London Toy Soldier Show- 31st March

I have been away from the blog for a while but I have a good excuse. I have been spending all hours possible this month getting ready for the London Toy Soldier show this weekend.
In past shows, we have been selling toy soldiers or getting rid of old stuff but this show is the first one of a new approach. I no longer have soldiers to sell so my stand is full of terrain. It takes alot of time to fill 12 feet of space with scratch built 1/30th scale terrain pieces. I just about got finished today and here are photos of the results:

most of it grouped together

I have all sorts there from WW2 ruins and sentry boxes to Roman watch towers and marching fort walls.

I wanted to do something set in Southern Europe as there are a few ranges around now that can use that sort of terrain. This is designed as a shelf display with it being only 6" deep. I used a photograph of a real building for inspiration with the front arches particularly catching my eye. The stone work is carved Daz Pronto air dried clay and the pan tiles are resin sheets that I have had made for me. I was going to use some other tiles but when I came to it I hadn't got enough.

This was inspired by a planned larger diorama for a customer that involves a sentry box. I really liked the idea and thought it would make an excellent stand alone piece. The arm works and most of it is made from balsa wood except the arm which is stronger pine dowelling. I really enjoyed painting the stripes.

This model was inspired by a discussion I had with a potential customer who wanted a Roman watch tower. I thought it would make a good piece to add to any Roman display so I thought I would give it a go.I made a frame of foam board but the rest is balsa wood including the individual tiles on the roof.

I always enjoy making these sort of buildings. They are perfect for the Wild West but will also fit in American Civil War layouts- a small town street scene. I haven't put any signage on to limit where they can be used. They are shelf displays with no detail on the back and only being about 6 inches deep. The windows are from my own resin collection and everything else is balsa.

While I was thinking what to do I suddenly got an urge to do part of Fort Tichonderoga. This is the main gate. There should be a garrison building behind the wall but I haven't added it to keep things reasonably simple. It seems the fort had a foundation of stone with the plan to build it all in stone eventually but the upper parts of the walls never got replaced from the original log construction. This is a surprisingly long piece- over 18" long so should make an impressive display with some John Jenkins French Indian War figures.

That is it for now with the photos. There is more that will be around on the day and there will be a model of Trostle farm, its barn and waggon shed as it was during the Battle of Gettysburg. This is for a customer and I have promised not to show him photos until he sees the real thing so I don't want to risk him seeing them here. There will be an article in the Toy Soldier Collector magazine later this year all about it but I will do a separate post just about that next week, after the show.

All these items are for sale at the show. If you have seen anything here that you want but can't make London then email me and if I still have it after the weekend we can sort out a sale then. If you are coming to the show then come over and have a look- they always look better in the flesh. I have things for sale to suit all pockets!

London Show and Figarti display

The London Toy Soldier show has been and gone. It was a weird one for me as we no longer have the figures to sell so I was selling off the last of them along with bits and pieces that I no longer needed. It meant the stand looked a bit like a market stall! It means the decks are now clear ready for a new look for the next show in March.
I didn't get as many photos as I had hoped but I did promise some shots of Figarti's snow layout with figures on so here they are-

You can't beat the effect good terrain and great looking figures give you.
I also took a couple of shots of a dio I did for Figarti a couple of years ago. It is still one of my favourites.

Mr Figarti UK himself in the background

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London show- the final part

Sorry for the delay in posting the final part in the show run of posts. A stomach bug, getting children back from university for the summer and generally being knackered from the show has slowed me down for a few days.

Anyway, after the previous posts about the preparation for the show this last show post is about the show itself.
We arrive at the hotel venue about 1pm on Friday afternoon which gives us a wonderful 4 or 5 hours of playing with toy soldiers! Once we have unpacked the van and sorted stuff out we just have to display enough soldiers to cover the 30 feet of display space we have. A couple of friends meet us there so all four of us have a great time. My biggest worry was that I hadn't brought all the terrain and dio boards but it was fine and by 6 in the evening the display was just about there.

The dios themselves looked good and by the end of the show about a third had been sold. All the dioramas are on sale during the show and as usual I sold about a third of them. I make them all 60cm x 30cm now for the show so they can easily be taken home by customers.
The abode building dio was finished in plenty of time and was really worth the effort as it looked great filled with Africa Korp figures. I think the dio was sold by lunchtime so I think another one will be done for the next show in December.

The last minute details and weathering on the buildings made all the difference. The blanket hanging over one of the roofs added a splash of colour and the staining around the wood roof beams made the whole scene look used and fitted the atmosphere that First Legion figures help create.
The Stalingrad scene came alive with figures on it but I wish we had a German Stug or PZIII model we could have added but we had sold out of them. The Russian AT gun was ready for whatever was coming round the corner.

The other dios showed off the figure displays beautifully. Here are just a few photographed with the new releases on them.

First Legion Romans- the stars of the show maybe?

Collectors Showcase winter 88mm and half track

First Legion Highlanders repelling charge

First Legion Crusaders and Mamluks

John Jenkins Spanish Civil War- the armoured car is the newest addition

John Jenkins World War I planes with ground crew and pilot

The show itself was the usual good day meeting lots of regular faces as well as some new ones. It was great to meet a couple of wargamers (I hadn't expected to talk to a customer about  the Two Fat Lardies rules sets but there I was was discussing how good Sharpe's Practice is!) that had come to the show for the first time. It would be great to see this continue as the two hobbies have alot of common ground.  Two or three customers took the opportunity to have a chat with me and place diorama making commissions with me as well. The best sellers for us on the day was probably the new John Jenkins armoured car and the First Legion Romans and Crusaders.
Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to thank the organisers of the show. Mike and the rest of them at King and Country have done a great job with the show over the last 7 years and they have announced that this June was to be their last show as organisers. They made us very welcome when we started coming to the show and they have continued to support us and make our show experience a good one ever since. They have passed it on the Guideline Publications, the publishers of Toy Soldier Collector magazine, in a very healthy state. Roll on the December Show- the first weekend in the month.

London Toy Soldier show- part 4

36 hours to go before we make our way down to London so I am on the very last leg of the diorama building.
I put the last coat of varnish on the river sections today so that will be dry soon so I can wrap them up.
It means the only diorama I have left to finish is the one to display the growing range of Africa Korp figures from First Legion. We will have the new Opel Blitz along with all the new marching infantry on the day so I thought it a good idea to make a real eye catching piece as the figures are wonderful.

I thought about an oasis but then I went for a board with a backdrop of adobe buildings. I also decided not to put any period detail on the board as it will also work for the Sudan display.
Stage one was to build the structures:

building fronts made from 1cm thick foam board.

This gave me a good start but then I needed to coat it in something that would give it texture

textured walls and coated roof

The photo doesn't show the texture very well but it is one of the most important bits of the job- without it there is nothing for the paint washes and dry brushes to get hold of.
Once this was dry I begin the painting with a base coat of yellow ochre which is then washed with a raw umber to get the following result.

washed buildings with a little more detail added.

This dried and all I need to do now is finish weathering it with dry brushes of various sandy colours and then a final addition of some more details which I will decide on when I come to it. I can see this stage being dependant on the amount of time I have left!
Finally, with this post here are a few pictures of some of the other boards that are finished and just waiting to be packed up.
The last installment about the show will be after the show on Sunday or Monday and will have lots of photos of these diorama boards in action so to speak with them being full of figures.

Remember all these boards are for sale on the day so if any have caught your eye come and have a chat and you could take it away with you.

London show prep part 3

I have had a good productive day today. The main diorama is finished. I just had to finish off the painting with more dry brushing and then adding weathering in the form of water streaks and bullet holes. The final touch was to add some ruined and fallen down telephone wires. I had found some interesting looking posts and supports so I used those for the wire supports on the house.

out of focus but you can see the wire supports

I have just remembered, the final, final touch was to add the glass in the windows- lots of cracks and holes to make it look fought over. I might weather the glass a bit tomorrow- I will see how it looks in the light of day.

You can see from this that I have high lighted the bricks on the piles of rubble as I know this is to display First legion World War Two figures and this is how they do their bases on their figures so I tried to match them.

This picture shows the wire better. I have tried to make it droop and look fragile.

All the above photos were taken in the workshop where the light is not great so sometime next week I will get it out side and get some shots in the sunshine.

The other smaller dios got more treatment today with the first coats of paint going on as well as more ground work on others.

I do this brown as a base on most of my European and American bases followed by a raw umber wash that highlights the texture and helps to cover up bits I have missed. Once the wash is dry I can dry brush and then flock although there won't be much flock on the above corn field. There is alot of trampled corn that doesn't show up at the moment but the dry brush will bring them out nicely.

This photo looks horrible but it is the first coat for my desert boards. I use a very dark brown as a base and then 2 more lighter brown coats followed by 2 shades of 'sand'. A long process but it gives the landscape alot of depth and interest.
Finally, today I nearly finished a base with a river in it. I had shaped it and textured it over the last few days but today saw the river come on.

For large areas of water I do not use resin. I fill the area with cheap wall filler that is quite watery. Once that is dry I cover with a heavy coat of PVA which smooths the whole thing and then after about 24 hours drying I paint it with lots of washes and dry brushes. This is the time I try to get the feeling of depth. I have found it works really well and the finishing touch is a couple of coats of gloss varnish.

That was it today. The next installment should see some of these boards finished as well as the beginning of the Africa Korp display- a board full of adobe building fronts. This is a worry as I only have a week to go!

Toy Soldier show preparation

Only 10 days to go to the show and I am finally getting my finger out and starting the displays. It looks like a few late nights next week.
Before I go into details about the display, can I remind anyone coming to the show wanting to get figures from us please get in touch with what you want as soon as you can as we now stock so much we can't bring everything down so to avoid disappointment give us a ring with what you want.
As I mentioned in the last post about the show, we have 30 feet of display space and I have worked out I need to do about 16 new displays for it. They are all 30cm deep and 60cm wide- big enough to get alot of figures and terrain on but small enough to put on a shelf. These boards will cover displays for the French Indian Wars, Sudan, Zulu, WW2 (Normandy, desert and Eastern front), W1, Spanish Civil War, Napoleonics (Waterloo and Russia), Crusades, American Civil  War, American War of Independence, Samurai, and  Jacobite's- so quite a range. Fortunately, nearly all f them will be on different landscapes, not involving any buildings. The one real exception is a larger layout for the First Legion World War Two display. The layout is being made for a customer in the USA who has given me the OK to use a s a display piece at the show as long as I don't sell it on the day.

basic modelling done- ready for painting

The layout needed to have lots of display space so all the great First Legion tanks could be easily displayed but he wanted some interesting background detail and available cover for the Russian AT gun. The above picture is what we came up with. The ruins either side are very simple but offer cover and the main building is just a couple of inches thick but allows figures to be placed at the windows.
The next stage is to start painting it- the model looks terrible after the first coats of paint and I always worry that my painting techniques won't work this time! So far It has always worked out OK.

basic paint job complete- YUK!

I paint everything is a basic coat- burnt sienna for bricks, raw sienna for woodwork and then in this case grey for the plaster work and brown for window frames. The whole lot then gets a wash of raw umber

Washed in raw umber

You can see that this dulls everything but helps to blend all the colours together. I tend to leave that for 24 hours to dry and then get on with dry brushing and weathering to hopefully bring the whole thing alive. As it is drying now upstairs, this is as far as I can go tonight so the plan is for an update tomorrow or Friday.
The other boards have been started as well:

groundwork done ready for painting

trampled cornfield- early stages

adding depth to the boards

The boards are all on 18mm thick MDF and I add depth to them if I want to create undulations or holes of any kind. I first make a frame and then fill it with polystyrene. Once that is done then I can shape the ground however I want. More photos tomorrow on how they are going.

London Toy Soldier Show

The 25th of June sees the next London Toy Soldier show take place. If you collect Toy Soldiers this is the place to go. It happens three times a year- the end of March, the end of June and the beginning of December.
The show is held at the Royal National Hotel, Bedford Way, London and fills two halls with everything to do with collecting miniature figurines.
The show web site is here for more information

TMTerrain has been going to the show as a trader now for about 3 or 4 years and we are now up to 30 feet of display space. We fill the space with figures displayed on some good looking dioramas so it is always worth coming to find us just to have a look. Here are some examples

John Jenkins Jacobite's

John Jenkins Sudan range

First Legion Stalingrad

Collectors Showcase WW2

The last show in March saw me sell alot of the dioramas so I am having to make lots of new ones for this show. I will post updates on how these are going- as there is less than 3 weeks to go and I have no photos of WIP to post you can guess that I am just a touch behind schedule!

The show should see some brand new sets of figures from all our suppliers. First Legion displays will include the new Mamluks and maybe one or two surprises (hopefully we will be able to confirm this nearer the time)

First Legion Mamluks

Collectors Showcase will have the new and very impressive Royal Horse artillery limber and gun set on display along with the even more impressive 88mm, prime mover and crew.

Collectors Showcase 88mm gun

Collectors Showcase RHA sets

John Jenkins will have his normal 4 or 5 new pieces on display but to pick just one out as a highlight it has to be the wonderful Spanish Civil War armoured car

John Jenkins armoured car

We haven't had this delivered yet but I can't wait to see it. It looks good in the photo but they always look better in the flesh.
You can find more information about all these new releases on our web site:
www.tmterrain.co.uk

I will post more about the show and our preparations for it over the next couple of weeks so keep an eye out for more.