Haul...

There are occasions when a best laid plan 'gangs agley' in rather a pleasant and surprising way.  I don't do surprises well, but this one was ... out of the blue, really: a fine late spring morning.  My friend Gary dropped by with a box full of soldiery that, as he explained, he knew he was going to do nothing with.    He reckoned they might go well with my 'Jono's World project.  Well...

 A glance inside the box seemed to convey a strong impression of quantity, to say the least.  After riffling through it for a while, I took a few days before having a more thorough sort through. 

The first thing to bring a smile was this 'mint in packet' 'Good Ol'  U.S.A. vs Red COMMIES set.  I'm not sure I will have the heart to open this up, though I discover the 2006 date of manufacture on the packaging.  Who knew the Cold War was still on-going?  Now that I think of it...

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 A rather crude transporter vehicle might just make the cut into my Orotina or Tchaigai Imagi-nations project - we'll have to see.  But the frogmen were interesting.  Clearly a naval or riverine sabotage or demolition squad of four teams: Gold, Green, Red and White...

 This amorphous pile hides a bunch of 'Cowboys and Indians' types, of which more anon...

 Organising some figures by colour: two greens, brown and grey.  With a few commando types, by the look.  But if each of these piles were counted as a company, we'd have a whole battalion here.  

 But wait: there's more.  These are obviously knock-offs of Airfix and Matchbox WW2 Germans.    Quite a lot here, including two light and two medium machine guns.  These will probably end up in the service of Raesharn, though it's just possible they'll go the Saabia instead.

 Cowboys: 4 mounted, I think 8 on foot.  The horses are very crudely cast and don't stand at all well.  That may be sufficient to persuade me they would be best employed as draught horses towing artillery, say...  I forgot to take a separate photo of the distant Native North Americans, who have a similar ratio of mounted to unmounted.  Not sure what to do with these...

A general view of the box of goodies, with some items hoicked out for a closer view ...

Spetznaz types, and British Commonwealth.  It's almost a pity the Spetznaz are in this scale - I could have used smaller ones in my Tchagai Army.  The Commonwealth types seem to be an eclectic bunch of 8th Army, Australians and parachute troops, and no huge numbers of each.

The Russians do say that 'quantity has a quality all of its own.'  It's easy to see why!  The piles I've created have made a dent in the pile hardly discernible among what remains.

These guys seem to be sailors, two of whom are carrying live gun shells. They will no doubt serve in one of the armed services as shore battery personnel, or as artillery.  I'm thinking Kiivar.  It's navy decimated in the early stages of the war with Raesharn, shipless matelots volunteered to serve as artillerists in the Kiivar army.  Kiivar badly needed expert gunners...

 Spetznaz - a better view.  I will probably use the SAM and RPG-7 guys as models for the same in my Tchagai army.















Vaguely Japanese types mixed with some rather orphan chaps in colours different from those of the big piles.  They will probably end up as Omez troops - allies (auxiliaries, really) of Raesharn.

A closer view of the British/Commonwealth types.  None too many of these.  They will become Kiivar, perhaps a semi-regular volunteer unit.

Australians.  There is a very high proportion of radio operators among these few, but most will be gainfully employed in various Kiivar HQs.  The useful Vickers/Maxim type MG will serve as a model for scratch built additions to the Kiivar Army...

The following picture illustrates the mix of scales that predominates throughout this collection.   This I think will rather add to its interest rather than otherwise.  The 8th Army guy's base snapped off when I tried to straighten it...

 Parachute and commando types - none too many of these.  I think they will combine to form a specialist 'Para Commando 901' - Kiivar's elite.  Raesharn will have the equivalent using modern style figures.

Interesting items these, though somewhat orphaned.  The figures look about 28mm scale - they are certainly larger than the usual 20mm war games figure, yet way smaller than their brethren pictured so far in this posting.  They look quite good in this scale.  The other thing is some sort of rifle.  I have considered using it as a vehicle mounted MG of some sort, but the stock seems too 'rifle like' to be convincing.

A rather peculiar array of crudely designed and  manufactured aircraft, The helicopter and the top jet aircraft might prove useful... For the rest... Dunno.

I'll conclude here with a closer view of our rather free form flowering cherry.  The purple tree behind it is across the street, and the foliage beyond that is from the avenue over...  Thanks Gary: you made my day.