Mike Tarantino's Toy Soldier Collection (2 Viewers)

[ucla1967]

I have gone back and revamped my Hiriart French Military Parade 1914 display by adding four new mounted sets and three new infantry sets. There are now 25 sets displayed on this curio shelf.

Photo 1: Overall view of the Hiriart French Military Parade 1914 display shelf with the Hiriart Italian Military display shelf above it and the Hiriart British Regiments on Parade display shelf below it.

Photo 2: Hiriart Set Nos. 1130 Cuirassiers, 1128 Zouaves d'Oran, 1165 Pompon Rouge Francaise Mers Froides, 1137 Tirailleurs Senegalaise, 1156 Chasseurs Alpins, and 1127 Zouaves de Constantine.

Photo 3: Hiriart Set Nos. 1145 Fusiliers Marins, 1131 Tirailleurs Algeriens Turcos, 1125 Pompon Rouge Marine Francaise, and non-catalog Chasseurs a Pied.

Photo 4: Hiriart Set Nos. 1143 Infanterie de Ligne Francaise, 1315 Spahis Senegalaise, and 1168 Chasseurs d'Afrique.

The French street scene backdrop is a wall paper border that Ed Ruby gave me.

 

[lancer]

Ahhh, my favorite shelf.:wink2:^&cool -- Al

 

[ucla1967]

Hiriart French Military Parade 1914 continuing...

Photo 1: Hiriart Set Nos. 1171 Spahis, 1115 Chasseurs a Cheval, and 1122 Dragoons.

Photo 2: At the rear of the shelf, Hiriart Set No. 1052 Etat-Major Francaise which is mounted on a 3/4 x 3/4 inch piece of wood painted hunter green.

Photo 3: At the rear of the shelf, Hiriart Set No. 1092 Etat-Major a Cheval (unfortunately, slightly out of focus).

Photo 4: At the rear of the shelf, a close up of Foch and Joffre from Set No. 1052.

 

[ucla1967]

This is my new display of sets from Frontline Figures Warriors of the Ancient World Range. There were ten sets, each with six different figures, that are numbered AC.1 though AC.10 plus there is a set AC.11 which has just a single figure of Alexander the Great (see second photo).

 

[ucla1967]

This is my new display of Edmund's Traditional Soldiers ACW sets, which like the Frontline Warriors of the Ancient World sets in the previous post, is in a secretary in the living room which I hadn't used before. There are 31 ACW sets on display, mainly wearing uniforms from the start of the war. There are blue uniformed Confederates and gray uniformed Federals. In addition, both sides wore colorful Zouave Uniforms to further confuse things.

Photo 1: General view of all 31 sets on two shelves.

Photo 2: Top shelf, left sets close up.

Photo 3: Top shelf, middle sets close up.

Photo 4: Top shelf, right sets close up.

 

[ucla1967]

Edmund's Traditional Toy Soldiers American Civil War display continuing....

Photo 1: Second shelf, right sets close up.

Photo 2: Second shelf, middle sets close up.

Photo 3: Second shelf, right sets close up.

The 31st set at the rear of the display in photo 2 is C.S.A. Generals, Army of Northern Virginia (Lee, Jackson, Stuart, Longstreet, Hill, Hood).

 

[ucla1967]

I picked up my latest Philippine mahogany World War II warbird on eBay recently. The Dornier DO.217 E-2 "Flying Pencil" twin engine bomber is the 24th addition to my collection. The more powerful and efficient Dornier DO.217 replaced the DO.17 early in the war. The DO.207 had a speed of 320 MPH and a range of 1430 miles. It was powered by two BMW 801 MA 14-cylinder air cooled radial engines each generating 1580 HP. Its bomb load was 4415 pounds. Defensive armament included five 7.9mm MG 15 machine guns, one 13mm MG 131 machine gun in a turret, and one 15mm MG 151 cannon. A total of 1541 bomber versions were built plus 364 DO.217 K night fighters.

This model is 1/32nd scale with a wingspan of 22 inches and a length of 19 inches.

 

[ucla1967]

As I continue to reorganized my collection, I have moved the Conte ACW "First at Manassas" set to a new, small (14 x 14 x 28 inch) accent table that I bought a Lowe's. I also moved the Frontline French and Indian Wars diorama to the same accent table. This freed up two shelves in my Ikea display case for sets from a variety of manufacturers that I hadn't put on display before.

Photo 1: Accent table with Frontline F&IW and Conte ACW dioramas.

Photo 2: Frontline diorama.

Photo 3: Conte diorama.

 

[ucla1967]

New displays on two shelves in the Ikea case.

Photo 1: Overall view of top shelf.

Photo 2: Top shelf, first tier - Britains 1st Foot Guards 1755, Britains Coldstream Regiment of Foot Guards Field Musick 1815, and Alymer Spanish Infantry Africa Campaign 1912. Second tier - British Toy Soldier Company Sikhs, Saint George's Cross Russo-Japanese War Russian Rifle Regiment 1905, and Nickolson Queen's Own Corps of Guides.

Photo 3: Top shelf, third tier - Tradition French Artillery of the Guard 1810, Tradition Neuchatel Battalion 1812, and Tradition Danish Royal Guards. Fourth tier - Beau Geste Italian Alpini 1915, Tradition Italian Bersaglieri China 1900, and Tradition Danish Navy 1880.

 

[ucla1967]

New Ikea case displays continuing...

Photo 1: Bottom shelf, first tier - Valiant Crusaders and VC Miniatures Turkish Auxiliary Battalion Mexico 1845. Second tier - East of India U.S. Infantry Spanish American War, John Jenkins Designs Roth Wurzburg Regiment officer & drummer 1755, and Martin Ritchie U.S. Navy color party 1945.

Photo 2: Bottom shelf, third tier, all Martin Ritchie ACW - 54th Massachusetts Regiment, U.S. Marines, unknown unit in gray frock coats, Union fife & drums band, and Union color party.

 

[ucla1967]

Well, it took me awhile, but my toy soldier collection make over is more or less complete. To celebrate, I held a collection viewing open house yesterday, Saturday, April 22nd. Fourteen collectors, a spouse, and grown children attended. I also used the occasion to throw a surprise birthday party for my friend and fellow collector, Bob W. I had an "Over the Hill" birthday cake for him and gave him a set of Russian Preobrashenski Regiment toy soldiers as a birthday present.

I have finally managed to display all 25 of my World War II Philippine mahogany warbirds. However, I have two additional warbirds (a Boeing B-29 Super Fortress and a Japanese Mitsubishi G4M3 Betty) that were just shipped to me that I will have to find room for. I was able to remove those warbirds displayed on shelves and either put them on top of my toy soldier curios or on wall mounts.

Photo 1: A Grumman TBF/TBM-3 Avenger and an Ilushin IL-2M3 Sturmovik, both in 1/32nd scale.

Photo 2: A Boeing B-17G Flying Fortress, a Consolidated B-24J Liberator, both in 1/72nd scale; and a Dornier DO-217 "Flying Pencil" in 1/32nd scale.

 

[ucla1967]

More warbirds....

Photo 1: A Heinkel HE-111 H-2 Schnell Bomber in 1/48th scale, a Macchi MC.202 Folgore in 1/24th scale, and a Dehavilland FB.V1 Mosquito in 1/32nd scale.

Photo 2: A SIAI Marchetti SM.84 Torpedo Bomber in an unknown scale, a Junkers JU-88 A-1 Schnell Bomber in 1/36th scale, a Martin B-26B/C Maurader in 1/48th scale, and a North American B-25J Mitchell in 1/48th scale.

 

[ucla1967]

Warbirds continuing...


Photo 1: A Messerschmitt Bf-109E, a Focke-Wulf FW-190A, and a Messerschmitt ME-262A Swallow, all in 1/32nd scale.

Photo 2: The ME-262 again, a Mitsubishi A6M5 Zero, and a Supermarine MK.VB Spitfire, all in 1/32nd scale.

 

[ucla1967]

The last eight warbirds...

Photo 1: A Junkers JU-87A Stuka, a Messerschmitt ME-110C Destroyer, both in 1/32nd scale; and a Junkers JU-52 "Auntie Ju" in 1/52nd scale.

Photo 2: A Chance-Vought F4U-4 Corsair, a Lockheed P-38J Lightning, a North American P-51D Mustang, and a Curtiss P-40E Warhawk, all in 1/32nd scale.

Photo 3: the P-40 again and a Grumman F6F-3 Hellcat in 1/32nd scale.

 

[DMNamiot]

Great looking additions to your collection! I wish I lived closer it would be great to view them in person. I love the wall mounts those really are helpful, did you make them or have them made or are they available somewhere?

Thanks for sharing

Dave

 

[lancer]

Gorgeous aircraft collection, with a fantastic display. I love those wall mounts. What a great idea to utilize space and to give flight to the aircraft. -- Al

 

[ucla1967]

Great looking additions to your collection! I wish I lived closer it would be great to view them in person. I love the wall mounts those really are helpful, did you make them or have them made or are they available somewhere?

Thanks for sharing

Dave

Thank you, Dave. Some day you may live closer and have an open invitation to see my collection. I really like the wall mounts, too. The Philippine manufacturers of these mahogany warbirds also make the wall mounts which are sold by the various U.S. distributors. I bought mine from Hangar Models in Georgia which is owned by a former U.S. Air Force F-15 fighter pilot. He had the best prices at $16 for the small size wall mount and $18 for the medium size with free shipping on orders over $100.

Your welcome.

 

[ucla1967]

Gorgeous aircraft collection, with a fantastic display. I love those wall mounts. What a great idea to utilize space and to give flight to the aircraft. -- Al

Thank you Al for your kind words. The wall mounts are just the ticket to fill in unused open spaces and not take up scarce shelf display spaces. I am a big fan of "wheels up" models in flight rather than the "wheels down" models that most toy soldier companies offer. But, to each his own.

 

[ucla1967]

After all the close up views of my collection, I thought I should photograph the toy soldier room from a macro viewpoint. I took these photos in a clockwise manner starting at the door, curio by curio.

Photo 1: A curio exclusively with Hiriart sets.

Photo 2: A large curio with Trophy, Frontline, and Imperial dioramas.

Photo 3: A corner Queen Ann curio with Hiriart, Alymer, and Martin Ritchie sets.

Photo 4: A large curio with Frontline, Hiriart, and Bastion sets.

Photo 5: A corner curio with Britains Premier, Ducal, Frontline, Langley, Imperial, Steadfast, Nostalgia, and Martin Ritchie.

 

[ucla1967]

Toy soldier room macro view continuing...

Photo 1: Two Frontline table top dioramas.

Photo 2: The top half of a large oak curio with Imperial, Trophy, Hiriart, Kingcast, and Nickolson.

Photo 3: The bottom half of the large oak curio with Imperial, Hiriart, Frontline, Beau Geste, Kingcast, Saint George's Cross, and Trophy

Photo 4: An Ikea display case with Conte, Hiriart, Britains, Nickolson, East of India, Beau Geste, Alymer, Saint George's Cross, British Toy Soldier Co., John Jenkins, Valiant, VC Miniatures, Tradition, and Martin Ritchie.

Photo 5: An oak bookcase with John Jenkins, King & Country, Bastion, Forces of Valor, and Solido.

In addition to ordering acrylic display steps, I also purchased acrylic table top diorama covers, and acrylic doors for the book case. Hopefully, they will help keep the dust off my displays, at least for a little while.