AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN ARMY 59TH "ERZHERZOG RAINER" GERMAN REGIMENT 1910. It was composed mostly of ethnic Germans recruited from the Salzburg area. The Austro-Hungarian Army had soldiers who spoke 15 different languages. Ethic German speakers represented about 25 per cent of the army while ethnic Hungarian speakers comprised about another 23 per cent. However, the majority of the officer corps was German and it was the language of command and service. The 1914 Austro-Hungarian infantry regiment had approximately 4,500 men organized in four battalions each with four companies (5 officers and 250 men) with each company having four platoons. The regiment had a small staff, plus a pioneer platoon, and four machine gun sections, each with one officer and 36 men manning two guns.

 

[Al Fisher]

Am enjoying your display of your Bastion figures . . . they are colorful and well made! Also saw your list of wants . . . and am glad that you're filling some of the holes in your collection. By any chance do you have a complete list of Bastion figures? If so, would you be so kind as to either add them to the thread or send to me separately?

Have a wonderful Holiday Season and see you at the WC!

Bosun Al

 

[ucla1967]

Am enjoying your display of your Bastion figures . . . they are colorful and well made! Also saw your list of wants . . . and am glad that you're filling some of the holes in your collection. By any chance do you have a complete list of Bastion figures? If so, would you be so kind as to either add them to the thread or send to me separately?

Have a wonderful Holiday Season and see you at the WC!

Bosun Al

Thanks Al, I am glad you like them. I do have a list of Bastion sets that another collector sent me, but it is not complete. I'll make a copy of it for you and bring it to the West Coaster in two weeks.

Mike

 

[ucla1967]

This is Bastion Models Set No. A.63 THE AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN ARMY 85TH "VON GAUDERNAK" HUNGARIAN REGIMENT 1910. Its recruitment area was Marmarossziget and it was composed of ethnic Ruthenians and Romanians. Note the yellow and black Hungarian knots on the front of their trousers and piping down their trouser seams. The 85th Regiments facings were apple green.

 

[ucla1967]

I had dinner with Bob W. on Friday night and we exchanged Christmas gifts (toy soldiers, of course). He gave me this Russian Infantry figure from the 1904 Russo-Japanese War that he made and painted himself. He said that I was only the fifth person he had every given one of his figures to and the other person who he gave a set of this particular figure to was Condoleezza Rice.

 

[nmrocks]

Is Rice a collector?
Ray