Hi Guys,
This one caught King & Country off balance and no one wants to publish the miss.... usually, around this time of the month, I come home from work and monitor the mail more than ever to see when my edition of Toy Soldier has arrived, craving to read it from cover to cover.....avidly looking for news and the most recent releases.
My passion for artillery in special Victorian and WW1 period artillery (issue 122 expressed my dedication to such a segment ) rejoiced with the news that King & Country was rolling out new WW1 sets that included WW1 German Artillery units ready to make battle. Even more so since one set is on the later stages of the war, in the characteristic camouflage of those days, with crews already wearing the early version of the model 1916 StahIhelm " Coalscuttle " helmets and the second set depicts the German artillery at the opening stages of the war, as a complement of the existing sets ' On the road to Paris' . The set for the early stages of the war is accompanied by an artillery officer true (to the last button) to the artillery officer corps at the opening salvos of WW1. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of the unit manning the 7.7mm Krupp field gun......King & Country´s research team and Andy´s hawk eye were not as accurate as usual when they gave the 3 man crew of the gun depicting the early part of the WW1 the spiked infantry " Pickehaube" helmet and not the one with the round ball in place of the spike. See attached photos for proof. This was one of the most noticeable distinctions between the two arms. "Spiked " helmets for infantry and " ball ornamented" ones for artillery. The Toy Soldier issue 122 , section letters to the Editor, shows a Britains Premier set, along with some K&C Infantry, where you can see the difference.
With this new release we are left with the bizarre situation of three army soldiers trying to man an artillery piece under the command of an artillery officer.....very surreal to say the least, specially in the Kaiser´s Army. I was surprised by the correct headgear for the officer and confusion on the soldiers´ headgear.
I hope that the mistake is noted by the K&C quality control team and corrected for future releases.
Artillery Crazy
